Here at VegFortWorth, we love supporting local businesses, especially vegan-friendly ones. We love cake. And we love local craft-brewed beer, which means we love Rahr & Sons Brewing Co.

Sooooooo…what happens when you combine all these things? You get something slightly insane and tasty. You get the vegan Rahr Oktoberfest cake from the Near Southside‘s own Stir Crazy Baked Goods!

I happened to be at Avoca Coffee on Magnolia when Robbie from Stir Crazy made the day’s cake delivery, and this crazy cake was the vegan item that arrived. I can’t guarantee that it’ll be there when you get to Avoca, as it’s really tasty and Near Southsiders love their Rahr, so make your way to Avoca today and give it a try.

The Rahr Oktoberfest is a Marzen-style German Oktoberfest lager, and it’s one of our favorite Rahr beers. The flavor and smell of Oktoberfest is strong in Stir Crazy’s cake – it’s sweet and tasty with a beautiful beer current running through the experience. The combination works tremendously well.

If you want to experience this for yourself, get yourself over to Avoca and buy a slice while you can!

What? Another friggin’ cookie recipe?

Yes. I promise I will post some non-cookie (heck, non-dessert) recipes soon. Promise!

Last night I set out to make my signature White Diamond Cookies. Now take a look at these cookies. Do they look like chocolately delicious White Diamond Cookies? Do they?

No, they don’t. Half-way through mixing the ingredients, I realized I was flat out of cocoa powder. The really sad part? I had been at Central Market earlier, and I KNEW I was going to be making these cookies later. Good job, Steph. Good job. Most of the time I have three or four half-used containers of cocoa powder lying around. But no such luck this time.

So standing there in the kitchen, with a half-mixed batch of cookies and no option to turn back, I had to ask myself an important question—the kind of question that makes or breaks a good chef—what the hell do I do now?

After seconds of reflection, I decided to press on and explore new culinary territory. I decided I’d just omit the cocoa powder, increase the flour a tiny bit, and stick to just semi-sweet chips and omit the white ones.

The results were tasty. Unfortunately, these are not gluten-free, but I don’t see why you couldn’t use a gluten-free flour blend like Bob’s Red Mill or your own mixture.

Lesson learned last night? Always, always, always buy cocoa powder. Always. Every time you’re at the grocery store just buy a box, even if you already have a gross at home—then you’ll never have the problem I had last night.

Accidental Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1-1/2 cups natural style peanut butter
• 1/2 cup almond or soy milk
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together sugars, milk and peanut butter with an electric beater (or stand mixer). Beat in cornstarch mixture and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and baking soda. Add to peanut butter mixture and stir until well mixed. Stir in the white chips. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls, flatten them in your hand into cookie-shaped rounds. Place on a lightly oiled (or parchment-paper-lined) cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes. Let them cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Remember those awesome Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies from a few weeks ago? Well, this recipe is a variation on that, only with a gingery, almond kick. They’s not crispy like a traditional gingersnap, but if you rolled the dough thinner and made cutout cookies, you might get something close to a crispy gingersnap.

Just like their peanut butter cousin, these cookies are vegan, gluten-free and oil-free. And amazing! Feel free to increase the ginger or add some cloves and nutmeg (I would have, but I was out). And if your ginger and cinnamon have been sitting around in your cupboard for a while, I would highly recommend running to the nearest place with a bulk spice section and stocking up on fresh spices – you really need the freshest spices to get the right taste in a cookie like this.

Vegan Ginger Cookies

• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons almond milk
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Heaping 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Baking Flour
• 2 tablespoons quinoa flour

• 2 tablespoons oat flour

• 1/4 cup sugar (approximate)

Preheat oven to 300F. Whisk together almond butter, brown sugar, maple syrup and molasses until smooth. Whisk together the remaining ingredients (except the 1/4 cup sugar) in a separate bowl, then gently fold into the almond butter mixture (a rubber spatula works well for this) until just combined. Place the 1/4 cup sugar in a blender or food processor (a Magic Bullet works well) and process until fine. Transfer sugar to a shallow bowl. Scoop dough with a tablespoon measure and form into a ball. Roll in the sugar, then place on a lightly oiled or parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten with your fingertips. Bake for 12 minutes. Do not over-bake. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for five minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 15 small cookies.

Now’s that time.

I’ve had cookies on my mind a lot lately, but I’m picky about my cookies. There are several criteria a cookie must meet before it goes into my mouth (unless I’m just really desperate, of course).

• It must be vegan (this criterion must always be met).
• It must be gluten-free (sometimes this one falls by the wayside if something looks particularly yummy ).
• It must be whole-grain or mostly whole grain.
• It should be low- or no-oil.
• White sugar should be minimal or none.
• It must totally rock my tastebuds.

So with all of the that in mind, I present you with the awesomest peanut butter cookies I’ve encountered. They are all these things and more. And if you look at the ingredients, they’re not all that bad for you. Peanut butter. Oats. Maple syrup. Quinoa flour.

Speaking of quinoa flour, if you can’t find it or don’t want to buy it, just increase the Bob’s All Purpose Gluten Free Flour or oat flour. I think the quinoa flour adds a little something special to the cookies, but they’re your cookies – do what you want. And if you do want to use quinoa flour, the cheapest way to get it is the bulk bin at Central Market. It’s not cheap flour, but at least in the bulk bin you can get just what you need and spend as little cash as possible.

Enjoy these cookies with a big ol’ glass of almond milk. And stay tuned – I’m working on a ginger-almond version.

Gluten-Free Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

• 1/2 cup natural-style peanut butter, well stirred
  
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
  
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
  
• 1/4 cup quinoa flour
  
• 1/4 cup oat flour (just grind up oats in your blend until they look like flour)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• Heaping 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 300F. Whisk together peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth. Whisk together the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl, then gently fold into the peanut butter mixture (a rubber spatula works well for this) until just combined. On a lightly oiled or parchment-lined baking sheet, drop dough with a tablespoon measuring spoon. If desired, press a cross-hatch pattern into the top of the cookie with a damp fork. Bake for 12 minutes. Do not over-bake. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for five minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 15 small cookies.

Vegan-friendliness is slowly but surely starting to be noticed by people in Fort Worth, and another sign is the announcement of a new vegan-friendly bakery coming to the Near Southside later this year: Stir Crazy Baked Goods.

Stir Crazy plans on setting up shop in the Near Southside’s South Main urban village, on E. Daggett just off South Main (around the corner from Trinity Bicycles) in the Sawyer Building. This space is intended to be a full storefront and kitchen, but in the meantime they’re working out of a leased commercial kitchen to start introducing Fort Worth to their goods.

Perhaps the easiest way to check out Stir Crazy’s work is to take a trip to Avoca Coffee on Magnolia, where at least two or three of Stir Crazy’s cakes are on offer at any given time. Stir Crazy’s not a 100% vegan bakery, but they’ve taken to making some very creative vegan items and there is usually at least one vegan cake at Avoca.

The photo up top shows off their vegan Orange Chocolate Cake, which was the first item we had from them. It proved to be as delicious as its appearance suggests. Below is a more recent shot of an all-chocolate cake, freshly arrived at Avoca:

We’ve had that pure chocolate cake, and it was wonderful. We’ve also had the mint chocolate cake and a series of vegan cupcakes, all of which were excellent (including the awesome vegan Cookies & Cream cupcakes). As of this writing, Stir Crazy had put the word out that they’d brought a vegan Peanut Butter & Jelly cake to the coffee shop, so yeah, that sounds insane and tasty. Stir Crazy’s vegan goods are moist and flavorful – these folks clearly know what they’re doing.

If you visit their site and hit up their menu, you’ll note that they simply tell us vegans to request as such when ordering, indicating that most of the stuff on the menu can be made vegan. It’s really wonderful to see a local bakery opening up that takes vegan friendliness so seriously, and we can’t wait to see their storefront go up. Make sure to visit the Stir Crazy site for more, and follow them on Facebook to see what vegan cakes they’ve deployed to Avoca lately.

Oh, what the heck – here’s one more shot of a Stir Crazy vegan cake, along with a sublime press pot from Avoca:

Not only are these wonderful brownies vegan, they’re also gluten-free and not all that bad for you. I got the recipe from Chocolate-Covered Katie’s blog. If you haven’t checked out her blog, you should! She is somehow able to concoct decadent vegan dessert recipe that are also healthy (and incredibly delicious!).

I’m always experimenting with making recipes gluten-free. My tummy just seems to stay happier when I stay away from the stuff. The results of my experiments can be hit-or-miss sometimes. To make these brownies gluten-free, I used Pure Pantry Gluten-Free Baking Mix. It’s a mixture of rice flour, potato starch, corn flour, tapioca flour and binding and leavening ingredients. It’s bean-free and organic, and it worked surprisingly well for these brownies. I will definitely be trying it out in some more recipes.

Speaking of Katie’s blog and brownies (and gluten-free treats), we also made blondies a couple of weekends ago. Check out the recipe here.

And check out the beautiful picture Kevin took of them!

Now I want to have a brownie/blondie party!

What’s your favorite brownie (or blondie) recipe?

And we have cookies!

In the time we’ve been gone, I’ve discovered the magic of flax “eggs.” For some reason I’d always snubbed this egg substitute in my bakes goods—talk about a mistake! Every baked good I’ve made with flax eggs has turned out beautifully—and who doesn’t need more flax seeds in their diet? I think they’re especially effective in gluten-free baked goods because the flax seeds act as a binder, and gluten-free baked goods can use all they help they can get in that department.

To replace one egg in your recipe, beat 1 tablespoon flax seed meal (flax seeds ground in a blender or coffee grinder) with 3 tablespoons warm water until thick. I usually beat the mixture, let it sit for a while, then beat it again until it thickens.

In the past I’d always used 1 tablespoon of cornstarch beaten with 2 tablespoons of water as a substitute for eggs in baked good recipes. I find it works pretty well, and I’d still recommend it if you’re looking for a cheap, easy way to eliminated eggs in your baking, but I think from now on I’m sticking with the flax eggs.

These cookies use a flax egg with tasty results, and flax and oats were pretty much made for each other. They’re also gluten-free if you use gluten-free oats.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 flax egg*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup oat flour**
• 1/4 cup oats
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips (or carob chips)
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375F. Beat together almond butter and maple syrup in a medium bowl until smooth. Stir in spices, then the flax mixture and vanilla. In another bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Add to the tahini mixture and stir until just mixed. Drop by spoonfuls on a parchment-lined (or lightly oiled) cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly brown around the edges. Cool on the pan for five minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 14–16 cookies.

• 1 flax egg = 1 tablespoon flax seed meal beaten with 3 tablespoons warm water until thickened. ** Make oat flour by whizzing dry rolled oats in a blender until it has a flour-like consistency. To make gluten-free cookies, use certified gluten-free oats (such as Bob’s Red Mill).

What’s your favorite egg substitute in baked goods? Have you ever tried any that just failed?

I know black beans brownies are probably so last year, but whatever, here’s another version for you, the interwebs, to enjoy.

Black beans don’t sound like an ingredient that would be appropriate for brownies, and really, they’re probably not, but what the hell, right? Make ‘em and don’t tell anyone what’s in ‘em and see what happens.

In my opinion, these are best the next day. If you can’t wait that long, at least have the decency to let them cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes before cutting into them.

So what exactly are these brownies like? They’re thick and fudgey and not beany at all. Obviously, if it’s your birthday and you want a decadent treat, have a real, bean-free brownie. But, if you’re looking for a more sensible treat to work into your regular snacking rotation, these might fit the bill. I think they would also be awesome for breakfast with a tall glass of almond milk.

On top of being lower in fat and full of fiber, these brownies are also gluten-free. Yeah!

Black Bean Brownies

1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed 3 tablespoons cornstarch beaten with 1/3 cup water 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce 3/4 cup sugar (coconut sugar works well, too) 1/2 cup cocoa powder 1/2 cup buckwheat flour 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Process black beans until fairly well pureed (they don’t have to be perfectly smooth). Add everything else except the chocolate chips and process until smooth. Pulse in chocolate chips. Spread mixture into a greased 8×8-inch baking dish. If desired, sprinkle one or two tablespoons of chocolate chips on top. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing.

On to the recipe, I made these when I had some dates and macadamia nuts I needed to do something with, so I threw them in the food processor with a few other ingredients, and out came these tasty little creations. You can roll the “dough” into balls, press into silicone molds, or flatten them into cookie-shaped rounds. If you roll them into balls, you can coat them in chopped nuts, cocoa powder, or shredded coconut. Regardless, they’ll be tasty and awesome.

Raw Choco Balls

2 cups raw macadamia nuts, cashews or walnuts* 9 -12 medjool dates, pitted and quartered (start with 9, add more as needed) 1/4 cup cocoa powder (or more) 1/2 cup unsweetened, dried coconut 2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place everything in a food processor with the S-blade and process until the mixture clings together and bunches up. If it fails to do this, stop the food processor and add more dates or maple syrup and process again. Take out a portion of the dough and form it into a ball with your hands. If you’re able to break it apart and it stays together, it is ready. If it falls apart, it is too dry and needs more dates or maple syrup. Roll the dough into balls, press into silicone molds, or pat into rounds. Roll in chopped nuts, shredded coconut or cocoa powder if desire. Store in the fridge or freezer.

*Alternately, you can use 1 cup raw sunflower seeds (shelled) and 1 cup raw walnuts.

Kalachandji’s in Dallas is a long-running veg-friendly establishment, but one that I gather a lot of Fort Worthians may not know about.

For the uninitiated, Kalachandji’s is a Krishna restaurant, located in the same complex as a temple and other facilities. It’s a buffet, all-you-can-eat, nearly all of which is vegan (a few items feature dairy, and are clearly marked on the menu board). The menu changes daily, though some basics seem fairly constant. For the surprisingly low price of the buffet, you also get a drink and dessert – one of three choices, one of which is vegan.

The entire complex is housed in a former church to the northeast of Fair Park. A couple of cozy, lovely dining rooms are linked by a gorgeous courtyard dining area. The buffet wraps around two walls of the first dining area. Don’t be surprised if there’s a line snaking out towards the temple, as the place is very popular.

This image gives a good idea of a typical lunch. Here, we’ve got a sort of barbecue tofu, basmati rice, mixed vegetables & tahini, soup, a side salad, pappadams, cinnamon raisin bread, and tamarind tea. The tofu is one of our personal highlights, prepared wonderfully and very flavorful, but everything tastes great and fresh. And considering it’s all-you-can-eat, you can vary your tastes a great deal on different visits and never have to worry about price. Expect to pay around $17 for two people for the all-you-can-eat buffet with drinks and desserts.

Kalachandji’s is a really wonderful gem of a restaurant, tucked away from the busier areas in a way that still makes it feel like a hidden surprise. The restaurant’s open for lunch from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM Tuesday through Friday and noon to 3:00 PM Saturday and Sunday, and features dinner from 5:30 PM to 9:00 PM Tuesday through Sunday.

Kalachandji’s 5430 Gurley Ave Dallas, TX 75223 www.kalachandjis.com