Sunday, January 11, 2009

Vegan Cookie Bars

One of my goals for the new year was to expand into baking a bit more - I've never been much for baking, but in the interest of developing a more well rounded Veggie Guy, I decided it was time to give it a go.

I wasn't really sure what to call these - I got the inspiration from something called "Congo bars", but those called for walnuts and coconut - two things I'm not overly fond of. They also weren't vegan. Anyway, my wife simply dubbed them "cookie bars", so that is what they shall be named.

The end result was indeed quite cookie-esque, if you ignore that they're about 1/2 inch thick, and that they're in bar form, rather than the traditional circular configuration.

I managed to find vegan peanut butter chips at a local store called Raisin Rack. Frankly, I've never seen them anywhere else (and frankly, as often as RR changes things around, I may never be able to find them again). I'm pretty sure you could substitute 1/2 cup of peanut butter for the chips and life would be just fine.

So here we go...


Vegan Cookie Bars

  • 2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 3/4 cup Earth Balance vegan butter
  • 8 oz light brown sugar
  • Ener-G egg replacer equivalent to 3 eggs*
  • 4 oz vegan chocolate chips
  • 4 oz peanut butter chips (or 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter)

*The Ener-G package directions say that 1 1/2 tbsp Ener-G plus 2 tbsp warm water = 1 egg. I doubled the water for this recipe so the batter would mix better.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

In another bowl, mix melted Earth Balance and brown sugar. Add to flour mixture.

Fold in prepared Ener-G egg replacer (about 1/3 at a time).

Mix in chocolate chips or peanut butter chips/peanut butter.

Transfer batter to a greased, lightly floured 9x13 glass baking dish. Press down batter evenly with a spatula (or your hands, if you're impatient like me and don't like to look for utensils).

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before cutting into bars.


This is the type of dessert I'd take to a gathering of omnis - they're relatively familiar-looking, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who could recognize that these cookie bars don't contain eggs or dairy.




Anyway, that's enough of that. Something else I wanted to bring up...

Maida over at Mission Vegan posted an alternative to fried rice in stir fry dishes - wheat berries! I'm quite intrigued by this idea and - while I haven't tried it myself yet - I thought I'd share. I can't wait to give it a go!

Ok, back to the mad dash of "oh my gods, the weekend is almost over and I've still got a ton of s*** to do!" Yay!

13 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Vegan peanut butter chips?!?!??! Oh my, I need those now! :-D

Great bars!!

Ricki said...

My mother used to make Congo Bars!!! These sound great. And thanks for the link to Mission:Vegan--looks like a terrific site. :)

Amira said...

oh yum, those look incredible (cookies are definitely my vice!) thanks for the recipe, these are being added to my to do list as we speak

BitterSweet said...

Glad you took a shot at baking- Those bars look really good. :)

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Anonymous said...

ooh, they look fantastic! And I prefer my cookies to be in bars anyway.
My grocery store doesn't even have seitan, so I doubt that they have vegan peanut butter chips. But I will be sure to try them with the peanut butter.

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

How fabulous! I want some vegan peanut butter chips!

Hope you get everything done by the end of the weekend!

Virginie said...

The mix of chocolate and peanut butter sounds so american to my french ears... and so good. I've never tried though and have to.

Unknown said...

your cookie bars look really great!
that's awesome that you were able to find some peanut butter chips..i'd love to bake with those. or vegan white chocolate chips! haha so many possibilities. :)

Dolce said...

Oh I haven't been able to find that egg replacement here in the UK. I am craving a bar now.

ShellyH said...

Wow, I never knew there was such a thing as Vegan Peanut Butter Chips. I am not vegan but my sister is so I am always hunting down recipes and making her a few things as she isn't much of a cook.

Gnewvegan said...

I am not sure If I have seen vegan peanut butter chips but I know I have seen the regular chocolate chips at whole foods and mrs. greens. I have to look at some of the sources on my blog to see if online stores have them. This is something that is good to bring to guests as you said. People see a cookie and may be more inclined to try it. I have made vegan chocolate chip cookies from a recipe I found online and they were yummy. I did post it on one of my posts..

www.invitationfrom-gnewvegan.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Has anyone been able to find out the name of the vegan peanut butter chips?

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