Maple Banana Cookies

These pillowy, vegan banana cookies are infused with maple and spices and are wholesome with the addition of a wee bit of whole wheat flour. Unlike banana bread they are light and fluffy and rise beautifully. Fabulous plain, but I like to add in a small amount of chocolate chips or nuts!

I. Cannot. Stop. Eating. These. Cookies. #pleasehelp

Do you have a labor day dish to bring to that party? Maybe you thought of bringing the norm, but do we really need another grill-able item, salad, or bag of chips? Nah. Switch it up with some cookies! If you got ripe bananas, you’re all set.

I had a little extra helping-labor myself while photographing this recipe. Oliver loves to carry around his camera taking photos. It was a little difficult to get some of him because he kept rushing over to where I was to copy me. Baking with little ones is the absolute best.

Maple Banana Cookies

By Katie Henry - Produce On Parade

These pillowy, vegan banana cookies are infused with maple and spices and are wholesome with the addition of a wee bit of whole wheat flour. Unlike banana bread they are light and fluffy and rise beautifully. Fabulous plain, but I like to add in a small amount of chocolate chips or nuts!

Ingredients

• 1 cup mashed well-ripened bananas (about 2 medium bananas)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 tsp psyllium husk powder (or 1 tbsp ground flaxseed)
• ¼ cup water (or 3 tbsp water if using flaxseed)
• ½ cup vegan butter, softened
• ½ cup vegan granulated sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp maple extract
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• scant ¼ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• ⅛ tsp ground cloves
• pinch of salt
• heaping ¼ cup vegan chocolate chips or nuts of your choice (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. To a small bowl add the mashed banana and stir in the baking soda; set aside.
3. In a small bowl whisk the psyllium powder and water together and set aside.
4. In a medium bowl cream the butter, sugars, and extracts. Whisk in the psyllium mixture until light and fluffy. Stir in the banana mixture and set aside.
5. In a large bowl whisk together the flours, spices, and salt. Slowly stir in the wet mixture until just combined, stir in any chocolate chips or nuts if using.
6. Using a cookie scoop, drop dough onto cookie sheet 2” apart (they don’t spread much). Bake for about 12 minutes until the bottom edges just begin to turn golden brown. They will seem underdone but don’t fret! Remove from the sheet immediately and transfer to cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Store in an airtight container once cooled.

Prep time: 8 minutes
Cook time: 00:12
Total time: 00:20
Yield: About 30 cookies

I found this article from The New York Times that came out a couple days ago. It’s definitely worth a read. Veganism for the win!

“The vegans are right. The vegans were always right. The least you can do is shower them with respect and our gratitude, because they deserve it.”

— Farhad Manjoo; columnist at the The New York Times

CSA Fennel, Zucchini, & Tomato Pasta

CSAs are wonderful, but if you’re not exactly sure what to do with fennel, armed with an abundance of zucchini and tomatoes, they can be overwhelming. This delicious pasta dish makes use of three CSA items (we had fresh mint in ours so that makes four!) in spectacular fashion. Sweet, roasted fennel and zucchini blend with umami miso and nutritional yeast and tart cherry tomatoes for a lovely summer pasta dish.

I'm cooking a lot these days but just don't have a much time for recipe development and photography. Most evenings I just throw together a meal and only after it's done and tasting how scrumptious it is wish I would have measured everything; then I could have shared it! Who wants to recipe develop when you can spend that time snuggling with an adorable seven month old?? I'm trying though. I actually have a few recipes on the way, photographs and everything! Hurray me!

Todd and I have been trying to get our lawn in order and generally spending as much time outside with Oliver as possible. Fall in Alaska is so fleeting and it's always a scramble to make the most of such an inspiring season. The air is crisp and refreshing, fluttering leaves dance in the breeze, as golden light filters through the birch trees; it's one of the most magical times up here but it never lasts.

Our CSA is in full swing and we are enjoying its bounty. With just the two of us consuming a large share, it can test my ingenuity on using up all those beauitful veggies! This recipe used up four of the CSA items, so it will definitely be placed on the rotation. I hope you love this meal as much as we both did. 

CSA Fennel, Zucchini, & Tomato Pasta

Recipe by Kathleen @ Produce On Parade

CSAs are wonderful, but if you’re not exactly sure what to do with fennel, armed with an abundance of zucchini and tomatoes, they can be overwhelming. This delicious pasta dish makes use of three CSA items (we had fresh mint in ours so that makes four!) in spectacular fashion. Sweet, roasted fennel and zucchini blend with umami miso and nutritional yeast and tart cherry tomatoes for a lovely summer pasta dish.

Yield: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 large fennel bulb, trimmed sliced into ½ inch thick short wedges
• 1 extra-large zucchini, quartered and chopped
• dash of seasoning salt
• 8 oz dry penne pasta
• 3 tbsp vegan butter
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 15 oz can of chickpeas, drained but ½ cup of the liquid reserved
• 1 ½ tbsp red miso
• 1 ½ tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 heaping cup chopped cherry tomatoes
• ¼ cup fresh mint leaves, chopped

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and arrange the fennel and zucchini in a single layer on two large baking trays coated with a nonstick cooking spray. Drizzle with olive oil if you like and sprinkle with seasoning salt. Roast for 20-30 minutes, until slightly browned and tender.
2. While the veggies roast, bring a medium pot of water to boil for the pasta. Cook al dente according to the package. Drain and set aside until ready to use.
3. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pot over medium-low heat and saute the garlic for about 5 minutes, until fragrant.
4. Whisk in the chickpea liquid, miso, and nutritional yeast until the miso is clump-free. Stir in the roasted veggies, cooked pasta, chickpeas, and tomatoes; cook until the entire mixture is warm. Remove from heat and stir in the mint leaves; taste and salt as needed. Serve warm.

Maple Cream Frosted Spent Grain Cookies

Nutty, spent grain peanut butter cookies, studded with chocolate chips, are frosted with thick, spreadable Roxbury Mountain Maple maple cream for a truly winning combination. There’s nothing better than finding a delicious way to use up a byproduct of making beer at home!

Why hello there! Do you remember me? Thank you so much for being incredibly patient while I've been away. A lot has changed! Todd and I moved from the little rental house we've lived in the last year and half into our brand-new, custom home smack in the middle of the woods here in Alaska. It's been an absolute dream come true to live in a home that we literally drew up on printer paper; designed by us, in a location we adore. I can't wait to fill it with memories and laughter and of course delicious vegan food! 

Speaking of food... Todd has started brewing beer. Like, for real brewing beer. He's dabbled a little with it before, but one of his good friends who just moved up from the states had all the equipment and the boys went to town. Literally. To get beer supplies... and then I came home to them standing on top of our brand-new counter in our brand-new kitchen doing god knows what (checkout the nonsense in this Instagram photo) with valves and hoses and funnels and bottles of sanitation liquid and grains. It's the last part I got excited about.

Todd's friend, who I will now refer to as Paco Burrito, (because I know he does not prefer to have his name on the internet) told me how he'd make bread with the spent grains after brewing beer. I thought this was very intriguing, especially relieving since I am the worst about wasting anything. I was excited to try this bread that Paco Burrito makes but I didn't want to wait for bread. Such is life. But what's better than bread? Not much, though cookies are definitely up there... and they only take about 30 minutes from top to bottom. 

Okay, you might be wondering, "Why exactly is spent grain?" It's "the leftover malt and adjuncts after the mash has extracted most the sugars, proteins, and nutrients, and can constitute as much as 85 percent of a brewery's total by-product." Breweries are starting to find ways to use it, instead of just tossing it. In fact, Alaska Brewing Company uses it as fuel to run their special boilers! It's actually really interesting; read more here.

The grain goes into a cheesecloth that submerged is in the beer liquid and then removed when the beer is done doing it's cooking stuff. I understand that's not terribly technical but I don't really know that much about beer making. I'm just after the spent grain. #beermakingnovice #givemeallthespentgrain

Spent grain is toothsome, terrifically nutty, and somewhat bitter. This brings us to why I really wanted to make cookies. To frost them with maple cream, which is the absolute perfect compliment to spent grain. From now on spent grain and maple errrrrything. You've been warned. The spent grain, alone, is not entirely pleasant and maple cream, while delicious alone, is sweet enough to bring on a headache if enough of it is consumed in one sitting (yes, I speak from experience). But together, sweet Lincoln's mullet, it is a combination for the ages. 

If you're not in on the homebrew game, no worries. Just pick up a small package of grain cereal mix and add a bit of water until it's just dampened. 

Maple cream is maple syrup that's basically that's been boiled, then chilled, and then stirred until it becomes thick, maple butter. It's one of the most amazing things. I've eaten it plain, stuffed into dates, slathered on toast, sandwiched between two gingersnaps, and of course as a frosting for cookies. As it's concentrated, spreadable maple syrup, I don't recommend using it in anything that will heat it considerably because the cream will pretty much just melt back into maple syrup...thus making it's purpose of being spreadable, obsolete. In those instances use just regular maple syrup. Maple cream is best where it's flavor and texture is allowed to shine!

Roxbury Mountain Maple generously supplied me with samples of their 100% natural and vegan maple cream, maple syrup, and maple sugar (can't wait to roll cookies in it!). Roxbury Mountain Maple is owned and run by the Holscher family on an old farm in the Catskill Mountains. I was delighted to be contacted by Ben Holscher. It's exciting to know exactly where our food comes from and from who! Read more about the family and their sugarhouse on their website. Roxbury Mountain Maple products are available on Amazon and most are Prime eligible as well! They even have a maple caramel popcorn. I might have to get some of that... Todd's two obsessions in one!

Maple Cream Frosted Spent Grain Cookies

Recipe by Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Nutty, spent grain peanut butter cookies, studded with chocolate chips, are frosted with thick, spreadable Roxbury Mountain Maple maple cream for a truly winning combination. There’s nothing better than finding a delicious way to use up a by-product of making beer at home!

Yield: ~ 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tbsp vegan butter, softened
• ½ cup vegan granulated sugar
• ½ cup vegan brown sugar
• 1/3 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp maple extract (optional, I always add this to cookies)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (or substitute 1 cup AP and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 1 ½ cup spent grains or grain cereal/mix (damp, see note)
• 1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
• slathering of maple cream, for frosting

Cooking Directions

1. In a large electric mixing bowl, beat the peanut butter through the maple extract on medium-low speed until well combined; scraping down the sides as needed.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour through the salt. Next, stir in the spent grains. While the mixer is on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Roll the cookie dough into golf-ball sized balls. Place on the cookie sheet about 1-2 inches apart, these won’t spread much, and press each down lightly with a fork. I did not coat my baking sheet and the come off beautifully. Bake for about 10 minutes, until just slightly golden brown. Remove from the pan and allow to rest on a wire cooling rack for at least 10 minutes.
4. Once the tops are firm enough, frost each cookie with maple cream. Try not to eat them all in one sitting. Store in an air-tight container.

Have you ever had maple cream? How do you like to use it? I'm trying desperately not to polish off the jar with a spoon, it's so good! Help! Have you ever used spent grain? I'm really curious. Any recipe suggestions for the stuff is welcome! I'm thinking bread and muffins will be next.