Surviving the Daniel Fast: Vegan Chocolate Pudding Cookies!

"Pudding cookies??? ...wait...on the Daniel Fast?...What about *gasp*...SUGAR??" you ask.

Well, stress not, Dear Reader. Read on.

So my husband and I are about to begin week three--the final week--of our 21 day fast, and I am craving cake and coffee like nobody's business...so it's giving me plenty of time to pray...and also to be creative with what I am allowed eat.

"I want cookies!!!" I screamed...(in my head so I wouldn't be mistaken for a crazy person....)

Searching for an eggless, sugar free, gluten free cookie option brought me to a lot of recipes that were haystack-y or nugget-y, but nothing truly cookie-like...so...I decided I needed to offer the world a recipe that did so. I improvised. Since I was improvising, these measurements are probably not exact but are as best I remember them. Makes about 30-36 cookies (depending on how big you make them.)

Ingredients:
1. 3T of ground flax seed
2. 6-8T of water
3. 1/4c of ground tapioca
4. 1/3c cocoa powder
6. 1 1/2 bananas (around 1 cup)
7. 1/3c coconut oil
8. 1t baking powder
9. 1t vanilla extract
10. 1-ish cup gluten free flour
11. 1-ish cup almond milk
12. Nuts (to your taste)

Directions
1. Grind up flax seed in a coffee grinder. Add to mixing bowl with water. Stir. Set aside. (This will become your two eggs.)

2. Grind up tapioca in coffee grinder. Add to flax along with a splash of almond milk. Stir. Set aside.

3. Now preheat your oven on 350 degrees. In a separate small bowl or large mug, microwave your coconut oil till melted. Add the bananas and mash them up. Go ahead and grind the nuts in the coffee blender to give the flax and tapioca a few more minutes to soak up the liquid.

4. Now add the coconut oil and bananas to the mixing bowl along with the cocoa powder, baking powder, and vanilla.

5. Okay so...this next part is just to add flour and milk until the mixture is a nice dough-y consistency and it becomes fairly hard to stir. Add the nuts and stir one more time.

6. Put aluminum foil on cookie sheets and lightly spray them with oil if you want. (The coconut oil in the cookies works well enough to keep them from sticking too badly.) Add small spoonfuls of dough (they will be sticky) and put the sheets into the oven for 10 minutes. (Halfway through, I switched the two sheets on their racks to keep the cookies baking evenly.)

Done!

Notes:

- One thing that impressed me about them is that they came out really really well. Not goopy on the inside, but very spongy on the inside, crispy on the outside. Very satisfyingly cookie-like.

- They didn't spread out all over the pan, but held their shape--rather round. If you like flatter cookies, add more milk.

- They held together REALLY well even though I didn't use eggs. I attribute this to the combination of tapioca, flax, and banana.

- They cooked really evenly and didn't burn on the bottom. I think this may be due to the fact that coconut oil burns at a higher temperature than butter....but I may have totally just made that up...

- You might not want to take these to family/church events because people expect sugar at those things and while the bananas add sweetness (especially the riper they are), it's not what most Americans are used to.

- If you don't like bananas, try adding another fruit that goes well with chocolate like strawberries, applesauce, mango, or peaches...Things with a banana-like consistency when blended. (Not sure if citrus would work because of the acids, but...you can always experiment!)

- You just made cookies with no gluten, animal product, or added sugar (or sweeteners of any kind!); yet packed with fiber, potassium, protein, and skin cancer protecting cocoa!

The End!

Surviving the Daniel Fast: Vegan Chia Seed Tapioca Pudding and Coconut Chocolates

If you are vegan or if you are on the Daniel Fast, here is a great recipe for some desserts. Keep in mind that none of these recipes use animal products nor sugar, so these probably won't be for everyone's taste.

First of all the tapioca pudding. If you know me I love pressure cooking because I'm impatient. I also like to make things in bulk so I don't have to spend my life cooking. However, I have a sweet yet sometimes finicky husband who doesn't like to eat the same thing every day for very long....so stay tuned after the first recipe for some variations on the tapioca theme. In other words, think of this pudding recipe as a base.

(I'm blogging from my phone and Blogger is being stupid, so I might not have pictures....)

You will need:
1. 1 1/2 cup tapioca. (I used Bob's Red Mill small pearl tapioca)
2. 6 cups almond milk
3. 1 can coconut milk (skip this if you have thyroid or triclyceride issues)
4. Shredded unsweetened coconut
5. Vanilla extract
6. Coconut oil
7. Nutmeg
8. 1/4 cup chia seeds (or you could add more if you're a fan)

Directions

1. Add a tablespoon or so of coconut oil to the bottom of your pressure cooker and melt over med high heat. Add the shredded coconut and toast till a nice brown color. (Amounts are to your taste.)

2. Immediately add tapioca and almond milk. Stir. Turn to high heat. Add coconut milk, vanilla (to taste), nutmeg (to taste), and you will probably have to add a few cups of water because it starts thickening like crazy. Keep stirring like a madman so nothing burns on the bottom of your cooker.

3. Once it starts to boil, lock the lid on. When the pressure indicator pops up, turn the heat down (somewhere around 3) and set your timer for 6 minutes. When it's done, let the pressure come off naturally (about ten minutes).

[Skip to chocolates recipe below while the pudding cooks to save time.]

4. Aaaaaand then I forgot I didn't add the chia seeds, so I put them in after pressure came off. It's probably better that way anyway since they don't really have to be cooked.

Notes: Next time I will only cook the tapioca for 5 minutes because I like them rather chewy and they were just a little mushy.

Several recipes for people who get bored easily (these are still vegan and sugar free):

1. Mexican - Using your "base" that you made above, add cinnamon and just a dash of red pepper.

2. Korean - Add mochi (rice) balls, red bean, and cereal powder.

3. Fruity - Uhhhh....add fruit! Obviously!

4. Chocolate - Add cocoa powder.

5. Pumpkin spice - Add canned pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, a tad more nutmeg, and allspice.

6. Hawaiian - Pineapple and mango.

7. Peppermint Mocha - Cocoa powder and just a TAD of peppermint extract.

Some other things you could add: peanut or almond butter (has sugar, so do as the Spirit leads), nuts, dried fruit, and....you know....whatever else you feel like adding!

Okay, while your pudding cooks, you can do this fun and horribly messy project!

You will need:

1. 2 parts coconut oil
2. 1 part cocoa powder
3. 3/4 parts unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)
4. Cashews (or other nuts...or not)
5. Vanilla extract
6. Silicon chocolate mold (or just pour it all into the bottom of a container and break it in pieces when you're done.

Directions:
1. Melt the oil in the microwave.

2. Add the cocoa powder, vanilla, and shredded coconut. Stir

3. (I prepped my molds with one cashew each during step one, but you don't have to if you don't want nuts.) Pour the mixture into the mold.

4. Refrigerate.

5. Eat. Keep uneaten ones refrigerated.

The End!!