Vegan chai white hot chocolate

I decided to try another of the hot chocolate recipes from the Knitted Bliss: The Seven Days of Hot Chocolate series. 

Tonight I made white chocolate chai hot chocolate. I love anything chai!

I did things a tiny bit different from the original recipe and I added extra chai spices. When ever I make homemade chai lattes I'll use cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, ground ginger, white pepper, star anise and sometimes nutmeg. To simplify things, you can just use cinnamon, cloves and cardamon and you'll still get that wonderful chai flavour.

I must say, with all these hot chocolate recipes, I'm running out of pretty mugs to use for the photos! I think I'll start needing to ask my friends to lend me whatever fancy mugs they have in their cupboards.

Vegan Chai White Hot Chocolate

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy milk (I used 1/2 unsweetened and 1/2 vanilla soy milk)
• 30-50g vegan white chocolate (depending on how sweet you want the drink)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamon
• 1/8 ground ginger (optional)
• 1/8 ground star anise (optional)
• 1/8 nutmeg
• 1/8 allspice

Directions

1. Heat soy milk and stir in spices. Whisk until combined.
2. Lower heat and add white chocolate. Stir until combined.
3. Pour into mug and sip down that chocolatey chai goodness. 

Vegan Strawberry White Hot Chocolate

I've been busy studying for my nursing exam which is in exactly 14 hours. I was studying with a group of friends in the library late this afternoon when it occurred to me that I hadn't done my something new for the day.

Normally if it's late in the day and I haven't decided on a new thing to do then I will honestly have a mini panic attack. Today however, I was already having a panic attack about the exam and so the problem of not having done my something new didn't quite have as much of an impact on my anxiety levels. 

Luckily, I have a few new things to do which are quick and easy already up my sleeve for days like today. 

I decided to try yet another hot chocolate recipe. I found a recipe for Strawberry White Hot Chocolate from the site Knitted Bliss. I have just recently found the Sweet Williams brand of vegan white chocolate so there wasn't much stopping me from veganising this recipe.

The original recipe uses 1/2 cup of strawberry jam, but I didn't like the idea of having all that unhealthy refined sugar from both the white chocolate and the jam so I used strawberry flavouring instead. It's much the same as vanilla essence, so you'll probably find it on the same shelf in your local super markets.

White chocolate and strawberry is by far one of the best flavour combinations. This recipe is a must for people who have a sweet tooth. Absolutely delicious. It's not all that healthy, but sometimes you need a good YOLO drink...especially during exam time. 

Vegan Strawberry White Hot Chocolate

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1/2 vanilla soy milk
• 1/2 unsweetened soy milk (If you don't want your drink very sweet, then use 1 cup of unsweetened soy milk)
• 1 teaspoon strawberry essence/flavouring (or add more according to your taste)
• 30g vegan white chocolate (I used the Sweet William brand)
• * if you're not using vanilla soy milk, then add 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Directions

1. Place a heatproof bowl over a small saucepan of water and heat water until it's boiling. Lower heat to a simmer.
2. Place soy milk into bowl until hot but not boiling
3. Add white chocolate to soy milk and stir until dissolved
4. Add strawberry essence and vanilla essence (if using) and stir
5. Pour into mug and enjoy :)

 

Vegan white chocolate macadamia cookies

The main reason I went vegan was because I wanted to start living a healthier lifestyle. I really enjoy being vegan and I don't see myself going back anytime soon. 

There have been many things that I've given up since going vegan such as ice cream, chocolate and a lot of my favourite types of store bought cakes and biscuits but I'm quite happy to do this because it means that I'm also cutting out a lot of junk out of my diet too. 

One of the unhealthy things that I don't eat any more are white chocolate macadamia cookies. I remember them tasting delicious, but I like being vegan far more than the taste of those cookies. 

I've been vegan for nearly two years now and in that time I've come to realise that there is usually a way to make vegan versions of most foods. 

Now don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because there's a vegan version of something that it is automatically healthy. Sure, it may be healthier, but it may not necessarily be healthy. And it certainly doens't mean you can eat ten servings of it.

I recently discovered vegan white chocolate. The brand is called Sweet William and they do dairy free chocolates. The white chocolate actually tastes pretty spot on to what I remember normal white chocolate tastes like. 

Even though I try to eat clean, I have the biggest sweet tooth and so when I was flipping through my Veganomicon cookbook and came across a recipe that I could change in order to make vegan white chocolate macadamia cookies, I just couldn't resist. I have googled some other recipes for these cookies but they all include a lot of vegan margarine and I didn't have any at home. Plus I don't really like using it unless there is absolutely no other substitute.

These cookies turned out pretty delicious. Even my mum (who usually doesn't eat anything that is unhealthy, let alone my vegan baking) enjoyed these :)

Suitable for vegans

So this is my variation of the Veganomicon recipe for white chocolate macadamia cookies. This recipe was originally for chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies.

Vegan White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Makes about 24

Ingredients 

2 1/4 cups white spelt flour (you can use plain flour)
2/3 cup oat flour (I just processed rolled oats)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 canola oil (or 1/2 cup should be ok too)
1 1/2 cup Stevia (or any baking sugar substitute)
4 teaspoons ground flaxseed
1/2 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
3/4 vegan white chocolate bits
3/4 halved unsalted macadamia nuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Line three baking trays with baking paper.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the oat flour. 
In a separate large bowl, mix together the oil and sugar. Add the flaxseeds, soy milk, vanilla and almond extract, and mix well.
Fold in the dry ingredients in batches. When the batter starts to get too hard to mix with a fork then use your hands.
Add the chocolate and nuts. 
Roll dough into 1-inch balls (or whatever size you like. Each ball of dough was about 1 table spoon for me) and flatten into disks (I prefer these cookies to be quite thin so I flattened them out as much as possible).
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer onto cooling rack to cool completely.