Procedure1 Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

1 Pulse the oats in a food processor until it resembles coarse flour. To this also add the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and process until combined. Transfer this mix to a large mixing bowl.

2 Put the drained and rinsed beans in the food processor and pulse until smoothly pureed. You may add 2-3 tablespoons of water to make it easier. Add the butter/margarine and process until well blended.

3 Now add the brown sugar, applesauce and vanilla and pulse until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

4 Pour the bean mixture into the oat mixture and stir using a spatula. Add the peanut butter chips/chocolate chips, raisins/dried cranberries, nuts and flax seed meal and stir until blended.

5 Drop by large spoonfuls of dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each one a little with your hand. Have a bowl of water nearby to dampen your palms, so that flattening the cookies will be easy.

6 Bake for 14-16 minutes, until pale around the edges but still soft in the middle. The cookies baked in a dark coated cookie sheet started browning after 14 minutes itself but the pale coated cookie sheet was done after 16 minutes.

7 Place the the cookie sheets on individual wire racks. Let it cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to the cooling rack after that.

Taste These cookies tasted very much like the Fiber One Cereal breakfast cookies I have baked earlier. These are very soft cookies, more like a muffin. The presence of whole grain flours like whole wheat pastry flour and oat flour did not affect the taste at all. You cannot detect the navy beans too. It’s not very sweet also. If “healthy” tastes so good, I’m ready to eat healthy always. My son takes it to school as a treat after having his lunch and he likes it so much.

My Notes1 You can use all purpose flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour, white beans instead of navy beans, butter or margarine, chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips, raisins, pecans instead of walnuts.

2 For chocolate flavored cookies use 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the flour.

3 Updated: I stored these cookies in a cookie jar over the counter and it became very soft. This is okay if you are going to consume it within 2-3 days. The longer it stays on the counter the softer it gets. Recently I borrowed Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favorites from the library and found a tip for storing low-fat cookies. It says that the best way to store low-fat cookies is in layers separated by wax paper or plastic wrap in an airtight container in the freezer. Defrost at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving. But I think storing in the refrigerator should be fine because it gives instant gratification

Procedure1 Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line the muffin tins with cupcake liners.

2 In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the sugar.

3 Add all the remaining ingredients and beat until you have a smooth, liquid batter.

4 Using a ladle, pour the batter 3/4ths full. Approximately 3 tablespoons of batter for large cupcakes and 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of batter for the mini cupcakes.

5 Bake until risen and firm to touch. Approximately 12-13 minutes for the mini cupcakes and 15-16 minutes for the large.

6 Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Frosting

Frosting is optional. I did not frost the entire batch. Made a very small batch of chocolate ganache using 1/4 cup mini chocolate chip cookies and 2 tablespoons milk. Heat the milk, don’t let it boil. Add the warm milk little by little until the chocolate chips melt and is very smooth. The chocolate chips did not melt enough. So I heated some water in a saucepan and place the bowl of chips on the saucepan and kept stirring it with a whisk and it melted from the heat in no time. If you add excess milk, keep the frosting in the fridge until you get the correct consistency to frost the cupcakes.

Taste

I was pleasantly surprised with the good taste of these vegan cupcakes. Earlier I have baked something similar and it was literally awful and I had to throw the cake. The other recipe used more oil, soy milk instead of water and white vinegar. The soy milk gave a sticky texture, the use of vinegar was very obvious. So I was relieved to see a recipe with just 2 tablespoons of oil and water. That’s why I went with apple cider vinegar this time. I wouldn’t say that these cupcakes taste exactly like the regular vanilla cupcakes, but it’s definitely very good for a low-fat, egg free and dairy free vegan cupcake. The next time I will probably reduce the quantity of sugar by at least 2 tablespoons, especially if I decide to frost it.

As for the texture, it is not light. At the same time it’s not dense or moist either. It’s somewhere between light and dense. It’s solid and not crumbly, so I should probably try this in a round/square cake pan to make a good layered cake with icing and stuff.

My Notes1 The original recipe mentions that the measurement yields 12 mini cupcakes, but I don’t know how I got so many. Also the time mentioned to bake the mini cupcakes is about 20 minutes, but mine was done in 14 minutes. Actually had I taken it out a minute earlier the cupcake’s texture would have been even better/lighter.

2 It was a little sweet for me even without the frosting.

3 I forgot to refrigerate the cupcakes on the first day, so I felt it was sort of sticky on the top on the second day. I think the sugar released out moisture and made it sort of sticky. The inside was good though.

4 To make vegan ganache, use vegan chocolate chips and any other non dairy milk.

Procedure 1 Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. If using a non stick pan greasing is not necessary, otherwise use parchment paper to line the cookie sheets.

2 In a large bowl, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla.

3 In a food processor/blender whip together the egg replacer powder and water together, until it’s thick and creamy. Add this mixture to the creamed butter and sugar, combine thoroughly.

4 In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.

5 Gradually beat the flour mixture into the wet mixture until it begins to form a dough.

6 When it is almost thoroughly combined stir in the chocolate chips and nuts, if using.

7 I greased a tablespoon to scoop the dough and drop it easily onto the baking sheet.

8 Bake 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.

9 Let stand for 2 minutes on the baking sheet itself. Then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool
completely before storing.

My Notes 1 My first batch of cookies did not turn golden brown even after 11 minutes. I removed it anyway and noticed that the bottom was very brown. So from the second batch onwards I removed it from the oven around 9 minutes itself. Even though the cookies had a pale yellow color, they were baked enough and tasted very good. I guess using dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar would give the golden brown color.

2 For vegan chocolate chip cookies use non-hydrogenated, non dairy butter and nondairy semisweet chocolate chips.

Procedure 1 Preheat oven to 360F/180c for 15 minutes.

2 Grease and flour a 9 inch spring-form pan. You can use cocoa instead of flour.

3 In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour,cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

4 In a small blender/processor blend together the Ener-G and water until it’s nice and fluffy like beaten eggs. I used my Magic Bullet blender. I pulsed it a couple of times.

5 In a medium bowl add oil, applesauce, sugars, vanilla extract and coffee powder. Using a hand mixer beat the mixture in medium speed for 3-5 minutes.

6 Add the egg replacer liquid in 3 additions beating it after every addition. Now also add the milk and beat until well combined.

7 Reserving half a cup of the flour mixture, add slowly the remaining flour to the wet ingredients, while beating it in low speed. Combine well the grated zucchini, chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of flour. Add this to the batter and mix it well. Note that the batter is thick at this stage. So don’t worry.

8 Pour the batter in the prepared cake pan and smooth it out using a spatula. While using a spring-form pan it’s advisable to place the pan on a baking sheet, so that the batter or baked cake does not fall down if the pan is not locked properly.

9 Prepare the topping by mixing the brown sugar and pistachios. Sprinkle this mixture evenly on the batter. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Mine was done in 45 minutes.

My Notes 1 The key in using Ener-G is processing it with the water in a blender until it’s nice and fluffy. Simply whisking it with a fork does not give desirable results. If you pour this immediately in a liquid measuring cup, you will see that it measures exactly 3/4 th of a cup, which is perfect because we usually replace every egg with 1/4 cup of any egg substitute. But by the time I was ready to add this mixture to the rest of the wet ingredients, I saw that it had reduced to 1/2 a cup. So to replace the 1/4 cup of liquid missing I used unsweetened soy milk. You could use any milk or even some fruit juice which you think would go with the flavors you are baking.

2 You can also use an 8 inch or 9 inch round cake pan instead of a spring form pan. But I think you cannot do the topping because, while inverting the pan to unmould the cake the toppings may fall down.

3 Zucchini can be grated without peeling. After grating I felt that the strands were very big, so I chopped them coarsely.

Procedure 1 Preheat the oven at 375F.

2 Grease and dust a 13×9 inch pan with little flour.

3 In a large bowl whisk together all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and light brown sugar.

4 Also add the chopped dried fruits and nuts of your choice. Make sure that the dried fruits are not lumped togther. Use your fingers mix it thoroughly.

5 In a liquid measuring mug, measure 3/4th cup of applesauce. Add the vanilla extract, 1/4 cup water and tea masala extract (if using). Whisk it nicely.

6 Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix it well. Since it’s a lot of dried fruits and nuts, chances are the flour mixture in the bottom may not be combined well.

7 Spread the batter into the prepared pan and use a spatula to evenly press it.

8 Bake for the 30 minutes at 375F. When I inserted a toothpick in the center it was almost done and it had started to become golden brown. I wanted to bake it for another 5 minutes, but I worried if the cake would become very dark, so I reduced the temperature to 300F and baked it for 5 more minutes.

9 Once out of the oven, leave the pan on a wire rack and let it cool completely before cutting it. I inverted the fruitcake on a big cookie sheet and then cut them into pieces. This cake will store for months in the refrigerator.

My Notes 1 Any combination of nuts and dried fruits can be used in this fruitcake. The only thing to be followed is that it should be 3 cups of nuts and 3 cups of dried fruits. I used 1 cup each of walnuts, pecans and sliced almonds. For dried fruits, I used 1/2 cup each of raisins, dried cranberries, dates, apricots and 1 cup of dried and sliced figs.

2 Let the fruitcake cool completely in the pan before inverting it. I was not patient enough and turned it over and the cake broke into 2 pieces. Fortunately I was able to patch it up. So I would suggest cooling it overnight.

Step-by-Step Procedure 1. Preheat oven at 350F/180C. Prepare 2 large baking sheets either greasing it or lining it with parchment paper.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. I used a hand mixer.

3. In a blender, add flax seed powder and water and blend it until it’s foamy.

4. Add the flax seed mixture and vanilla extract to the creamed butter. Stir it well using a wooden spoon/spatula.

5. In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

6. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and combine it well using a spatula.

7. Now stir the oats and other optional ingredients you wish to include.

8. Drop the batter by tablespoonsfull 2 inches apart. I used an ice cream scoop.

9. Wet your hands and flatten the cookies so that they are about 1/2 an inch thick.

10. Bake it for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the centre is little wet.

11. Remove it from the oven and let it cool in the baking sheet itself for 5 minutes. Then transfer it to a wire rack to cool it completely.

My Notes 1. I baked the batch with aluminum baking sheet for 14 minutes and the one in dark color non stick baking sheet for 13 minutes. The cookies were chewy.

2. I wanted to try baking with vegan butter alternatives for long time now. So I bought Earth Balance Vegan Butter and tried this recipe with that, instead of regular dairy butter. I’m 100% sure that the cookies will come out good with regular butter also, because the original recipe uses the same.

3. I’m not a vegan, I just tried baking vegan cookies, so I have used dairy milk in the photo.

Step-by-Step Procedure

11. Carefully remove the cookies from the baking sheets and store in an airtight container for upto 5 days.

My Notes 1. As per the original recipe a tablespoonful of dough should be dropped on a baking sheet. I did it and the cookies spread very much touching each other. Either reduce it to half a tablespoon of batter or give enough space between each cookie.

2. When I lifted the cookies from the baking sheet I noticed that the bottoms were very greasy due to the butter. So I had to give each and every cookie a nice dab with kitchen towels. So reserve these cookies for some special/fancy occassion. Do not indulge!

To Make Crust

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a large mixing bowl put butter, brown sugar and cream it using an electric mixer in medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in salt.

To Make Filling

1. Place butter, brown sugar, honey, granulated sugar, heavy cream in a saucepan over high heat.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 1 minute.
3. Remove pan from heat; stir in salt, nuts and vanilla.
4. Pour filling into the cooled crust.
5. Bake until filling bubbles, 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Carefully transfer it to wire rack to cool completely.
7. Run a paring knife around edges of the pan and invert onto cooling rack. (See My Notes)
8. Invert again onto a cutting board.
9. With a sharp knife cut into 1 by 3 inch bars.

My Notes1. Instead of using all butter, I used a combination of butter and Smart Balance 50/50 Unsalted Blend.

2. In the original recipe, stand mixer was used to prepare the dough for the crust. Since I don’t have one I used a hand held mixer. It’s a bit difficult if you are doing it alone because, you have to cream the mixture, simultaneously scrape the edges and also add 1 cup of flour at a time. I was able to do it with the help of my mother and my husband. So be sure to catch hold of your husband while preparing these bars. If you are going to use a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment in medium speed.

3. For making the crust, the dough has to be spread evenly in a 9×13 inch pan. This was a little bit tricky. So my husband gave a wonderful idea to do the job neatly. After spreading the dough with a rubber spatula, he asked me to cut a wax paper to the size of the pan and lay it over the dough and then smooth it with my hands. Then my mother gave the idea of using a small vessel on top of the paper to get a smooth finish. Both the ideas worked out very well.

4. I was not able to invert the bar on the cooling rack because it was sticking to the pan. So I cut them into small bars in the pan itself and removed it using a spatula.