Hazelnut Espresso Thumbprint Cookies

Well, these are another winning recipe from the latest Canadian Living Holiday Baking Magazine! A coffee flavoured hazelnut cookie filled with hazelnut spread. Absolutely delicious and quite possibly a new favourite cookie for me, yes, they are that good! If you are like me and absolutely LOVE anything coffee and hazelnut flavoured, you will love these. 

The great thing about the recipe is it never called for eggs so besides the obvious use of vegan replacements these didn't need veganizing. As such I didn't change the recipe at all so won't be reprinting it here, just click on the link for the recipe. (I only reprint recipes if I've made substantial changes.)

(Amusing side note - blogger just asked if by "veganizing" I meant "navel-gazing" - that would have been an embarrassing auto-correct!).

The taste and texture of these cookies are just perfect. When I first tried one on it's own I thought it was good but possibly not sweet enough. Then I remembered that the cookie was made to house a little nutella in them so tried it again with some vegan nutella in and Oh.My.Word. Incredible. So yes, they need the nutella ;-) An altogether beautiful cookie.

Hazelnut Espresso Thumbprint Cookies - click for recipe.

Recipe notes:
♥ I swapped the butter with vegan butter, I used Vitalite.
♥ I used blanched hazelnuts and processed them in my food processor until as fine as they would get. They weren't like flour, just really finely chopped. I think this gave the best texture. I was also really lazy and didn't bother roasting them first. I'm sure that would have added even more flavour but just to let you know that if you are feeling lazy too there's no need to roast first ;-)
♥ I used store bought vegan nutella. Here in Ireland Spar's own label Hazelnut spread is "accidentally" vegan. There are other brands out there that do specifically vegan hazelnut spread OR you can make your own, although I haven't tried this you can always trust the recipes at Seitan is my Motor.
♥ Recipe said to use a teaspoon measure for the cookies. I thought these would be too small so used a measured tablespoon instead. Once they baked I thought, oh dear, these really are too big. Then I ate one and changed my mind ;-)
♥ I piped the hazelnut spread in with a star tip and love the way that looks.
♥ If you thinking of giving these as gifts, just keep in mind that the hazelnut spread in there makes these unable to stack or pack really well.

Roll the dough into a ball and place on a cookie sheet. I then used the round end of a knitting needle I have to make the indentation.

Once baked the hole does puff up a bit so make sure you make that indentation quite deep and large.

Wait until they are fully cool before filling with the hazelnut spread.

♥

Pan-Fried Vegan Cheeseburger Wrap

I made this up shortly after making my second batch of my vegan unprocessed cheese slices. It's amazing. Tasted just like I remember cheeseburgers tasting like but in a crispy fried wrap which just makes it even better. Damn. Vegan junk food at it's finest :-P

Obviously, you can put whatever you would normally like in a burger in this wrap. My favourite fast food burger "back in the day" was A&W's "teen burger" as it had, in my opinion, the holy trinity of burger ingredients in it: pickle, onion and mustard. Hence why I've gone for that here, and a few slices of vegan bacon wouldn't have gone amiss either ;-)

Pan-Fried Vegan Cheeseburger Wrap

Makes 1.

• 50g frozen soy mince (I use Tesco own label)

• 1 shallot, or a couple tablespoons finely chopped onion.

• 1 small clove garlic, finely chopped

• pinch of smoked sea salt

• 5 grinds of black pepper

• 1 tsp vegetable oil

♥

• 1 large white wrap

• 1 slice Vegan Unprocessed Cheese.

• lettuce, preferably iceberg.

• dill pickle slices

• yellow mustard (French's)

• a little extra oil to fry, no more than a teaspoon.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the soy mince, shallot or onion and garlic. Fry over low heat until it starts to get dry then add about 50ml water. Cook until the water is fried off, soy mince is cooked and onions are soft.

Warm the wrap up briefly in a dry frying pan so it's pliable. In the centre add some lettuce leaves and the mince mixture. Top with a cheese slice cut in half diagonally then the pickles and some yellow mustard. 

Fold both ends over then roll up burrito style. Heat another bit of oil in a pan, I used the same pan I fried the mince in then add the wrap, pressing down to flatten slightly. Keep the heat high, you just want to crisp up the outside and melt the cheese, not wilt the lettuce. Flip over when golden and repeat, again pressing down with a spatula. Transfer to a chopping board and slice in half diagonally. Done.

♥

Nutritional Information: 

Calories: 409

Fat: 16.6g

Sat Fat: 2.9g

Carbs: 42.9g

Sugar: 4.2g

Fibre: 5.9g

Protein: 17.6g

Sodium: 828mg

Vegan Cheese Dog

...And in continuing in my quest to make more vegan junk food, the vegan cheese dog! I've taken this photo from the daily blog where I was thoroughly enjoying these daily until I ran out of cheese slices :-) 

Simply melt one unprocessed cheese slice onto a hot dog bun (I used the grill) and fill with your favourite vegan hot dog (I use Fry's) then top with a relish made with tangy dill pickles finely chopped with onion and lots of French's mustard. Delicious!

♥