Vegan White Chocolate Orange Almond Truffles

So this is where too much Vegan Blog hopping gets me!

A while ago, I came across these super yum looking White Chocolate Walnut Truffles on the VegSpinz blog and I was immediately overcome by the desire to stuff my face with them!

So I decided to create a variation of my own...

White Chocolate Orange Almond Truffles


All ingredients are in approximate values since I just throw stuff in without measuring. Feel free to modify the amounts to your liking.

1 C Vegan White Chocolate Chips
1/2 C Cashews
1/4 C Soymilk (use as required)
1/4 t Orange Essential Oil
1/4 C Almonds
1 C Vegan Dark Chocolate Chips

For the truffle mixture:

-Grind the cashews into a fine powder, add a dash of the soymilk and blend, add a little bit more soymilk if required and process into a very creamy paste.
-Melt the white chocolate chips (in a double boiler or in the microwave).
-Toast the almonds and crush them lightly into tiny pieces. If you have the patience you can chop them :oP
-Mix the cashew cream and orange essential oil with the white chocolate.
-Add in the almonds and mix well.
-Pop in the freezer for around 20 minutes or so, until it has hardened slightly.

How to proceed:

-Melt the dark chocolate chips.
-Make little balls of the truffle mixture and dip them in the melted chocolate.
-Drop them on parchment paper.
-Pop in the freezer to set again.

Note: I have used truffle molds for these. These can be used by coating the walls and bottom of the mold with the melted dark chocolate. Putting a bit of the truffle mixture in and covering the top with a layer of melted dark chocolate.

Enjoy! :)

Welcome new members!

We have two new members to welcome to the Vegan Etsy Team: The Ginger Card Company and Crafty Moon Crab Soaps. Be sure to visit and favorite their great shops!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Soap Set
from Crafty Crab Moon Soaps

Peace Pendant
from The Ginger Card Company

The Great Vegan Etsy Give Away

Every month, or even Bi-Monthly sometimes, the VeganEtsy Team hosts a give-away challenge that awards a prize pack of vegan samples from it's team members.



Pretty In Pink

• Start: Now

• End: Jan. 30th




• Go to Etsy.Com and search for items that are tagged with VEGANETSY TEAM. Look for any and everything that is pink! All shades of pink are welcome.

• Respond to this post with the link of the item you picked and a short quip about why you picked it.

• Each person can only respond 1 time for 1 entry into the drawing. Blog followers get double entry.

• All contestants will be assigned a number. These numbers will be placed into a random generator at the end of the contest to determine the winner.

• Please note you must have contact information!
If you do not have any contact information in your user profile, please leave a email that you can be contacted through to inform you of your winnings.



This contests prize grab bag is sponsored by:

The VeganEtsy Team
Inc. Greetings
Late July Photography
Aguavino
Uber Duper Creations
Saving Estelle
Starrlight Jewelry -&- Designs
Veganessa
Pink Bubble Designs
Strange And Violent
Bright Design
Threaded Smiles

The importance of eating seasonally.

When my fiance comes home with zucchini in December, a tiff always ensues. "That's a summer squash!", I scoff. "But it'll go great in the stir fry," he retorts.

Granted... but.

There's really something to be said for eating produce that is grown not only within a hundred or so miles from your house, but also when it's supposed to be grown. Tomatoes? Well, sorry, but you're just not supposed to be eating fresh tomatoes in January, not if you live anywhere in the northern hemisphere (and based on landmass vs. water distribution on the planet earth, you probably do). Do you really want a vegetable that was grown hydroponically, picked when bright green, shipped a few thousand miles, and then ripened with ethylene gas? Because if you're eating a January tomato, that's what you're getting.

The bottom line? Local, seasonal, and preferably organic produce will taste best and be the best for you. And it's often the best value as well - it costs money to make plants do what they don't want to, and that cost shows up in the consumer's pricetag.

So, why not go for the butternut squash instead? The cabbage, turnips, and potatoes? And if you want a little tomato-ey kick during those long winter months, you can get really industrious - take those ripe summer tomatoes and can them (this can also mean jarring) and then you'll have them in winter as well. After all, there's nothing wrong with frozen and canned vegetables! Just so long as you're eating plenty of fresh ones as well, of course.

Great! But... what is in season when? I've known that it's best to eat seasonally for, oh, just ages now. Trouble is, though, that I rarely have the time or energy to get down to the utter and complete madhouse that is the Union Square farmer's market. And as odd as it sounds, CSAs in my area are actually rather competitive and hard to get into. So how do I know what, in fact, is in season?

Luckily, we've got the internet! And there are fine people who have compiled this information for us. There are charts for fruits and vegetables available from the BBC that are a great jumping-off place. And don't be a wimp like me - if your town has a farmer's market, get down there and support it! CSAs are also of course a great way both to support local farmers and ensure that you're eating nothing but fresh, seasonal produce. This post on The Sustainable Scoop goes into more detail on the whole eating locally gig, if you're looking for a bit more inspiration.

So there you have it darlings. Make 2010 the year you start eating seasonally!

hearts,
melissa bastian.

New member!

This week we have a new member, Pink Andie Designs! Please take the time to check out this great shop and give them some hearts!

Vegan Craft Samples New Years 2010 Bags

It's that time again, time to celebrate the New Year with compassion and love for all creatures of the earth.

New Years Vegan Craft Sample bags are now on sale and 100% profits will go to Pigs Peace Sanctuary

Meet Bubba and Charlie, two old time piggies at Pigs Peace Sanctuary

We have a limited supply of sample bags this round, so please dont hesitate to order if you want to be sure to get yours! Check out all of the great contributors here

Interested in contributing to our sample bags? Helping animals AND promoting your handmade items? Please sign up on our website under "get in the bag"

You can order your sample bags in our etsy shop or on our website

You dont have to be a member of Vegan Etsy to contribute or buy a bag....but being a member of Vegan Etsy is pretty awesome!

A New Year, A New Tradition, A New Fudge!

When I was a kid, I had a huge gaggle of relatives on both sides of the family. Holidays were insane - we'd show up at some relative's house and twenty-five people would be trying to kiss me! But eventually I'd struggle my way through all of the cheek-pinchers to a table decked out with glorious treats. The standout among these has always and forever been my Great Aunt Julie's rocky road.

Just imagine it - huge mounds of melt-in-your-mouth chocolate, secreting chewy marshmallow and just the right amount of walnut. Are you dying of sugar overload yet? Well, Aunt Julie passed long ago, and with her went her holiday delights. Two decades later, though, not a winter passes when I don't think of that decadent treat.

This holiday season has been one where I've been trying to claim some traditions for my own household. After all, traditions have to start somewhere, don't they? And I realized that the time to bring back the joy of rocky road (vegan style!) was long past due. And so, here we have it: Melissa Bastian's Rocky Road Fudge!

Rocky Road Fudge

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of chocolate, coarsely chopped then measured
• 2 cups (yes really, two cups) of powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/8 cup "milk" (I use Almond Breeze, but use whatever floats your boat - soy, rice, hemp, whatev)
• 1/8 cup rum
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup marshmallows, quartered then measured
• 1 and 1/2 cups walnuts, measured then roughly chopped

Steps:

• Melt your chocolate. You can use a double boiler for this, but I've actually found that it isn't necessary. It's much more helpful to have a nonstick pot! Stir constantly, and remove from heat as soon as you only have a few little lumps yet. You want to heat your chocolate as little as possible, because you have to let it return to room temperature before using it. How does it stay liquid when it started out solid? Magic.
• Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper. I swear, this is why parchment exists, and I love it.
• Chop your walnuts - how big or small depends on how you like it.
• Quarter your marshmallows. I've used Dandies for this, but I feel that Sweet and Sara's would be wonderful as well - just a little pricey maybe. Marshmallows are very sticky when you cut them open! I find it helpful to use some powdered sugar on the chopping board and on my hands to coat the newly exposed sides, so that the marshmallows don't stick to the board, each other, me... (Of course, if you can get ahold of the mini Dandies, no chopping is necessary!)
  
• In a large bowl, whisk together coconut milk, other milk, rum, extract, and powdered sugar. (If your powdered sugar has little sugar rocks in it, run it through a sieve or sifter first.) Mix in your marshmallows and walnuts. (This is about when I switch from a whisk to a spatula. Walnuts + whisk = baagghhh.)
• Stir in your ROOM TEMPERATURE chocolate. Seriously people. It cannot be hot... unless of course you want to make fudge soup.
• Pour/scoop the mixture into your prepared pan, and use a spatula to spread it not quite to the edges.
• Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours, until completely firm. Then break into chunks or cut up, display nicely on a plate, and watch your loved ones go wild.

Fudgy.

Some additional notes...

*I like to use three 1 oz. squares of semi-sweet and six of unsweetened - plenty of sugar is added later!
*If you have bought a normal size can of coconut milk, this recipe is only going to use about a third of it. You may want to think about creative ways to use the rest - coconut milk goes bad quickly once opened! Of course, you *could* always make a triple batch...
*The rum here is optional - you can up the milk to 1/4 cup and leave it out. But I like the tiny punch it gives, and I swear it doesn't leave the fudge tasting very rummy. Conversely, you can do a full quarter cup and leave the milk out entirely!
*Eternal thanks to Celine of Have Cake, Will Travel, whose whiskey peanut fudge recipe started me on all of my crazy fudgy journeys.

Happy New Year everyone! May only your dessert be a rocky road!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone, 2010 is here! And a new year also means it's time for new calendars! Here's a fun selection available from the Vegan Etsy Team:

2010 ConVivere Calendar by Merry Blues Art:

2010 Wall Calendar by My Zoetrope:

2010 Enchantment and Fantasy Art Calendar by Two Silver Stars:

-Kala (Vegancraftastic)