Homemade Speculoos Cookies {vegan}

By now I think everyone has tried the wonder that is speculoos cookie butter. The stuff is practically liquid gold, and these are the cookies that started it all. Speculoos, sometimes called Speculaas, cookies are a classic spiced holiday treat from Belgium. Think, gingerbread cookie, but better. I did my research and these are as classic as they can get with a gamete of spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, white pepper and cardamon. They are warm with subtle spice and perfect with a steamy mug of coffee or tea.

Traditionally they're made with butter, but I tweaked a couple things and found using coconut oil instead made them just as good if not better, so they are completely vegan. 

Homemade Speculoos Cookies {vegan} 
Makes about 120 tiny cookies

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cardamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup coconut oil, very cold/solid
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup milk of your choice (I used almond)

Measure the coconut oil and place in the refrigerator while you prepare the other ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine flour, spices, salt, and baking powder and whisk until completely incorporated, set aside. Add sugar and cold coconut oil to a stand mixture fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream the coconut oil and sugar together with the mixer on medium for about 3 minutes, then add the vanilla. 

With the mixer on low, pour about 1/2 cup of the flour mixture into the coconut oil mixture, follow with a splash of milk, repeat until all of the flour and milk is incorporated and the dough starts to form an almost cohesive ball. Divide the dough in half, forming into the shape of a disk if you'll be rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters, or forming into a cylinder if if you'll be cutting them into cookie slices. Wrap the dough in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment. If using cookie cutters, on a floured work surface, roll the dough out until it's 1/4 inch thick, punch out cookies, and cook for 12-15 minutes until golden brown - they will continue to crisp up as they cool. If using sliced cookies, they will cook for closer to 20 minutes. 

Notes: Here are the cookie cutters I used. I bought them two Thanksgivings ago amid Paula Deen's scandal and remember them being less than half this price. We use them every holiday season, but any kind of cutters will work! 

Simple Smoky Baba Ghanoush

My life has become completely consumed by school. Literally I stay up until 2am every night of the week reading and writing, I go to sleep exhausted and then wake up and do it all again. I love what I'm studying, I really do. I know this because the thought that so often fills my mind is that in less than five years "I get to be a psychologist". How lucky am I? But that doesn't make it easy.

Last night I came home from class, and watched the Daily Show, something Nate and I watched together nightly before we moved. No laptop, no reading. Just me my dog and the tv. Despite having a different host, the stories, the soundtrack and co-hosts were the same. Then I turned on my favorite pandora station, the one I used to bake to every afternoon in California, and I caught up on reading my favorite food blogs. I was taken back to our apartment in Calabasas. To life as a full-time yoga teacher, with an achy low back from all the hours I spent in the car driving from class to private to class. To long, full days, and evenings filled with teaching in the absolute best way possible. To a husband who I got to come home to, eat dinner with, go to bed too late with in our little apartment surrounded by neighbors we knew in a life that felt comfortable. And my heart ached. 

Nate has been away for four weeks now on a ship in the great lakes. I'm making friends, studying my ass off, barely teaching or making it to class myself. Having enough time to cook myself dinner, let alone spend an entire afternoon playing with ingredients in the kitchen, is a rarity. And by rarity I mean it has been months. And it makes me just so sad. 

Sometimes I wish I could live consecutive lives because there's just not time to be all I want to be. Does anyone else feel this way? And right now all I want to do is blast ingrid michaelson and bake vegan cinnamon apple cheesecake bites while I wait for this new life to feel comfortable.

Simple Smoky Baba Ghanoush
makes about 1.5 cups
adapted from Smitten Kitchen 

Notes: Smokiness requires a gas stove, something I no longer have. So I broiled the hell out of the eggplants instead. The result? They weren't even a little smoky. Fail. Insert liquid smoke. I won't tell if you don't! 

2 small eggplants
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup tahini
2 garlic cloves, minced
juice of 1 lemon, ~ 4 teaspoons
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons parsley, plus more for serving
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment. Slice the eggplants in half length wise, drizzle liberally with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place cut size down on the baking sheet and cook for 1 hour until the skins are dark and shriveled and the center looks brown and slightly caramelized. Remove from oven and let cool. 

Using a spoon, scape out the centers of the eggplant and discard the skins. Combine eggplant, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, liquid smoke, salt, and parsley in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until completely incorporated. Adjust to taste. 

To serve top drizzle with olive oil, and top with parsley and sesame seeds. Serve with pita chips or vegetables. 

DIY Horchata Pops

I've had this post completely ready to go, pictures taken, recipe finished for almost a solid month now and literally have not had 10 minutes to actually read it over and click publish. I'm learning the meaning of time management more than ever before. I'm learning how to exist on 6 hours or less of sleep, and by the time the weekend comes all I want to do is sit on my couch with Pumpkin and watch New Girl! So I'm blaming my lateness on this Indian Summer we are having because it's nearly October and it's still in the high 70s most days here. I think I'm the only one ready to bust out those sweaters and the le creuset! 

Before we moved to Chicago, the Calabasas Farmer's Market became a Saturday morning tradition. Few places in life are better than a farmer's market towards the end of summer. Cherry tomatoes sweet as candy, peaches so juicy you almost need a bib to eat them, and dirt cheap zucchini and summer squash are our stables all summer long. And don't even get me started on how much better eggs from pasture raised chickens are. No hesitation on forking over $6 for a dozen. So earlier this summer we spotted a homemade popsicle truck with the most interesting flavors at the farmer's market. One lick after trying the horchata flavor and I was hooked. 

Believe it or not this was my first time making popsicles (I've always been more of an ice cream person!). A popsicle mold is one of those silly kitchen gadgets I insisted on keeping but never actually used. So homemade horchata pops! They are the easiest way to savor horchata in all it's cinnamon-y goodness! Enjoy. 

DIY Horchata Popsicles 
Makes about 12 small popsicles 

one batch homemade horchata 
1 teaspoon cocoa powder (optional)* 
cinnamon, for dusting 

Pour horchata into popsicle molds and place towards the back of the freezer. After 15-20 minutes remove from the freezer, stir, then return to the freezer. After about 30-35 minutes, once partially frozen, add popsicle sticks, return to the freezer for at least 6 hours. 

To remove, run the base of the popsicle molds under warm water to loosen. Dust the popsicles with cinnamon and enjoy! 

*I actually like these better without the cocoa powder, but feel free to experiment with adding some to half or 1/4 of the popsicles.