While Valentine’s Day is not my favourite holiday, it is one of my favourite holidays to bake!
It is a reason to make cutesy desserts, whip out the lace, sprinkles, and frills, and indulge in comforting and romantic homemade meals that would make anyone swoon.
It is also one of the only times of the year when I don’t feel like a 7 year old girl for loving the colour pink.
[Nadia’s Heart-shaped Oatmeal Pancakes]
Some of you might remember back in 2009, I hosted a Valentine’s Day contest. It was a lot of fun and many of you submitted some awesome Valentine’s Day recipes!
Here are some of the wonderful dishes that were submitted…
Lindsey’s Valentine’s Day Ravioli dessert took the US prize:
Hayley won the Canadian prize with her Raspberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast:
I loved the presentation of Karen’s I Love You Brownie:
and Diana’s Mmm-Mmm Cupcakes were show stoppers:
[For the recipes above (and others), see this post.]
This year, I’d love if you could share with me your favourite vegan recipes that would be great for Valentine’s Day. Or perhaps, you have a non-vegan recipe that you’d like me to try to tackle and revamp making it free of animal products.
Whatever the case, type out or copy and paste your full recipe below in the comment section. Eric will be selecting a couple for me to try out (or maybe he can make one too?).
You can submit as many as you like and it can be a dessert, breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack recipe. The sky is the limit so get creative!
Those recipes that Eric selects for me to feature on the blog, will win a $25 Gift Certificate to Glo Bakery just as a small token of my appreciation (US and Canadian residents only).
Deadline to submit your recipe in the comments below is Feb 7th. I will also be featuring some of my own Valentine’s Day recipes on the blog, from now until V-Day, so stay tuned for the recipes!
XOXO.
What an amazing and fun idea! I will have to search through my recipes and get posting on this :)
I need to try these glo bars!
xxoo
vegan Valentine-worthy recipes? I’m on it!
ALL of those look great! I’m definitely going to try and come up with a delicious vegan valentines treat, what a fun competition Ange :)
x sabine
Oh, sounds soo fun! I’ll have to see if I can come up with anything! :)
What a great idea Ange! That stuffed french toast sounds delicious. I can’t wait to see the recipes!
How fun – I dont’ think this counts as an entry because these are not my recipies, but I think the heart beet salad is great. I make this chevre “cheese” for special occasions and it is delish! I have not tried the brownies on the post, but her stuff is amazing so I can’t imagine they would be anything short of fantastic.
http://veganjoy.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegan-valentine.html
Heartbeet Salad with Pumpernickel Croutons and Chevre by Joy Tienzo of the Vegan Joy blog.
4 servings
Light, tangy dressing cuts the richness of a salad heaped with roasted beets, croutons, and tangy cheese. Make the Chévre, Pumpernickel Croutons, and Champagne Vinaigrette up to a week in advance for easy assembly.
For the Salad:
3 large beets
4 slices pumpernickel bread, cut into 1” cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced flat-leaf parsley
½ teaspoon sea salt
8 cups (1 6 ounce bag) spring greens
½ recipe Chévre
For the Champagne Vinaigrette:
¼ cup champagne vinegar (white wine vinegar is a fine substitution)
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Prepare the beets:
Pierce beets all over with a sharp knife, and wrap tightly in foil. Place on a baking sheet or shallow baking pan, and roast at 375º F until fork tender, about 1 hour. Allow beets to rest until cool enough to handle. Slice beets into 1/3” thick slices—there’s no need to peel them. Use aspic cutters or miniature cookie cutters to make heart shapes. Alternately, cut each slice into quarters (creating the bottom “v” of the hearts), and carve the tops into heart shapes with a paring knife. Set aside until ready to use. The beets can be prepared up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated.
Make the croutons:
On a baking sheet, toss together bread, olive oil, and parsley. Sprinkle salt over, and toss again. Toast in the 375º F oven along with beets until golden-brown, 10-15 minutes. Set aside to cool while you make the dressing. The croutons can be made several days in advance, and store well in an airtight bag at room temperature.
Make the Vinaigrette:
Whisk together champagne vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To Assemble:
Arrange greens on a largish, shallow platter. Crumble dabs of Chévre over, and top with beet cutouts and croutons. Drizzle with a bit of vinaigrette, serving the rest on the side.
Chévre
2 8” logs
Serve dabs of this handmade semi-soft cheese in Heartbeet Salad, or on crackers, fresh vegetables, or sandwiches. Its creamy tang is also excellent in recipes where cream cheese is called for.
2 tablespoons agar flakes
½ cup water
1 ½ cups raw cashews
3 cups boiling water
½ cup water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon tahini, preferably raw
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 ¼ teaspoons sea salt
In a small saucepan off the heat, combine agar and ½ cup water. Set aside to dissolve while the cashews soak. The agar flakes will enlarge slightly and take on a pale cast.
Pour boiling water over cashews, and soak for at least an hour, or up to overnight.
Line a shallow container (a 9”x 9” or 9”x 13” casserole dish is ideal) with plastic wrap, allowing it to hang over the sides slightly. Set aside.
When you’re ready to proceed, place the agar mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally as you put together the cashew mixture.
Drain cashews, rinse, and drain again. In a blender, combine cashews, ½ cup water, lemon juice, tahini, vinegar, and salt. Blend until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. This process should take about 5 minutes while the agar mixture bubbles away.
Once the cashew mixture is smooth, scrape the agar mixture into the blender with the machine running. Continue blending until completely smooth.
Scrape into the plastic-lined container, smoothing the top. Cover loosely and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Once fairly solid, divide the Chévre in half. Using the plastic, shape each section into a cylinder about 2” in diameter and 8” long. Wrap tightly in plastic, and chill until ready to use.
The Chévre can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.
What a fun contest! I will search for some recipes :) I’ve always wanted to try glow bars!
AWESOME!!! Those hearts are sweet.
fun contest!! all the recipes from last year look delicious. i’m curious about the tiny chocolate hearts…they look awesome.
Fun! I would love to have a recipe for vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheeze icing – do you know of any good ones Angela?
I have never made them but they are on my list for sure!
I second Erin’s idea! I’ve been looking for a good recipe for vegan red velvet cupcakes for a long time.
Me too! Me too! Please Angela–we need a vegan red velvet recipe!
I’ve seen vegan ones at Sprinkles Cupcakes, I guess its the only vegan variation they sell? They look yummy!
Try my entry!
http://www.foodbuzz.com/photos/3224021-double-decker-trio
YUM!
Can’t wait for all of the delicious recipes!!!!
What a fun idea!! I don’t usually bake vegan style, but I might have to give it a shot for this!
What a nice idea! I’m typing out the first recipe I thought of, because I know all the ingredients by heart – which must mean I make these cookies too often :)
They’re easy and delicious, and only dirty up one bowl. I usually make them into small, bite-sized cookies, but a heart-shaped cookie cutter couldn’t hurt for valentines day!
Vegan Raspberry Cocoa Cookies
1/2 cup of raspberry jam/preserves
3/4 cup of sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups of flower (i use all purpose, but you could certainly experiment!)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
preheat oven to 350, and either grease or line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix together your dry ingredients (sugar, cocoa, flower, baking soda, and salt) and then stir in the jam, oil, almond and vanilla extracts. Gather into small, walnut sized balls, flatten them slighty, and bake for 10 minutes.
A special variation for valentine’s day: Make the cookies a little larger by rolling out the dough and using a large heart-shaped cookie-cutter to shape your cookies. With a smaller (but also heart shaped) cookie cutter, cut out the centers of half of the cookies. Bake as directed, let them cool, and make sandwiches! Place a cookie with it’s center intact on the bottom, top with a layer of jam, and put a cookie with the center cut out on top so the jam peeks through!
Ahh, this post made me crave sweets (and a sweetheart ;) )
So I’m not taking credit for this recipe, (it’s my Mom’s who I’m sure found it in a cookbook at some point) but it’s the richest, yummiest dessert *ever* (and easy to make)! I’d love to see it veganized but I feel like it might be a hard one without losing the ooey-gooey flavor of these layers. :)
SEVEN LAYER BARS
1/4 lb. butter
1 c. crushed graham crackers
1 c. shredded coconut
1 pkg. Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips (6 oz.)
1 pkg. Skor toffee pieces (6 oz.)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 c. walnuts, chopped
Melt butter in an 8 1/2 x 11 inch pan.
Add layer by layer (do not mix) above ingredients in order listed.
Bake 32 minutes at 350 degrees in an aluminum pan OR 28 minutes at 350 degrees if a glass dish is used.
I make these bars. I call them Hello Dollies, except I don’t have Skor toffee in mine :)
I think a lot of people use butterscotch instead of the toffee pieces. I love the toffee though, makes them even chewier.
Hello Dollies is such a cute name! I have never heard of them called that before :)
I’ll do ANYTHING for glo bars ;)
I love those little heart shaped chocolate ones. They look so fudgey!
Hmmm some kind of giant peanut butter herhsey’s kiss would knock my socks off :)
Great idea Angela!
Here is mine: Cacao Cranberry Chocolate Bars
The post with pictures:
http://juniakk.blogspot.com/2011/01/cacao-cranberry-chocolate-bar.html
Cacao Cranberry Chocolate Bars
1/4 cup sweetened cacao nibs
1 tbsp dried cranberries
1 tsp brown rice syrup
Directions:
1. Mix the cacao nibs, cranberries, and brown rice syrup together until everything is evenly coated.
2. Place the cacao mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and even out with a spatula.
3. Bake for 7 minutes in the oven at 300 degrees.
4. Using cookie cutters, fill the cacao mixture into each mold and press down to flatten.
5. Let the cacao mixture cool in the cookie cutters for 5 minutes before removing.
A simple, healthy chocolate recipe for the vegans and healthy eating enthusiasts. :)
This is more of a project than a recipe but I saw it last year on Bakerella.com and have been looking forward to Valentine’s Day ever since so I would have an excuse to make this adorable “box” of “chocolates”. The problem is that I haven’t made anything with dairy or eggs in the last couple of months; Can you veganize this, possibly make it a bit healthier and put an ohsheglows/Angela spin on it?
http://www.bakerella.com/a-valentines-day-gift-box-of%e2%80%a6/
Enjoy! :-)
Cute idea! Can’t wait to see the entry’s!