Homemade "Maple Syrup"

A lot of vegan recipes call for maple syrup. Here's an inexpensive recipe for those times when you can't afford the real thing.

makes 2 cups

2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon natural maple flavor (like this one)

Put the brown sugar into a medium saucepan. Put the cornstarch into a small bowl or cup and drizzle with about 2 tablespoons of the water. Stir or whisk with a fork until the cornstarch is dissolved, then add it to the saucepan along with the rest of the water.

Stir or whisk constantly over medium-high heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil one minute, still stirring.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the syrup cool completely. When it is cool, stir in the maple flavor.

Store in the refrigerator.

Candice's Roll-Out Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe is from Candice, one of the winners of the Vegan Lunch Box Contest. These healthy cookies contain powdered soy milk (available at health food stores), rolled oats, wholewheat flour, wheat germ, almonds, and flax seeds. "They aren't very sweet," Candice says. "I mostly make them to have a fun activity to do with my 3 1/2 year old son."

Thanks for sharing it with us, too, Candice!

makes 5-6 dozen cookies (or 4 if you use big shapes)

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 2/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup mixture of the following: flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and almond slivers (I actually pre-mix a container of this along with rolled oats that I use in all kind of recipes involving oatmeal. When I make these cookies, I do 1 cup of regular rolled oats and 1 cup of my special "medley")
1 cup powdered soy milk
½ cup water
2 ¼ - 2 ½ wheat flour (finely ground)
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325º.

Cream together vegetable oil and brown sugar. Add the oats, seed-nut mixture, powdered soy milk, and water, and beat well.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold into creamed mixture and mix well. You are supposed to chill the dough but I don't have any trouble working with it immediately.

Sprinkle flour on a surface and roll out the dough (since this is a vegan recipe, and therefore not dangerous to eat raw, the whole reason I adapted this recipe was so that my almost 4-year-old son could help me roll it out and use cookie cutters. He is always dying to help me do things in the kitchen! Using the sifter is fun, too!)

Cut out shapes from rolled dough (about 1/4 inch thick) and place on baking sheets. Put the sheets in the oven as soon as they are filled. Bake about 10-15 minutes.