Makes 4 cups

We needed a dish to take to a potluck recently, and chocolate pumpkin cookies quickly came to mind. I looove dark chocolate, and we had several cans of pumpkin on hand. However, we were already taking some cookies from Vegan Chocolate Seduction, and I was in the mood for mousse. This fall or winter holiday topping is great served up in a fancy glass or dish, or of course, on top of a vegan waffle.

• 3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips, melted
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine, softened
• 12 ounces firm silken tofu
• 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons rum (optional)
• 2 tablespoons molasses (preferably blackstrap)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg or mace

Combine the chocolate chips and vegan margarine in a small bowl,  and heat in the microwave at 45- to 60-second intervals just until the chocolate is melted and most lumps can be stirred out. (Time may need to be adjusted depending upon your microwave’s power.) Alternately, melt the mixture in a small saucepan over low to medium heat, heating just until the chocolate has melted and stirring constantly to avoid burning the chocolate.

Combine the softened chocolate chips and margarine with all other ingredients in a blender, and process until smooth. This is a thick mixture, so you may need to stop the blender several times to push the unmixed portion down near the blades with a large spoon or spatula before replacing the lid and turning the blender back on. If you sense you’re maxing out your blender’s power and size capacity, you may find it easier to divide the mixture into two portions, blend them separately until smooth, and then blend them back together at the end.

Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving, as the mixture will thicken a bit as it cools. Serve on top of freshly baked vegan waffles, or in a pompous-looking serving cup or dish.

To make it extra fancy, top the topping with finely chopped candied ginger and chopped chocolate chips or semisweet baker’s chocolate.

Vegan Waffle & Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Fluff

Following an earlier peanut butter based waffle topping recipe, I decided to play with peanut butter a bit more for our waffle party this year. Because a few guests requested this recipe, I decided it was worth posting. I didn’t measure the exact yield because I made it in somewhat of a rush, but it’s somewhere in the range of 1 1/2 to 2 cups–plenty for 4-6 generously topped vegan waffles.

• 6 ounces firm silken tofu, crumbled
• 3/4 cup vegan confectioner’s sugar
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine, softened
• 1 tablespoon molasses (I use blackstrap)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir with a spoon until the confectioner’s sugar is moistened. (Otherwise the sugar may create a powdery cloud when you first start up the mixer.) Beat at medium to high speed with a powered hand mixer for 3 to 5 minutes, or until smooth and fluffy. Refrigerate for at least one hour prior to serving.

Note: For a hint of coffee flavor, add 1 1/2 teaspoons coffee extract.

Kicky Waffle Syrup on Textured Rice Vegan Waffle

Makes 1 1/4 cups

This topping will go with many neutral vegan waffle recipes. It has a bit of a kick from the ginger. It’s a topping I recently started making in bulk to put on my oatmeal, and I’ll also be making a batch for our waffle party. Accompany with non-dairy vanilla ice cream, dried cranberries, and walnuts, if you like.

I snapped the photo without the tripod, while pouring the syrup, so it’s not super-artsy. Cool purple-pink plastic plate, though! And I didn’t get any syrup on the camera.

• 1 cup real maple syrup
• 1/4 cup molasses (preferably blackstrap)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg or mace
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until the spices are dissolved and syrup is desired warmth. Pour generously over your favorite waffle.

Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

Thanks to Blakely of Boston, MA for recently emphasizing how wonderfully peanut butter goes with chocolate vegan waffles, and suggesting that some type of related sauce might be in order.

Coincidentally, I grew up within walking distance of an ice cream shop, and was helplessly addicted to one of their premiere sundaes, which featured chocolate ice cream, fudge, and peanut butter syrup. As I child, I spent a few hours in the kitchen one weekend trying to figure out how they made their peanut butter syrup. (And many years later, I made a few richer and dairy-free versions of the whole sundae.) So I can certainly relate to Blakely’s fondness of the classic chocolate peanut butter combo.

I ended up realizing that I could approximate the flavor of the shop’s peanut butter topping by simply mixing a bit of brown sugar with peanut butter and heating it. A week ago, however, a new flavor entered the equation while enjoying a drink at a local cafe: coffee. So here’s a simple hybrid of an old favorite, for those of you who enjoy your chocolate waffles with a twist.

• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee granules (see note)
• 1 cup peanut butter

Combine the hot water, brown sugar, and coffee granules in a small saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until the sugar and coffee granules are dissolved. Add the peanut butter, and stir constantly just until evenly warm.

Note: Reduce coffee granules to 1 teaspoon if you want just a hint of coffee flavor.

Note: This is a pretty thick topping. To thin, just add another 1/4 cup of water or non-dairy milk and continue to stir constantly over medium heat until evenly warm.

Just as most humans don’t crave flesh in its natural state as carnivores do, I never craved raw bacon. However, I did used to eat my share of it because the cooking process chemically transformed it into something that excited my taste buds. A waffle or pancake just didn’t seem complete without a side of bacon or sausage, and I also loved BLTs.

Of course, this was not great for the arteries, and not kind to the pigs, either. Nonetheless, there are a few flavors that for better or worse, simply don’t have a plant-based equivalent. Bacon seems to be one of them. This is why vegans hear so many bacon jokes. The thought of a bacon-free lifestyle may simply seem unimaginable to some.

Fortunately, if you’re really craving that fatty, salty, fried flavor, some plant-based products produce a similar effect. Just don’t expect it to be exact, because bacon is bacon. But it can still be quite tasty, and because it doesn’t have animal fat built in, you have more freedom to adjust the oil amount/type and salt to your desired flavor/health ratio.

There are some bacon analogs on the market, of which I’ve tried one or two–yes, with vegan waffles or pancakes. My favorite thus far has been a seitan-based product cooked in vegan margarine with a bit of maple syrup. The carmelization of the sugar in the syrup added a bit more crispiness. However, they didn’t have quite the flavor I was seeking.

One day, shortly after discovering Daiya’s cheddar flavor, I was making a grilled cheese sandwich in the iron skillet. I got overzealous with the Daiya, and it ran out onto the pan as I was grilling it. Interestingly, the Daiya that had crisped up while frying directly in the pan had a somewhat bacon-like flavor. After reporting this odd discovery to some local Vegan Meetup friends who are smitten with a certain type of vegan cheese, I decided to take things a step further. This is dedicated to them.

Daiya Vegan Baconish Patty

Makes one sandwich-sized patty that can be cut into smaller strips

(This would probably also work with another brand of meltable vegan cheese; if you try and are successful, please post a comment!)

• 1/4 cup Daiya cheddar or other meltable vegan cheese shreds
• 2 tablespoons vegan margarine, divided (see note)
• 1 tablespoon miso (use your favorite variety)
• 2 teaspoons brown rice flour
• 1 teaspoon molasses
• 6 to 8 drops of liquid smoke

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl, flatten into a 1/4-inch-thick patty, and set aside. Melt 1 tablespoon of the vegan margarine in a small pan over medium heat. Fry the patty for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minutes, or until it is well browned on one side. Then lift up the patty with the spatula, place the remaining tablespoon of margarine in the center of the pan, and flip the patty onto the pool of fresh margarine. Fry another 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minutes, or until it is well browned on the second side.

If desired, slice into strips with a pizza cutter (knife may be tricky because it will still be somewhat melty inside), or just serve alongside vegan waffles or pancakes, or atop a vegan BLT.

Note: If you want a lower fat and oil content, just use less margarine. I’m being pretty generous with it here because bacon is very fatty and salty. If you want less salt, use olive oil in place of vegan margarine. Eliminating the miso will also cut salt, but it will also cut other flavor.

As another homemade vegan bacon option for accompanying your vegan waffles, the June 2011 print issue of VegNews Magazine has a “Banging’ Bacon” recipe by Allison Rivers Samson. It just came in the mail so I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but it uses tofu and looks very good. And you’ll find many great uses for liquid smoke once you have it in your pantry.

When I asked for feedback last year regarding other ideas for vegan food celebrations, the great ideas you mentioned included vegan pizza parties. As I noted, our current focus would remain on vegan waffle parties, ’cause there’s still much to do. Thus, I was excited to see that VegNews, vegan blogger Quarrygirl, and Chicago Soydairy have teamed up to promote a new day celebrating a specific vegan food: Vegan Pizza Day (Saturday, January 29).

vegan pizza waffles

What’s great about this event is that it encourages support of restaurants offering vegan options, and it meshes nicely with the already-established Vegan Drinks events.

To honor Vegan Pizza Day a week early, and to help them get the word out, today we ate vegan pizza waffles for lunch. Hopefully this also provides an idea for those of you who don’t have vegan pizza in your area yet.

Yeast-raised vegan waffles, because of their slightly chewier texture, are best for this task. I had planned to bake up a fresh of waffles, but Jen talked me into reheating some frozen ones from a few weeks ago in the toaster. It worked very well. After toasting the waffles slightly, we topped them with spaghetti sauce, chopped vegan sausage, vegan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, black pepper, and cayenne, and microwaved until the cheese was slightly melted. Jen petted LeMew to distract him from the waffles as I snapped a few pictures. (See his “overly curious” look?)

LeMew wants vegan pizza waffles

The Yeast-Powered Vegan Waffles recipe would work well for this, as would the Yeast-Raised Waffles, Yeast-Raised Gluten-Free Buckwheat Waffles, or Caramelized Onion and Garlic Waffles in the GVWC. (The Umami Mama Waffles, I’ve been told, taste like pizza even without any toppings–but it is hard to have too many toppings.)

I won’t reveal which specific brand of vegan cheese we used, although I will say that Chicago Soydairy’s delicious ice cream will be going on my waffles again when the weather gets warmer here. It’s hard to beat the vegan ice cream ‘n’ waffles combo–but vegan pizza waffles certainly satisfy the savory urge.

I hope the first Vegan Pizza Day has a great positive impact!

A subtle orange flavor makes this sauce quite versatile. Along with some of the waffles on this site, it complements a few waffles in the Global Vegan Waffle Cookbook particularly well: the Orange-Basil-Cornmeal Waffles, the Orange-Ginger Snap Waffles, or the Heartfelt Banana-Spelt Waffles. Makes 1 cup.

• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 1/4 cup raw cashew pieces
• 6 ounces firm silken tofu, crumbled (about 2/3 cup)
• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Process the orange juice and cashews in a blender for several minutes, or until the cashews are liquefied and the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stop as necessary to scrape down the sides of the blender. Add the tofu, sugar, and salt, and blend until the mixture is smooth again.

Note: If you prefer a stronger orange flavor, add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of orange extract.

Sometimes you just know that you were meant to have something. That happened to me recently when we ran a wilderness 10K on the trails of Grand Island, just off Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula.

Dave & Jen with a waffle-worthy bottle of syrup

Due to its location and efforts to minimize ecological impact, the event didn’t have a huge number of runners. Nonetheless, I was still excited to win the award given to the first finisher in each age class: a bottle of real maple syrup from neighboring Wisconsin. A prize just doesn’t get any more fitting than that! We’ve already gone through about a third of the bottle, which I agreed to share with Jen because she completed her first 10K that day.  All right, I may have shared it with her even if she hadn’t run…

While I most regularly use the darker grade B syrup from our Co-op, I have to say that this stuff (from Maas Sugarbush, which appears to have no information on the web) is also pretty darn tootin’ good. I’m not sure of the grade, but it’s a bit darker than some of the grade A amber syrups we’ve had, with nearly the same thickness as the grade B we normally use. It has plenty of maple flavor alongside the sweetness. On a hot day, it’s also great to mix a bit of it with some chilled hazelnut milk and a few ice cubes. If you’re ever in that region of the world, it’s worth taking home a bottle for your vegan waffles or pancakes, even if you don’t feel like running around on an island.

I’ve enjoyed cool, delicious vegan ice cream on waffles a few times this summer. Recently, I made some homemade vegan ice cream for a potluck and it turned out particularly well–in terms of both flavor and appearance.

Cashew-based peanut butter fudge vegan ice cream

It’s based upon the cashew-based chocolate ice cream recipe from Jeff Rogers’ Vice Cream: Gourmet Vegan Desserts. Before getting Vice Cream, I never would have considered making ice cream from cashews. Talk about decadent! For this dish, I basically made the recipe slightly less sweet and more chocolatey, and swirled in some natural peanut butter and dark chocolate fudge sauce (any chocolate sauce would work) just before putting it in the freezer to ripen.What makes this ice cream stand apart from others I’ve made is the presentation. I usually store and serve ice cream in a deeper and narrower container; this is the first

A cool, refreshing topping for vegan waffles

time I’ve put it into a relatively wide and shallow container. I think it makes it look a bit fancier if you’ve got colorful swirls or other types of toppings in it. It almost gives it the feel of a frozen cake. Perhaps this will inspire others to serve their homemade vegan ice cream in an even fancier way!

I also give my sister, Sherry, credit for inspiration on this. On one of her visits a few years ago, I asked what flavor of homemade ice cream she’d like. The clear answer was peanut butter fudge. I discovered how fun it was to make it however peanut buttery and deep chocolately I wanted, and this remains one of my favorite flavor combinations as well.

This basic but delicious sauce has topped many vegan waffles, and has long been a staple of our annual parties. With a richer, more bittersweet chocolate flavor than most store-bought chocolate syrups, it complements many fresh fruit toppings, as well as vegan ice cream. Makes about 3/4 cup.

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine
• 1/4 cup soymilk or other nondairy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients except the vanilla extract in a small saucepan. Stir constantly and briskly over medium heat until half a minute after it begins to boil. Continue to scrape the bottom to incorporate any dry cocoa and keep it from burning. Immediately remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Don’t eat it all before you have a chance to spoon some onto a waffle!