Croquembouche

I was super curious experiment and to see how the new Follow Your Heart vegan egg would work in a recipe that heavily relies on eggs. These definitely didn't rise and puff up the same as a non vegan cream puff does but they did hollow out and they tasted amazing! I ended up sandwiching 2 puffs together to make one rounder puff and then I was able to stack them and make the classic croquembouche shape! I'm sure with some more experimentation, a super fluffy round cream puff is possible with the Follow Your Heart vegan egg, but for my first try, I was still happy flavor wise and think the end result is perfect for a holiday party dessert or centerpiece. 

For the filling: 

Combine 2 cups of non dairy milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 Follow Your Heart eggs (6 tablespoons powder mixed with 1 1/2 cup ice water) and 1/4 cup cornstarch in a small saucepan. Heat over medium low stirring constantly till the mixture begins to thicken. Add in 1 tablespoons vegan butter and 2 tablespoons sugar. Chill at least 2 hours. Place filling into a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip.

For the puffs: 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine 1 cup water, 8 tablespoons vegan butter, and 2 teaspoons sugar in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. 

Add 1 cup of flour into the liquid mixture and stir with a wood spoon till a dough forms. Keep cooking over low heat and stirring to cook out some of the moisture. Place this mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. 

Combine 6 tablespoons of Follow Your Heart vegan egg powder with 1 and 1/2 cups ice cold water. Whisk to combine. With the mixer on medium low speed, add the egg mixture into the dough and continue to mix till smooth. 

Place dough in a pastry bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe equal sized mounds onto parchment lined baking sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 F, reduce heat to 375 degrees F. and bake another 20 minutes. 

Since these didn't puff up quite as much as traditional cream puffs do, I filled them all and attached 2 together to make one round puff. Using a small knife, poke a hole into the back of each puff and insert the tip of the pastry bag filled with the filling into each puff and pipe a little filling into each one. Then sandwich 2 together using some of the caramel. 

For the caramel:

Combine 1 1/4 cup sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and let cook till a medium amber color. Let cool slightly. 

To assemble: Dip one edge of each puff into the caramel and arrange about 5 in a circle for the bottom layer. Then use 4 more for the next layer to make a smaller circle, 3 for the next, etc. I topped it off with 1 small puff. To get the spun sugar i used the back of a metal spoon to push on the sugar coating the outside and kinda pull back and make circular motions around the croquembouche. I did this a bunch of times till I got lots of spun sugar going on. 

I have a little cotton candy maker that I got from Bed Bath and Beyond a few years ago and just made some simple white cotton candy with organic sugar to put the croquembouche on but its totally not necessary! 

Pfeffernüsse

Vegan Pfeffernusse

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegan butter, softened (I use Harvest Award brand)

3/4 cup sugar (Wholesome Sweeteners brand)

1/2 cup brown sugar (Wholesome Sweeteners brand)

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup vegan honey (I used BeeFree Honee brand)

3 tablespoons @followyourheart vegan egg

3/4 cup ice cold water

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups cake flour (can substitute APP flour or GF flour if needed) 

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon clove

1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper (black pepper is totally okay too)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup powdered sugar (Wholesome Sweeteners brand)

2 to 4 teaspoons non diary milk or water

Cream together the vegan butter, sugar, brown sugar, molasses, and honey till smooth. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the vegan egg, cold water, almond extract and vanilla extract. Add into the molasses mixture and mix till combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger, clove, black pepper, and baking soda. Add into the molasses mixture and mix till soft dough forms. Chill for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Roll about 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball for each cookie. Place an inch apart on baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool.

Whisk together the powdered sugar and the non dairy milk to make the icing. Coat each cookie with the icing and set on a cooling rack set over parchment paper to catch the icing that drips. Let the icing set on the cookies for about about hour.