Sweets

These are whole-food vegan recipes for sweets & desserts.

Outside of raw food options (which are plentiful) there is quite a lack of whole-food vegan sweet recipes to be found online, with most of them using oil and pretty much all of them using refined sugar. While there's nothing innately wrong with oil and sugar in small amounts, in larger amounts they can result in nutritionally poor foods. In the context of a diet otherwise overly rich in nutrients (as is the case with many animal products) this doesn't introduce much nutritional risk (risk is more along the lines of obesity from over-nutrition), but in a plant based diet where protein and many vitamins and minerals may only exceed recommended amounts by smaller margins, replacing a significant number of calories with nutritionally poor sweets when it's not necessary can increase nutritional risk and increase the risk of failure on a vegan diet (a multivitamin can help mitigate this, but does not contain macronutrients). So while an occasional treat is fine, any vegan with a sweet tooth should consider rotating in some more nutritious sweets to satisfy those cravings.

The recipes with the symbol * require a blender.

The recipes with the symbol + require date sugar (as it's costly in many places/sometimes unavailable).

For other recipes: Index of Recipes

Pound cake with grape coulis

Difficulty: 1/5

Time: 2 hours

Servings: 12-16

Ingredients:

FOR THE CAKE

• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 100g tofu
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 1/2 cups date sugar
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

FOR THE COULIS

• 250g black grapes (it is better to go for grapes that are naturally very sweet)
• 1 cup water
• Sugar to taste

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 200°C, and line a pan of your choice with parchment paper. This recipes uses a standard 9-inch x 9-inch square glass baking dish.
• In a blender, put the oil, peanut butter, tofu, milk, sugar, and vanilla, and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture in a large bowl.
• Sift the flour into the wet mixture slowly, and add the salt and baking powder. Mix together until evenly distributed. The batter will be thick.
• Pour the batter in your baking dish, even out the top, and bake in the oven for at least 45 minutes. Check with a knife whether the center of your cake is cooked or not. If it is, the knife will come out clean. Bake as necessary. Let the cake cool for at least 45 minutes before serving
• In the meantime, put the grapes and water in a pot and boil on medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Transfer to a blender, blend until smooth, and strain in a small bowl. Adjust the sweetness to taste by adding in sugar.

Serving:

On a plate, cut out thin cake slices and cover with the grape sauce. Sprinkle coconut shavings for added taste, or top with a few mint leaves for freshness.

No-bake xberry cake *+

Difficulty: 1/5

Time: 4 hours 30 minutes (15 minutes to prepare, 4 hours 15 minutes to rest)

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

FOR THE CRUST

• 1 cup walnuts (any type of peanut can be used)
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup pitted dates OR 1/2 cup date sugar mixed with 2 tbsp water

FOR THE FILLING

• 2 tbsp date sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 banana
• 1 cup berries of your choice (fresh or thawed)
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tbsp chia seeds

FOR THE TOPPINGS

• 1 1/2 cup fresh berries of your choice
• Mint leaves

Instructions:

• Add the crust ingredients in a food processor and blend until the mix is fine but still has a few chunks in it. If the crust does not hold itself together when you press it between your fingers, add a little bit of water until it sticks together.
• Press the crust mixture in a pie plate or a baking pan (about 9 inches or 23 cm). Let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, add the filling ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. Spread the filling evenly on top of the crust after it has finished setting.
• Arrange the berries used for the toppings until you cover the whole surface of the cake. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and 45 minutes before serving so that the filling may firm up.

Serving:

Cut a slice of the cake and put it on your plate. Top with some mint leaves for added freshness, or crushed nuts of your choice for an added crunch.

No-bake oatmeal and nuts cookies *+

Difficulty: 1/5

Time: 30 minutes (15 minutes to prepare, 15 minutes to rest)

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups pitted dates OR 1 1/2 cup date sugar mixed with 2 tbsp water
• 1 cup nuts of your choice
• 1 cup oat flakes (or rolled oats)
• 1 tbsp flax seeds mixed with 2 tbsp water
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder

Instructions:

• In a food processor, add the dates, nuts, and oats. Blend until your mixture is fine, but still has a few chunks.
• Add the flax seeds and the cinnamon to your mixture, and blend. Let sit for 15 minutes. If, after resting, the mixture does not hold itself together properly in a ball, add a little bit of water until you reach the right consistency.
• Roll the cookie mixture into balls of about 1 tbsp each in your hand. You can either press them down to have flat cookies, or keep them as balls for bite-sized snacks. Let sit for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Serving:

Just grab a cookie, and have at it! You can also top with the vegan ice cream of your choice, or sprinkle more cinnamon powder on top.

Peanut butter sweet toast +

Difficulty: 0/5

Time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1

Ingredients:

• 1 slice whole wheat bread
• Peanut butter (or any nut butter)
• Date sugar (date sugar is not sugar extracted from dates, but whole dried dates that have been pulverized)
• 1 tbsp crushed nuts of choice OR 1 tbsp seeds of choice (optional)

Process:

• Toast the slice of bread in the oven or the toaster until crispy to the preferred amount (avoid heating until burnt, as that's carcinogenic).
• Spread the preferred amount of peanut butter (or other nut butter) on the toast, and cover evenly.
• Sprinkle 1 tbsp (or the preferred amount) of date sugar on top of the peanut butter evenly (tapping the spoon while gliding it over the toast is the easier way).
• Sprinkle the crushed nuts/seeds of choice on top (optional).

Date syrup dip +

Difficulty: 0/5

Time: 5 minutes

Servings: dip

Ingredients:

• 1 cup date sugar
• 1 squeezed lemon
• Vanilla extract powder (optional)

Instructions:

• In a small pot, add the date sugar, the lemon juice, and a bit of warm water. Put it on low heat, and stir, letting it cook for 2-5 minutes.
• Add more water if necessary while stirring, to make a smooth paste--add more water if you want it to be runnier, or let it steam for the water to evaporate if you want it thicker. Make sure to keep stirring for it not to stick to the pot.
• Take off the heat, and mix in the amount of vanilla powder that you prefer (optional)--usually a pinch of vanilla powder should be more than enough. You can adjust the taste by adding more lemon juice, and mixing it in.