Vegan Chocolate Graham Crackers (Creepy Bats and Cats for Halloween!)

When it comes to creative baking with themes, Halloween really isn’t my forte. So this year I’ve turned to a fun new ebook for inspiration, The Ghoulish Gourmet: A Bewitching Collection of Vegan Halloween Recipes by Kathy Hester. Below are details on this whimsical title, along with a sample recipe for Creepy Bats and Cats Vegan Chocolate Graham Crackers.

The Ghoulish Gourmet includes 25 recipes, all free of dairy, eggs, meat and honey. Several are also nut-free, soy-free, and gluten-free, but the vegan chocolate graham crackers in this post do contain wheat. However, Kathy doesn’t jump right into the recipes. She starts with the “Bloodcurdling  Basics” on throwing a Halloween bash, including how to make many of your own “Dastardly Decorations”.

Then the recipes begin! Here is a random selection of Appetizer Apparitions, Spine Chilling Soups & Macabre Mains, Desserts of Darkness, and Chilling (and Warming) Concoctions that you will find within The Ghoulish Gourmet:

• Beet Blood and Walnut Dip
• Cemetery Crackers
• Ghoulishly Green Potato Soup with Pumpernickel Croutons
• Cheezy Poltergeist Pumpkin Pasta
• Moonlit Zucchini Mummies
• Crypt Coffin Loaves with Cauliflower Brains
• Black of Night Black Bean Soup with Flame Garnish
• Creepy Bats & Cats Vegan Chocolate Graham Crackers (recipe below)
• Spooky Sweet Potato Oatmeal Cookie Dip
• Devious Devil’s Food Whoopie Pie (Sinner Version)
• Frankenstein’s Favorite Cashew Milk
• Dracula’s Blood Thick Hot Chocolate
• Broomstick Bourbon and Apple Cider Cocktail
• Cackling Caramel Pecan Bourbon Liqueur or Coffee Creamer

If you prefer to “try before you buy”, then go ahead and make these Creepy Vegan Chocolate Graham Crackers first. I can guarantee you won’t be frightened away.

Special Diet Notes: Vegan Chocolate Graham Crackers

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.

Vegan Chocolate Graham Crackers

 

Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

These adorable chocolate cookies are just a touch sweet from maple syrup. The midnight black color comes from the special dark cocoa powder. These are crunchy and are great dipped in the Spooky Sweet Potato Oatmeal Cookie Dip recipe from The Ghoulish Gourmet eBook.

Author: Kathy Hester

Serves: 2 dozen or more

Ingredients

Dry ingredients:

• 1½ cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder(like Hershey’s Special Dark)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:

• ¼ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup mild oil (Kathy uses an avocado-coconut blend)
• ¼ cup unsweetened dairy-free milk beverage (your choice of type)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Prepare 2 large cookie sheets by oiling or covering with parchment paper.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and cut in with a pastry cutter or 2 forks. Use your hands to make a ball. If the dough is too crumbly, add another tablespoon of nondairy milk and try again.
3. Roll out ¼ of the dough at a time on a floured work surface into a medium thickness. Use bat and cat cookie cutters to cut out shapes and gently place them on the baking sheet.
4. Repeat until all the dough is used. If you use medium-sized cookie cutters, these will need to bake for about 10 minutes. The cookies will be crunchy.

Notes

Recipe and photo by Kathy Hester from The Ghoulish Gourmet: A Bewitching Collection of Vegan Halloween Recipes. Copyright 2016; reprinted with permissions.

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