A Quick Snack

Just popping in quickly today to post about a tea time snack I made the other day.  John used to be a big fan of the chocolate chip muffin from Dunkin' Donuts, in theory at least.  Generally when he would get one, it wouldn't be as good as he hoped, and instead would be dry and crumbly.  When we started flirting with the idea of veganism, I bought a couple of cookbooks to try out some recipes, and one of them was How It All Vegan by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer.  It seemed like the authors were a lot of fun, and the ingredients were pretty much normal, so I felt like it would be achievable.  The first recipe I picked was the Chocolate Chip Bars, which turned out to be the perfect replacement for chocolate chip muffins, and much more dependably delicious than Dunkin' Donuts.

Sorry for the red tint - low light situation going on here and the tablecloth took over.

These make a great little snack with a cup of tea, or a light breakfast on the go.  I make them with part whole wheat pastry flour to try to up the nutritional profile a bit, and I'd like to try replacing the added fat with applesauce or banana.  I do think the recipe should actually be called Chocolate Chip Muffin Cake, because the texture comes out much more cakey than fudgy, which is not what I would have expected with bars.  The recipe isn't available online, so I can't reprint it here, but I do recommend checking out Barnard & Kramer's book (and their follow up The Garden of Vegan), as both contain a lot of easy, tasty recipes that use ingredients you probably already have on hand, and the ladies are chock-full of personality, which makes the books more fun to read.  You may even be able to find these books at your local library, so don't forget to use that as a resource!