If you've been following along on Brett and my China adventures lately, then you'll remember the time Brett and I went to the market and received a turtle as a gift...or food. Who even knows. However, since Brett and I are not big pet people (to be honest, we're not even little pet people), we ended up giving our turtle to some friends who were willing and excited to have a little pet to look after. The crazy thing is, turtles happen to be quite a handful! Apparently they need to have warm water, places to swim and places to rest, and natural sunlight. Yeesh, I thought all they'd need is a little water to sit in and some food to eat.
Sadly, the turtle we gave our friends to care for hasn't faired too well. Not long after they started caring for him, he got some infection in his eyes so that they're swollen shut. He also often looks like he's struggling to breathe. Poor guy! Our friends are awesome, though, and they did some research on how to care for turtles and got a small little tub, a water heater and filter, and some rocks for the lil' guy to rest on. They even got medicine for his eyes, which has provided some improvement on the swelling.
Goodness, this is why Brett and I don't have pets! With trying to adjust to life in a new country and learn a new language, we would rather not have to care for a little animal right when we walk through our door at the end of the day. I'd love to hear your thoughts on pets and whether you have any! I so admire pet lovers for their care and love of little creatures, but I'm sadly just not one of those people.
What I do enjoy spending my free time on is cooking and baking...go figure! Recently I had a random memory of some chocolate covered raisin cookies that my Mom used to make when I was a kid. They were rich, chocolatey, chewy and sweet...everything I love in a cookie! I thought they would be easy to recreate and thankfully I was right! By melting some coconut oil, maple syrup and cacao powder together, you get a simple, silky chocolate that you mix chewy raisins into. Then you just drop large spoonfuls of the chocolate coated raisins onto some baking paper or silicone baking mats, allow the cookies to harden in the fridge, and you're ready to dig into some Vegan Chocolate Covered Raisin Drop Cookies!
These cookies are super rich and sweet and just how I remember them. It's so fun to have a taste of home even when I'm thousands of miles away from family. What are some of your favorite childhood treats?
If you try out these Vegan Chocolate Covered Raisin Drop Cookies, let me know! Leave a comment or take a picture an tag #theconscientiouseater on Instagram!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Covered Raisin Drop Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup coconut oil
- ½ cup cacao powder
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 cups raisins
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, melt the coconut oil, cacao powder, and maple syrup together until well combined.
- Let the chocolate cool until it's thickened and not as runny. Pour in the 2 cups of raisins and stir until all the raisins are fully coated.
- Using a 2 tablespoon measure or other large spoon, drop the chocolate cover raisins onto baking paper or silicone baking mats, pressing the spoon down forcefully when dropping the raisins, so that they stick together.
- You should have some remaining chocolate once you've drop all the raisins onto the sheet. Spoon the extra chocolate over top of any cookies that look like they need some extra sauce to bind the raisins together.
- Place the cookies into the fridge until solid.
Notes
Nutrition
Sheila says
I’d love to do a Keto’ish version of these. Does the recipe use raw Cacao powder or dutched cocoa powder? And do you think I could swap liquid allulose for the maple syrup? I’ve been craving Raisinettes & couldn’t find anything sugar free that didn’t contain Malitol. So this recipe might just be what I was looking for. Thanks in advance!
Faith VanderMolen says
I've found cacao and cocoa powder to be interchangeable. And if you enjoy the taste of the allulose then I'd say try it out! But I've never tried those substitutions so I can't say for sure. I hope it works out for you!
Yo Mama says
I think I am going to make your raisinette cookies for the our Thursday night group. It is gluten and dairy free which is necessary for some of our group. I'll let you know how they turn out.
Since it is the holidays, I am reminded of the special things my mom would make at this time of the year. She made a triple decker sandwich using an unsliced loaf of sandwichbread (she had to ask the baker for it specifically). She would slice in thirds horizontally and would then layer it with ham salad, chicken salad and shrimp salad and then frost it with cream cheese. I was thinking you could do a veganized version with broccoli salad, sweet potato hummus and maybe something with cauliflower (or just another type of hummus. I'm at a loss as to what you would frost it with, which is probably just as well. You kids never liked it and so that tradition has fallen by the wayside.
I made a triple vegetable layered bread for a special meal using a broccoli, cauliflower and carrot fillings. It was very good and would be more up your alley as a vegan 🙂
Faith says
Oh I hope the cookies work out!! All my friends loved them. At that sandwich sounds so special! You could make a cashew cream cheese really easily and add some chives or something. Let me know if you try the vegan version! And triple vegetable layered bread?!? Yummmm.
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says
Reminds me of Raisinetes! Just vegan and better <3
Faith says
Exactly!! They used to be my favorite candies too!