aquafaba

Vegan S'mores Cupcakes

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I am not gonna lie. I love s’mores. Like they are 1,000% one of my biggest weakness and I will never turn one down.

That being said, It is not always convenient or possible to light up a roaring fire to make some vegan s’mores.

Well, now you don’t have to! Because now you can just bake all of that goodness into a vegan s’more cupcake, no campfire required!! No more hunting for vegan marshmallows either!

I saw a reicpe for a non vegan versions and thought how brilliant….but how do I make them vegan?!?!

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The original recipe made a homemade marshmallow topping that wasn’t anywhere near vegan!

But we love to make vegan sweet aquafaba whip in our house for all kinds of recipes and I knew it would work perfectly for this recipe as well.

It’s light, sweet, sticky, fluffy and toasts up beautifully!! Oh and most importantly it is delicious. It’s also super easy and cheap to make! No need for an actual marshmallow here!!

The cupcakes are actually made with crushed up graham crackers and are topped with the perfect amount of easy vegan chocolate ganache!

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These vegan s’more cupcakes have a few extra steps but overall are really pretty easy, and are so fun and super delicious!

Don't let the aquafaba whip intimidate you if you have never made it before. It is so easy to make! Once you start making it, I promise you will find so many reasons to make it over and over and over again!!!

So when you are craving s’mores but can’t light up a fire, try baking up a batch of these vegan s’more cupcakes instead! I think it will satisfy your craving and then some!

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INGREDIENTS:

GRAHAM CUPCAKES:

  • 1 sleeve vegan graham crackers

  • 1 cup all purpose flour

  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • 3/4 cups vegan butter

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 2 starch eggs (2 tablespoons corn or tapioca starch plus 6 tablespoons water)

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 1/2 cup plant milk plus 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

  • 1 batch sweet aquafaba whip

VEGAN GANACHE:

  • 1 cup vegan chocolate chips or chopped vegan chocolate

  • 2/3 cup canned full fat coconut milk

  • 2 teaspoons light corn syrup

INSTRUCTIONS:

You will need a 12 cup muffin tin for this recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

  1. Begin by crushing up the sleeve of graham crackers in a food processor or blender until they are completely broken down into a fine crumb.

  2. Prepare your starch eggs by whisking together the starch and water, and set aside.

  3. Prepare the ganache by heating the coconut milk in a medium sized pan over medium heat. Once the milk comes to a boil, add the chocolate and corn syrup. Remove from heat and mix in the chocolate until it is creamy and smooth. Transfer to a glass bowl and pop the ganache in the fridge while you prepare the cupcakes. Check on the chocolate periodically to see that it is thickening. Once it is a thick but a spreadable consistency, remove from the fridge and allow it to sit out at room temperature. It will harden completely if left in the fridge too long, and if that happens just pop it in the microwave for 15 second intervals, stirring well until it is back to a spreadable consistency.

  4. In a large bowl whisk together the graham cracker, flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda.

  5. In a separate bowl using an electric hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light a fluffy. This should only take a minute or two. Beat in the starch egg mixture. Add the vanilla.

  6. Mix the vinegar into the milk and let it sit for a minute, until it begins to curdle. (we are making a vegan butter milk alternative)

  7. Add the dry mixture and milk to the butter and sugar mixture, adding first a little dry mixture, then a little milk, alternating between the two, and mixing just until everything is well incorporated.

  8. Line a baking tin with cupcake liners and divided the batter equally between each cup.

  9. Bake the cupcakes for 25 to 30 minutes or unit a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

  10. Set oven to broil.

  11. Prepare the sweet aquafaba whip according to instructions while the cupcakes are cooling. You want the whip to resemble meringue and form stiff peaks after it has been whipped.

  12. Fill a large piping bag with any large tip you like or cut a small corner off of a zip lock bag. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pipe out 12 large dollops of whip onto the paper. You will not need all of the whip but can save the leftover in the fridge and use as whip cream for later.

  13. Pop the meringues into the oven but WATCH THEM THE WHOLE TIME!!! You just want to leave them in long enough for the tops to brown BUT they will go from brown to burnt in a split second so do not take you eyes off of them!!

  14. Remove from the oven and let them cool at room temp for a bit.

  15. Prepare the cupcakes by spreading the tops with some of the ganache. Carefully slide a spatula up under the meringues ( you will need to use your other hand to help scoop them up more than likely) the bottoms may still be wet but they will scoop up! I use a small metal cookie spatula to do this. Place the meringues on top of the cupcakes.

  16. Store leftover cupcakes in the fridge for several days.

If you like this recipe, then try these:

vegan flank steak

vegan flank steak

Sweet Aquafaba Whip (Meringue)

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Aquafaba is a magical thing! Whatever genius decided chickpea liquid could be whipped up into a light, perfect, fluffy, could needs a trophy, hug, high five, and a million dollars as far as I am concerned.

Original aquafaba is used often as an egg replacer in baked goods.. This versions has a good bit of sugar in it, so it whips up to a sweet, glossy cloud, that can be used in place of whip cream, or as a perfect vegan meringue.

Just like meringue, this aquafaba will brown beautiful in the oven, and works great for pies, cakes, banana pudding, or anything else that would need a vegan meringue.

So lets just give a big ol HECK YES to the brain that realized this magic, and may all of your pies be covered in the most glorious vegan meringue from this day forward.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 can of chickpea liquid, or liquid from any white bean

  • 3/4 cups sugar

  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar, or salt (this stabilizes the whip)

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Add chickpea liquid, sugar, and cream or tarter or salt to a stand mixer or a large bowl if you are using an electric hand mixer.

  2. Beat on high for about 10 minutes. I know this seems like a long time, and it will seem like the cream/meringue is not going to come together, but it will. You will know its done when stiff peeks form, and it becomes kind of shiny, and glossy.

  3. You can use the aquafaba as a whip cream as is, or use it as meringue. It will brown very nicely in the oven, and honestly most people never know it is not egg meringue.

  4. You can refrigerate any lefterovers and use with 2-3 days. You will just have to rebeat the whip because it will start to turn back to its liquid form. But don’t worry, it will rewhip to its original tasty glory in a few minutes.

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Basic Aquafaba

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I get A LOT of questions concerning aquabfaba in our recipes.

Aquafaba quite simply is just the cooking liquid from beans. You can use canned aquafaba or liquid from dry beans you have cooked.

You can use liquid from any bean actually, but I prefer the mild flavor of the liquid from chickpeas or any white bean.

I like to use aquafaba in the whipped form. When the liquid from the beans is whipped with a stabilizer like cream of tarter or even salt, the result will be light and fluffy peaks like if you were to whip egg whites!

This means you can use whipped aquafaba in place of eggs in many recipes to add a nice airy lightness. I often use it in cakes, or even casseroles that normally call for many eggs. You will still need a binder like a starch in some cases, like in the instance of a casserole. For those recipes I will often use whipped aquafaba and a few starch eggs, or prepackaged egg replacer.

When referring to aquafaba on this website, I am referring the the whipped product not just the liquid, unless otherwise stated in the recipe.

So, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of aquafaba, it is calling for 1 cup of the fluffy white whip, not one cup of chickpea liquid, pre-whipped. This tends to be one of the biggest mistakes or misunderstandings I have had people encounter in reading the recipes. They tend to want to measure the liquid not the whip. You must first whip the entire can of liquid then measure out the whip.

You will typically have left overs, as one can of chickpea liquid will whip up a more than a few cups of aquafaba.

You can store any leftovers in you fridge. The aquafaba will deflate in the the fridge and turn back to its liquid from, but will easily whip back up, and should keep for a few days.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Juice from one can of chickpeas

  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

You can use a stand mixer or a hand mixer for this. 

Add liquid from chickpeas, and cream of tartar to your bowl. Whip until the aquafaba is thick, and fluffy, resembling whipped egg whites. 

1/4 cup of aquafaba is equal to one egg in recipes