34 Vegan, Gluten-Free Copycat Foods for Your Fave Junk Foods, Hallelujah

Hello and welcome to this thing we’re doing where we help you figure out what you’re gonna put in your mouth this week. Some of these are recipes we’ve tried, some of these are recipes we’re looking forward to trying, all of them are fucking delicious. Tell us what you want to put in your piehole or suggest your own recipes, and we’ll talk about which things we made, which things we loved, and which things have changed us irreversibly as people. Last week, we ate a bunch of outside-the-box grill recipes.

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Obviously junk food or processed food or food from your childhood or food you feel like eating while drunk/high/sleep eating is the best and also the worst. The following recipes for copycat foods are some incarnation of vegan, gluten free, dairy free, raw, grain-free, or adaptable to one or more dietary restrictions, so that eating Girl Scout cookies can at last make you feel as awesome in your body as it does in your head. They also don’t use corn syrup because corn syrup is kind of gross and the bottle always leaks everywhere and it’s a pain to clean up.

(The recipe that gave me this idea, for Milk Bar’s Birthday Layer Cake, is neither vegan nor gluten-free nor anything else, but it is amazing, so shout out to Milk Bar.)

1. Samoas (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

samoas-diy-vegan-gf

2. Thin Mints (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

diy-thin-mints-vegan

3. Peanut Butter Cups (Vegan)

vegan-peanut-butter-cups

4. Homemade Peanut Butter M&Ms (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

homemade-peanut-butter-mms

5. Five-Ingredient Vegan Snickers Bars (Vegan)

5-ingredient-vegan-snickers-bars

6. Homemade Twix Bars (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

homemade-twix-bars-vegan

7. Almond Joy Candy Bars (Vegan)

almond-joy-candy-bars

8. Homemade Crunch Bars (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

homemade-crunch-bars

9. Cookies and Cream Bars (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

no-bake-cookies-and-cream-bars

10. Oreos (Raw, Vegan and Gluten-Free)

raw-oreos-vegan-gluten-free

11. Creamy Dreamy Peppermint Patties (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

creamy-dreamy-peppermint-patties-vegan-gf

12. Graham Crackers + S’mores Bites (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

vegan-gluten-free-graham-crackers-smores-5

13. Chocolate Teddy Grahams (Vegan, Gluten-Free and Grain-Free)

chocolate-teddy-grahams-vegan-gf

14. Homemade Circus Animal Cookies (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

Circus-Animal-cookies-vegan

15. Hippie Crispy Treats (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

hippy-crispy-treats

16. Homemade Fruit by the Foot (Gluten-Free)

homemade-fruit-by-the-foot

17. Homemade Gummy Bears with No Added Sugar (Potentially Vegan)

homemade-gummy-bears-with-no-added-sugar

18. Four-Ingredient Nutella (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

4-ingredient-nutella-vegan-gf-diy

19. DIY Chocolate Sprinkles (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

make-your-own-chocolate-sprinkles

20. Homemade Animal Crackers (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

homemade-animal-crackers

21. Homemade Ritz Bitz (Gluten-Free)

homemade-ritz-bitz

22. Homemade Wheat Thins (Vegan)

homemade-wheat-thins

23. Vegan Cheez-Its (Vegan)

vegan-cheez-its

24. Baked Chilli Cheese Fritos (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

baked-chili-cheese-fritos

25. Homemade Cool Ranch Doritos (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

homemade-cool-ranch-doritos-vegan-gluten-free

26. Cinnamon Maple Caramel Popcorn (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

healthy-maple-caramel-popcorn

27. Not-A-Grain Cereal Breakfast Bars (Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free)

glutenfree-cereal-breakfast-bars

28. Berry Pop Tarts (Vegan)

vegan-berry-pop-tarts

29. Chocolate Whoopie Pie (Vegan)

vegan-whoopie

30. Homemade Ding Dongs (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

gluten-free-vegan-homemade-ding-dongs

31. Homemade Twinkies (Vegan)

homemade-twinkies-coconut-whipped-cream-filling-vegan

32. Mock Dairy Queen Cupcakes (Vegan)

Dairy-Queen-Cupcakes-Recipe

33. Chocolate-Coated Ice Cream Bars (Vegan)

vegan-ic-cream-bars

34. Vanilla Birthday Cake (Vegan)

Vegan-Vanilla-Cake

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Ryan Yates

Ryan Yates was the NSFW Editor (2013–2018) and Literary Editor for Autostraddle.com, with bylines in Nylon, Refinery29, The Toast, Bitch, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, and elsewhere. They live in Los Angeles and also on twitter and instagram.

Ryan has written 1142 articles for us.

24 Comments

  1. I read the first one as “samosas” and I was super confused.
    So down to make the fruit rolls, though. So down.

  2. Is this a safe place to ask about gluten free and queer women? I’m surprised by how many queer women seem to be gf and how gluten free seems to be a thing, at least in some queer circles.

    I mean, I am both queer and gf but I don’t think of them as related. Celiac runs in my family – I have it, but so does my straight mother and very straight aunt (and none of my queer cousins have it).

    I understand the overlap between vegan and queer but I’m still puzzled by the overlap of gf and queer.

    On another note – I’m so excited to see the gf thin mint recipe. Thin mints are one of the few things I still miss after 14 years of being gluten free. (That and Pepperidge Farms’ mint Milano cookies and my dad’s nut strudel).

    • Perhaps you are encountering the intersection of hipster diet fad and queer??? (ha) I am also gf but non-celiac and actually had to go on the FODMAP free diet which SUCKS!!! I don’t understand why perfectly symptom free people choose to go gf. If I eat gluten I get sick, awful painful icky sick, therefore I don’t eat/ingest it.

      • Ugh, FODMAP. That’s tough.

        When gluten free first became faddish, I was sure it wouldn’t last because it’s such a pain to be gf. I think it’s been a fad as long as it has partly because a lot of fad-gf-ers don’t understand it completely or follow it closely. But I am happy that the fad makes it easier for me to eat safely.

        • Thank you so much for this list! I am super excited for autumn, courtesy of autostraddle. Lesbian movies and gf vegan treats. Done.

          • Oops sorry, that went in the wrong place. I was going to mention something about people being more open to accommodating others potentially being linked to it? But then realised you were pointing to a more concrete overlap, and that that’s an enormous oversimplification in any case. So that’s why I decided not to comment, but then mistakenly did…

  4. I am neither vegan nor gluten free, but I love homemade foods where I know what goes in it and when…I’ll keep these recipes in mind the next time I want some sweets. Thanks!

  6. oh man i made chloe coscarelli’s vegan thin mints once and they were so much work but SO WORTH IT. i would like all of these plz thx

  8. Thanks so much for including my sprinkles in this amazing round-up – I want
    to try all of these recipes!

  9. My celiac friend was asking for some variety in my usual holiday gift of peanutbutter cookies in gingerbread shapes and I think it was subtle request to give her a jar of lemon or orange curd next year.
    Boy, is she going to be disappointed. :P

  10. Great list! Thanks. I need to make those chocolate covered ice cream bars. The recipe for the gummy bears, however, is not vegan. Contains gelatin powder. I`ve tried to make gummy bears with agar agar several times, but haven`t been too happy with the outcome. So I’ve hoped to find a good alternative here…

    • It’s so hard to find a good gelatin replacement! I got these cute vintage jello moulds and I kept trying to make agar-based things in it and they turned into hard rubber. I found carageenan-based jelly in the ethnic section and tried that, and even though it’s moulded in the picture on the box(!) it just collapsed. Grrr. But yes, that “potentially vegan” is misleading on the gummy bears.

  12. Thank you so much for this list! I am super excited for autumn, courtesy of autostraddle. Lesbian movies and gf vegan treats. Done.

Comments are closed.