Tag Archives: chocolate

Bonus Find: One Minute Chocolate Cake

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I’m not going to talk…just gonna give this to you.  Make it.  You’re welcome.

Via Chocolate Covered Katie

  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 tsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tablespoons spelt flour (or white, or even coconut or peanut flour)
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 stevia packet (or 1 more tablespoon sugar)
  • 1 tablespoon mashed banana or applesauce
  • 3 tablespoons almond milk
  • 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. Add liquid, stir, then transfer to a little dish, ramekin, or even a coffee mug. Microwave 30-40 seconds. If you don’t want to eat it straight out of the dish, be sure to spray your dish first (and then wait for it to cool before trying to remove it).

Gluten Free Vegan Banana Oat Cake

I work in a diet-diverse office, mostly omnivores; however, I have one gluten free coworker, a dairy free coworker, a vegan coworker and me, a vegetarian dabbling in the world of veganism.  Every now and again, I find a recipe on  a blog or try to veganize something and can usually hit on most of the dietary restrictions, but this cake hits on ALL!  Even the lady that hates peanut butter, liked this cake, just omitted the “frosting”.  This recipe credit belongs to Oh, She Glows.  Visit her blog for a smattering of vegetarian and vegan deliciousness.

Cake:

  • 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free regular oats, processed into a flour (locally these are available at Harvest Health & Horrocks perhaps even Meijer)
  • 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free regular oats (not processed)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed firmly
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8th tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/16th tsp ground cloves (optional)
  • 1/16th tsp ground ginger (optional)
  • 2 tbsp cane sugar (or regular white)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted (or other light tasting oil)
  • 2 medium very ripe bananas, peeled
  • 1/3 cup applesauce (I used sweetened and backed down the white sugar above)
  • 1/4 cup almond milk
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • Fold in: 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips; 1/4 cup walnuts (optional), chopped; 1 ripe banana, cut into chunk

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 8 inch (4 cup) casserole dish or 8” cake pan. Take 2 cups of regular oats and process them in a food processor until flour like in consistency.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (processed oats, regular oats, sugars, spices, baking powder, and salt).

In another bowl, mix together the oil, applesauce, almond milk, and vanilla. Add in the two peeled bananas and smash into the wet ingredients until smooth.

Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until just combined. Now fold in the chips, optional walnuts, and the chopped banana.

Spread into prepared pan and bake for 36 minutes at 350F or until a toothpick comes out clean. The cake must be cooled for at least 15-20 minutes before attempting to remove.

Once fully cooled, slice and top with PB Banana Glaze. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days.  I found that this also freezes beautifully.

Frosting:

  • 1 ripe banana (but not too ripe, you still want it solid!)
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter (I used Koeze’s crunchy)
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
  • Pinch of kosher salt, to taste

Mash banana in a bowl until smooth. Add in peanut butter and mash until combined. Sift in the salt and icing sugar and stir until fully combined. Makes about 2/3 cup glaze. Store in fridge in a sealed contained for 1-2 days.

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An Inspired Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Stout Cake with Peanut ButterCream Frosting

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Adapted from Donna Hay

#author’s note: you will need a small scale to measure some of these items, I converted to US measure where possible.

Cake:

  • 1 C Guinness or any other stout beer
  • 225g butter, chopped into small pieces
  • ¾ C cocoa, sifted
  • 2 eggs at room temp
  • 2/3 C sour cream, light is okay
  • 2 C plain, all-purpose flour sifted
  • 1 ½ tsp baking soda, sifted
  • 2 C superfine sugar

Peanut ButterCream Frosting:

  • 1 C confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 C smooth peanut butter
  • 80g butter, softened
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 C heavy whipping cream

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325. Place the stout and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and stir to dissolve butter.  Remove from heat and whisk in cocoa.  Set aside.

Whisk together the eggs and sour cream.  Add to the stout mixture with the flour, soda, sugar and whisk to combine.  Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan lined with non stick baking or parchment paper.  Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.  Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the peanut butter frosting, place the sugar, peanut butter, butter and vanilla in an electric mixer and beat for 6 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Add the cream and beat for a further 2 minutes.  Spread the peanut butter frosting over the cake and then serve.

You can also make these as cupcakes.  Cook for approximately 20-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Math for comm students: hot + chocolate = Vegan Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles

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Math is basically why I don’t bake.  I suck at it.  Measuring, estimating, etc not exactly my strong points.  You should know that Communications students do not adhere to traditional mathematical principles.  Instead you get spicy sweet cookies.  Lucky YOU!  Don’t worry, they are Mr. Wonderful approved.

I’ve adopted Isa Chandra Moskowitz as my patron saint of all things food.  So this is from her website (www.theppk.com) and her best-selling book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  So, for Valentine’s Day, I give you:  Vegan Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles.  Love, cayenne, vanilla, cocoa and sugar…perfect.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Makes 2 dozen Cookies (I doubled it with ease in one KitchenAid Mixer bowl)

A beautiful crackle topped chocolate cookie with a spicy cayenne kick and a sugary cinnamon coating.

For the topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cookies:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons almond milk (Or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate)
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon ancho chili pepper powder (find it at Penzey’s Spices)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the topping ingredients together on a flat plate. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil, sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix in extracts.

Sift in remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added mix until you’ve got a pliable dough.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Pat into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2 inch discs. Transfer to baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, they should be a bit spread and crackly on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Salt + Chocolate = YUM

I was doing some housekeeping of  my Google Reader, getting rid of stuff I don’t actually read, feeds I don’t care about and more importantly setting up my RSS feeds for Craigslist items I need around the house, when I happened upon a delicious blog I have neglected for 49 posts (sorry!) called Bake or Break.  Zipping through the posts, the first thing that caught my eye was Salted Fudge Brownies and the first thought I had was Must. Make. Now.  And so I did.

Keeping true to my inability to actually just make a recipe without changing stuff, I made them a little spicy.  I am sure the delicious factor was increased and not sacrificed.  🙂  Enjoy.

  • 1 & 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, letting the excess hang over the edges. Lightly butter the foil. 

Melt butter and chocolate on low heat on the stovetop in a saucepan or in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl. Remove from heat or microwave. One at a time, whisk in cocoa, chipotle powder, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flour. Pour into prepared pan. Smooth the top of the batter. Sprinkle salt over top of batter. Using a butter knife, swirl salt into brownie batter.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until edges are set and center is a bit soft. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with a little batter coating it.

Cool at room temperature for an hour. Then, cool in refrigerator for an hour or until firm. Remove from pan and foil. Serve at room temperature.

Brownies can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for a month.

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Christmas Day with The Wonderfuls

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On the veggie menu:

  • Cranberry Crostini
  • Apricot Crostini
  • TLT Open Faced Baby Sammies
  • Sweet Potato Chipotle Gratin/Casserole
  • Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries
  • Chocolate Mallow Fondue with Dippers

Cranberry and Apricot crostini are this simple:  toast a French baguette, slather a little goat cheese on it, top with dried fruit and honey if you so desire.  For the cranberry crostini, I used cinnamon/cranberry goat cheese, topped with whole dried cranberries, and for the apricot crostini, I used honey goat cheese, topped with chopped apricots and lavender honey drizzle.

The TLT sammy recipe was adapted from Heidi over at 101cookbooks.com.

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe avocados
  • 2 pints tomatoes
  • 2 packages fakin’ bacon tempeh
  • 1 clamshell mixed baby lettuce leaves
  • 1 small package regular plain goat cheese
  • 1 French baguette, sliced and toasted
  • Juice of 2 limes
  • EVOO

The night before, preheat the oven to 400, toss the tomatoes with EVOO and roast until sweet and caramelized.  Save these for the next day in the fridge.  Day of, mash the avocado with the lime juice to make a make-shift-guac, this will go on the crostini at assembly.  Prep the fakin’ bacon per the package instructions.  To cook a bunch of it at a time, I cut the strips in half, put on a baking sheet and tossed into the oven for a few minutes until warm and crispy.  Next, assembly is easy:  take a crostini, top with a schmear of goat cheese, lettuce, avocado numminess, fakin’ bacon, and tomatoes.  Or whatever order your OCD compells you to assemble this tasty bite.

So as not to lull you into submission or boredom with the length of this post here are the other recipes I made.

Smokey Chili Scalloped Sweet Potatoes

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberry Brown Butter

Chocolate Marshmallow Creme Fondue (use the creme so it’s veg friendly, sans gelatin)