Chow Vegan

I’ve been pretty much overdosing on sweets lately with the holidays and all. But since I recently received Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero to review, I absolutely had to try a recipe or two.

Unable to decide on which cheesecake to make, I half the recipes and made mini cheesecakes. That way I was also able to try out a couple of flavors instead of making one big 9″ pie.

Pictured above is the Chocolate Galaxy Banana Cheesecake – such a smooth and creamy texture! So very decadent-tasting, just like regular cheesecake. Unlike some other vegan cheesecake recipes, there’s no packaged cream cheese in these. The creaminess is from raw cashews, banana and silken tofu.

The other flavor was Raspberry Lime Cheesecake, pictured in the middle. Also very good. Never thought raspberry and lime go together but they do. Since I had a bit of the raspberry and lime topping leftover, I plopped some on top of the chocolate cheesecake, pictured below.

Both flavors were easy enough for me, a baking simpleton, to make. The cookbook is written in the same style as the authors’ other books – easy to understand, lighthearted, full of useful tips and suggestions. Besides the cheesecakes, there’s recipes for various pie crusts, fruit pies, creamy pies, cobblers, crisps and tarts.

When I fully recover from the overindulgence of holiday sweets, I have very high hopes of finally being able to actually make a real pie with a real pie crust and everything. I’m so excited!

Chocolate Galaxy Banana Cheesecake
Makes one 9 1/2 – inch cheesecake

1 recipe Graham Cracker Crust

Filling
1/2 cup whole unroasted cashews, soaked in water for 2 to 8 hours or until very soft
1/2 cup well-mashed banana (about 2 medium-size bananas)
1 (12-14 ounce) package silken tofu, drained
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons coconut oil, room temperature
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray. Prepare the crust and press it very firmly into the pan. Bake for 10 minutes and move the pan to a cooling rack.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Drain the cashews and blend with the banana, tofu, sugar, coconut oil, cornstarch, lemon juice, vanilla and almond extracts, and sea salt. Blend until completely smooth and absolutely no bits of cashew remain.

3. Set aside 1/3 cup of batter and pour the rest into the crust. Melt the chocolate chips over a double boiler or in a glass bowl in the microwave. Stir the melted chips with a spatula until smooth; add reserved batter and stir until smooth.

4. Spoon dollops of chocolate batter randomly onton the cheesecake. Poke the end of a chopstick into a chocolate batter blob and gently swirl the top to creat a marble-like pattern; repeat with the remaining chocolate blobs.

5. Bake the cheesecake for 50 to 55 minutes until the top is lightly puffed and the edges of the cake are golden.

6. Remove the cake from the oven and set on a cooling rack for 20 minutes, then move it to the fridge to complete cooling, at least 3 hours or even better, overnight. To serve, slice the cake with a thin, sharp knife dipped in cold water.

Graham Cracker Crust
Makes one 9- or 10- inch pie crust

1 3/4 cups finely ground graham crackers (made from 10 ounces of whole graham crackers)
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons melted nonhydrogenated margarine, melted coconut oil, or canola oil
1 tablespoon plain soy milk or almond milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly spray a 9-inch pie plate with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine the graham crumbs and sugar. Drizzle in the oil or melted margarine. Use a spoon to blend the mixture thoroughly to moisten the crumbs, then drizzle in the soy milk and stir again to form a crumbly dough.

3. Pour the crumbs into the pie plate. Press crumbs into the sides of the plate first, then work your way down to the bottom. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until firm. Let the crust cool before filling.

From the book Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) 2011. www.dacapopresscookbooks.com

Disclosure: I received the book free of charge from the publisher to review. The opinions and experience with the book expressed herein are my own. There was no pay to say.

This post also contains an Amazon link, I get a few coins tossed my way if you click on the link and make a purchase of anything.

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It’s that time of year for visions of sugar plums dancing in little heads. Only to be surprised to find there’s really no sugar or plums in said sugar plums. It’s actually a dried fruit and nut ball rolled in coconut. Apparently, way back when, “plum” used to mean any dried fruit.

Super easy to make since there’s no baking or cooking involved. With the dried cranberries and apricots, orange zest, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg, there’s a taste of the holiday season in each bite. But you can use pretty much any combination of dried fruits, nuts and spices for a healthy sweet treat.

Sugar Plums
Makes about 14 balls

1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raw pecans
1/2 cup Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried unsulfered apricots, chopped
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Pulse the nuts in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the dried fruit, orange zest and spices, pulse until well-combined. Add the orange juice 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing in between until the mixture sticks together.

Scoop out about a tablespoon, press together and roll into 1″ balls. Then roll the balls in the coconut. Keeps covered in the fridge for a couple of weeks or so.

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After a prolonged hunt for Cleo’s Peanut Butter Cups and a comment about making homemade ones from Jes over at Eating Appalachia (one of my favorite blogs), I turned the kitchen into a little candy workshop.

Ever since I made the Chocolate Candy Cups from Raw for Dessert by Jennifer Cornbleet, I like the raw version of chocolate better than regular candy chocolate. And since I’m making my own, I also tried other nut butters.

And not just any ol’ nut butter but Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter and Maple Almond Butter. They’re both really good on their own but super good inside of a chocolate covering.

Easy enough to make but sadly, I had a casualty early on. I had filled the silicone cups to the brim. On some of them, I had a heck of a time popping the candy cup out. I stupidly used a knife and accidentally sliced one of the silicone cups in half. It was a blue one. I would not recommend this method of extraction.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
Makes about 16 candy cups
Adapted from the Chocolate Candy Cups recipe in Raw for Dessert

4 large medjool dates
1/3 cup virgin coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup barley syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
Peanut butter or other nut butter (chilled for easier handling)

Pit and chop the dates, place in a bowl. Add the coconut oil and soak for 30 minutes.

In a blender or food processor, add the soaked dates, cocoa powder, maple syrup, barley syrup and salt. Process until very smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary.

Set out 16 silicone or foil baking cups on plates or a baking pan. It’s easiest to put the chocolate mixture into a sandwich baggie and cut off a bottom corner. Pipe the bottom layer of chocolate into each of the cups.

Place a hunk of peanut butter or other nut butter in the middle of each cup. Try not to have the peanut butter touch the sides, you’ll want the chocolate to enclose the peanut butter. Pipe the chocolate on top to cover but do not fill to the brim.

Chill the cups in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator where they’ll keep for a few days.

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon link, I get a few coins tossed my way if you click on the link and make a purchase of anything.

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Just in time for Halloween, bat-shaped cookie sandwiches from Zest Bakery, a gluten-free bakery in downtown San Carlos (a small town on the SF Bay Area peninsula about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose).

They’re spooky good! Kinda like an Oreo in that it’s a chocolate sandwich cookie with a creamy filling. But so much better.

Not a soft cookie, nor a hard one, it’s somewhere in between. Actually, it’s just about right (I never cared for the hardness of an Oreo cookie). And the creme filling is light and soft. Available in vanilla or chocolate flavor for $1.50 each.

While all of Zest’s items are gluten-free, just a few are also vegan. If coming from afar, it’s probably best to call ahead and see what they have available. Or you can special order things. They’re super nice and they know their stuff.

The batch of cookie sandwiches I first looked at were dairy-free and gluten-free but not quite vegan. It had powdered sugar processed with bone char. But they offered to make some that were vegan by the very next day. And instead of just regular ol’ round cookie sandwiches, they surprised me with cute Halloween bats.

Holy smokes, Batman! How’s that for great service?

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Before summer gives way to fall, I just had to try the Black Velvet Cupcakes from Hannah Kaminsky’s Vegan Desserts. These cupcakes came out perfect! Moist. Fluffy. Yummy. It’s a baking miracle! It really is. You have no idea what horrible baking disasters have emerged from my oven in the past.

Located in the summer section of Vegan Desserts (the cookbook is divided by seasons), the recipe uses the ingenious idea of blackberries for the cupcake’s beautiful color. No artificial coloring!

Straight-forward and easy to understand, I, a noob baker, was able to follow the recipe without any problems. Although I was puzzled how to make the thirteenth cupcake. My pan only has twelve spots but the recipe said it makes thirteen. I just divided the batter among the twelve and crossed my fingers.

They came out fine. I frosted half of them and froze the other half for later enjoyment. My frosting technique could use a little work, actually a lot of work. It looks like it’s just plopped on top, but it tasted great. Way better than the vegan red velvet cupcakes from Sprinkles, because I made them myself!

To celebrate such a momentous occasion, I’m giving away a copy of Vegan Desserts.

To enter the giveaway:
Leave a comment in this post with your favorite seasonal dessert. Comment must be made by midnight PST on Sunday, September 18th; one entry per person. No purchase is necessary to enter or win.

One winner will be randomly selected (using random.org) from the comments received and announced in a new post on Monday, September 19th. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be randomly chosen. Prize awarded is the cookbook that I paid for with my own hard-earned money (approximate retail value $17.95). I did not drool on it.

Official Rules:
Open only to U.S. residents age 18 and over. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received. Void where prohibited by law. Any tax is the sole responsibility of the winner. Winner releases Chow Vegan from any liability arising out of participation in this giveaway or the acceptance, use or misuse of the prize.

This post also contains an Amazon link, I get a few coins tossed my way if you click on the link and make a purchase of anything.

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After a wayward trip crisscrossing the nation courtesy of the postal service, I finally received my order for Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky (she’s the brains and talent behind one of my favorite blogs, BitterSweet).

Being a non-baker of the highest order, I eased into the cookbook by trying a non-baking recipe, Watermelon Bombe. Not only does it not involve any baking, but I also used the “cheater” method. The recipe in the cookbook is for making each layer from scratch, with an alternative method of going with store-bought ice cream and sorbet. Naturally, I went to the store.

Fortunately, the flavors I wanted to get happened to be on sale. I picked up:

• Green tea soy ice cream for the rind
• Vanilla almond ice cream for the white part
• Mango coconut water sorbet for the yellow watermelon
• Strawberry sorbet for the red watermelon

I split the recipe in half and used two smaller bowls to make a red and a yellow watermelon. Guess which one I made first? Yup, the yellow one. I got the hang of it on the second one so the red melon came out a lot neater. I left out the chocolate chips, so they’re “seedless.”

I didn’t care for the green tea ice cream by itself but in this recipe, I like it. The slight bitterness goes well with the sweetness of the other layers. It was actually pretty easy to make and it looks fancy – great for a fun summertime treat, especially with the heat around here this week.

As for the rest of the cookbook, it starts off with an Ingredient and Kitchen Tools Glossary – not just a dry description what it is, but Hannah’s take on the item, where to find, substitutions etc. The next part, Troubleshooting is very helpful with trying to figure out what went wrong. The recipe section is broken down by season, covering everything from pies and cookies to ice cream and cakes. There’s even a doggie treat, Canine Cookies. And practically all of the recipes come with beautiful color photos.

Stay tune for a future post in which I actually attempt to bake something from Vegan Desserts. Should be interesting.

This post contains Amazon links, I get a few coins tossed my way if you click on any of the links and make a purchase of anything.

After getting fuji apples weekly at the local farmers market, it’s finally coming to the end of their season. For a last hurrah, I decided to do a little extra something with them. I made mini raw caramel apple bites.

For the raw caramel, I adapted the recipe from this vegan life. The taste is similar to caramel but healthier tasting. And the best part, it doesn’t stick all over my teeth like regular caramel. The dentist gotta be happy about that.

Mini Raw Caramel Apple Bites

Raw Caramel
1/2 cup Medjool dates
1 tablespoon agave syrup
1 tablespoon soy milk
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon to taste vanilla extract
Pinch salt
3 tablespoons more or less of the date soaking water

For assembly
Organic apples (Fiji and/or Granny Smith or other variety)
Lollipop sticks, skewers or toothpicks
Coconut flakes
Unsalted roasted peanuts or other nuts, slightly crushed

Soak the dates in water for a few hours. Save the soaking water.

In a food processor, combine the dates, agave, soy milk, coconut oil, vanilla and salt. Process and add a tablespoon at a time the soaking water until it’s the desired consistency. Transfer to a bowl and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Using a melon baller, scoop a ball out of the apple. Push a stick into the peel side and roll in the caramel. Sprinkle with coconut flakes or nuts or both. Enjoy.

The Happy Herbivore Cookbook Giveaway
Don’t forget to enter the giveaway, it ends on Monday, April 4th.

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Forget Valentine’s Day candy. How about little bite-sized morsels of ice cream covered in chocolaty goodness? You know I’ve always had a thing for mini food. Almond Dream Bites are basically a non-dairy, gluten-free version of a bon bon with no trans fat or highly refined sugars.

Spot-on and so very good – the almond milk ice cream has a smooth and creamy texture. The taste is just like vanilla ice cream with a hint of almond flavor. The chocolate covering is rich with a really nice crunch. It’s everything you would expect in a frozen novelty treat.

One serving is 15 pieces for 230 calories; about three servings in a container. That’s a lot of bites. I usually only eat about five of them at any one time, as that’s more than enough for me. So if I did my math correctly, that’s only about 77 calories, not too bad on the waistline.

Currently on sale at my local Whole Foods for $3.49 until February 15th, regular price is $4.29. There’s also a $1.00 off any two Dream beverage or frozen products coupon on their website. I’ll definitely be stocking up.

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