This decadent pie takes “layers of flavor” to a whole new level, proving that 1 + 1 = 10! Six, actually, but who’s counting?!
Wait until you try my Cream of Coconut-Peanut Caramel Layer! Try not to eat it all like candy before assembling the pie. 🙂
Find the surprisingly simple recipe and back-story HERE at One Green Planet!
Yield: 1 1/2 dozen cookies (easily doubles)
Everyone loved my Vegan Mini Kahlua-Spiked Chocolate-Almond Cupcakes with Coconut-Espresso Buttercream Frosting. And, since I had frosting left over from my testing session, I thought it might be perfect in a decadent fudgy thumbprint cookie. Since I also had hazelnuts and Chambord on hand, they became Chambord-Spiked Fudgy Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies.
These were devoured by my non-vegan husband!
1/4 cup melted vegan butter (I like Earth Balance)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons chocolate almond milk (chocolate soymilk would be tasty too)
2 teaspoons Chambord (or your favorite raspberry flavored liqueur)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (that sounds like a lot, but it was just right to my palate)
1 cup natural sugar (this also sounds like alot, but I tried it first with 1/2 cup and it just wasn’t enough; you could reduce to 2/3-3/4 cup if you are concerned about your sugar intake)
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
generous pinch sea salt (you may use table salt if you prefer)
1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts (if the nuts are too large, when you press your thumb into the dough balls, you will break them up)
Coconut-Espresso Buttercream Frosting
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine wet ingredients (first six ingredients) in a medium bowl. Combine dry ingredients in a separate medium size bowl. Make a depression in the center, pour in wet ingredients and stir until well combined. Dough will be stiff. Line a baking sheet with Silpat or parchment paper. Using s small scoop, place mounds of cookie 2 inches apart in rows. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie to create a little depression. Bake 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet to a wire rack and,when cookies are cool enough to handle, press your thumb again into the depression to define it a little more and make plenty of room for lots of frosting! Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet, as they will break apart if you try to move them while warm. Fill the depression with frosting by simply spooning it in or piping it if you prefer a fancier presentation. Store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Note: avoid using all vegan butter in place of the butter-oil mixture, as the cookies will spread too much.
Yield: 2 1/2 dozen miniature cupcakes
Where did May go? I feel that I’ve been out of touch for so long, and that was not my intention!
I had the flu for the first two weeks of the month, and it was all I could do to get myself to school and home. And, I guess, by the middle of the month, we were deep into testing, final assignments, end of year celebrations and, come the first of June, the creation of exams and oh-so-much-more in preparation for graduation which is only a week from tomorrow! The last days of school are absolutely breathless!
Speaking of breathless, these fabulously decadent cupcakes will take your breath away!
They were inspired by the irrepressible Kisha Marie, Starbucks barista and beaded jewelry designer extraordinaire. I love starting my day with an exchange of greetings, ideas, and news with Kisha. Her exuberance is infectious. And, I swear, she has my Green Tea Soy No Syrup Frappuccino started before I even arrive!
Every so often, my local Starbucks where she works offers free tastes from a big carafe. A recent Kisha Marie concoction gave rise to my newest favorite cupcake: a blend of iced Via concentrate, coconut syrup, and soymilk. Mmmm… She always gets the balance of flavors, consistency, and color exactly right.
Though there is no chocolate in her signature beverage, I thought the chocolate cupcakes would be a perfect foil for the coffee and coconut in the frosting. Yes, indeed! And the Kahlua? Well, who needs to justify coffee liqueur? I just have to remember not to spike them when I share with my students!
But I did share them with all my pals at Starbucks. The cupcakes received a latte praise (sorry, I couldn’t resist), though Kisha recommended that I use Via instead of my standard espresso powder. I’m sure she’s right about that. Next time!
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup natural sugar
1/3 cup finely ground almonds, plain or toasted for deeper flavor (use a food processor to achieve the consistency of an almond meal)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (table salt is fine, but I love sea salt even in baked goods)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (or canola oil)
1 cup chocolate almond milk (chocolate soymilk may be substituted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
5 tablespoons Kahlua or other coffee flavored liqueur for brushing tops
Coconut-Espresso Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)
Optional garnish: 30 chocolate-covered coffee beans, sliced almonds, or a pinch of plain or toasted coconut
Line 30 mini-muffin cups with mini-muffin papers. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, stir together all dry ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients except Kahlua. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Stir both together until the batter is smooth, though a few small lumps may remain. Using a small scoop, divide batter evenly among the lined muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted in the center of one cupcake comes out clean. Check at 18 minutes to avoid over-baking. Remove muffin tins to wire racks to cool. When cool enough to handle, remove cupcakes from the tins onto the racks in order to prevent them from continuing to cook. Prick each cupcake a few times with a toothpick and brush the tops with up to 1/2 teaspoon Kahlua each. Spoon the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe in swirls on top of each cupcake. Or simply spread the frosting on each cupcake with a dinner knife, spoon or offset spatula. Garnish as desired and serve immediately or store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
Coconut Espresso Buttercream Frosting:
6 tablespoons vegan butter (I like Earth Balance)
6 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons espresso powder dissolved in 4 teaspoons unsweetened or plain soymilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons coconut extract (extract is preferred over coconut flavor, though the flavor will do if you can’t find extract)
Cream together butter and shortening until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, alternating with the espresso and soymilk mixture, until smooth and creamy. Start electric mixer on low so as not to coat yourself in sugar. Beat in vanilla and coconut extracts until completely incorporated.
These beauties were baked from a recipe in Isa Moskowitz and Terry Romero’s Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. And they are out-of-this-world, or so my AP Studio students, the lucky recipients, thought!
I simply baked the batter from their Banana Split Cupcakes recipe (p. 81) in decorative paper-lined mini-muffin tins without the addition of the pineapple preserves or chopped dark chocolate. Then I frosted them with their recipe for Chocolate Banana Mousse (p. 157) and topped them with a half macadamia nut–they’re too expensive to use whole!
I omitted the soymilk from the frosting recipe, as I wanted it quite thick, and only used 10, instead of 12, ounces of chocolate (10 ounces is what came in my bag), and it was perfect. The recipe is almost identical to my go-to mousse from another source that uses a liqueur in place of the soymilk, so either way would work great. And both are equally as delicious whether enjoyed as frosting, a mousse, or a pie filling!
The frosting recipe is essentially a package of extra-firm silken tofu processed until smooth with melted chocolate, a couple of more tablespoons of the sweetener of your choice, a little bit of vanilla, and a banana, chilled for about an hour before piping.
I recommend buying this cookbook–a staple in my kitchen (right along with The Blooming Platter that is!)–so that you can enjoy this and lots of other recipes for both traditional and contemporary cupcakes. Think “Cupcake Wars,” vegan style.
If you live in or near Washington, D.C.–or are lucky enough to visit our nation’s capital and one of my favorite cities (it never seems the same twice!)–put Restaurant Nora on your dining to-do list.
For the last two years, we’ve traveled to D.C. with different couples to ring in the New Year. This year we went with our good pals, Jonell and Scott Walthall, staying at the W Hotel again this year. It is hip and stylish and ideally located between the Washington Mall (NOT a shopping mall!) and the White House.
In trying to choose the perfect spot for a New Year’s Eve dinner, I recommended Nora’s in Dupont Circle, the first restaurant to be certified organic in the U.S. But my connection to the restaurant goes even deeper. I first learned of it years ago when my good friend, Anne Wolcott, shared Nora’s recipe for Chocolate Carrot Cake that had been published in a culinary magazine.
Anne had it made for her wedding cake and shared it with me, requesting it at some point later for her birthday. At the time, chocolate and carrots sounded perfectly odd together–a forced pairing that didn’t seem necessary or even desirable. However, when I was developing recipes for The Blooming Platter Cookbook–whose focus is seasonal–and was in need of a spring dessert, I decided to veganize and adapt the original vegetarian recipe and see what I thought. I adored it! And I hope you will. The recipe follows at the end of this post.
Back to Restaurant Nora…I asked Jonell if she would mind doing a little investigating to see if it would be appealing to the three omnivores in our party, as I didn’t want to speak for them. She discovered it to be an optimum choice, offering a 5 course omnivorous prefix meal AND a 5 course vegan prefix meal. The only difference between the two–besides the obvious–was that the omnis had several choices for all but the first course and I only had one. But one was all I needed. Each course was perfection!
The meal was light, but plenty filling, full of flavor, stunningly presented, and timed impeccably for an ideal rhythm and flow throughout the evening, lasting about two hours and 45 minutes from start to finish. Plus, the restaurant itself is so warm and inviting. The modern-with-traditional-roots appearance of the Amish and Mennonite quilts that hang on the exposed brick dining room walls embody one of my favorite aspects of Nora’s: a fresh take on classics.
Following are photos of each course (I apologize for the poor light quality), ending with my Chocolate Carrot Cake recipe. But first, here is our party in the lobby of the W ready to hail a cab to Nora’s. My stunning orange dress came from Zara’s that day (on sale!), purchased because Jonell and I had both packed long-sleeved black dresses, black tights, and black ankle boots. No way was I going out dressed as the Bobbsie Twins! My necklace and earrings are from Terri Lindelow’s “Cluster” series.
1) The first course for all of us was this diminutive but flavorful triangular slice of winter squash and wild mushroom terrine.
2) My second course was a shaved hearts of palm and mango salad with pomegranate seeds and a citrusy dressing. (Hearts of palm always remind me of my father; he adores them and we usually put a tin of them in his stocking , but the socks he requested took up most of the space this year.) I have never been served hearts of palm shaved and it was a really nice way to enjoy them.
3) Up next was this shimmering landscape of roasted beets with fresh fruit: juicy and simultaneously earthy and bright. It was almost to beautiful to eat. Almost.
4) The most filling of the dishes was, of course, my entree. Still, it wasn’t too much: a creamy and flavorful vegetable risotto with decadent truffle shavings over the top.
5) For dessert, hot tea plus a trio of fresh fruit sorbets and a cookie called a “Cat’s Tongue.
I love sorbet and it was the ideal ending to this multi-course meal: refreshing and light. But sometimes we vegans want something even more decadent for dessert. If you feel the same, I hope you will enjoy this sneak preview from The Blooming Platter Cookbook:
Vegan Chocolate Carrot Cake
Yield: 8 servings
When my friend Anne Wolcott raved about the chocolate carrot cake she served at her wedding, “mouth watering” was not the first thought that came to mind. I adore both chocolate and fresh spring carrots, but I didn’t think they could be happily married. However, Nora Pouillon of the eponymous Restaurant Nora in Washington, D.C., knew exactly what she was doing as culinary match-maker. Her cake inspired my vegan version.
Cake:
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons natural sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup walnut oil or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
Ganache:
9 ounces vegan semi-sweet chocolate
chips
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
Garnish:
Halved or chopped pecans or walnuts
1. Cake: Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy milk and vinegar. Set aside to curdle, whisking a couple of times. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the soy milk mixture, walnut oil, and vanilla. Stir until all ingredients are well combined and no lumps remain. Stir in the carrots.
3. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the side and then invert onto the rack to cool completely, covered with a kitchen towel. Transfer to a serving platter.
4. Ganache: In a double-boiler, heat the chocolate chips until melted, stirring frequently until smooth. Alternatively, you may heat them in a microwave-safe bowl at 20 to 30 second intervals in the microwave, whisking after each. Remove the pan from the heat and quickly whisk in the sour cream.
5. To assemble: Frost the top of the cake with the ganache, allowing some to cascade over the edges. Garnish with pecans or walnuts.
For 150 additional recipes, treat yourself to The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes.
Following is another gift of the season from The Blooming Platter Cookbook. While I can’t purchase locally-grown oranges, I did notice a sweet shipment from Florida in the grocery store last week, which made me think of this recipe.
It is a luscious marriage of rich chocolate and fresh oranges. Especially if you spike it with a tablespoon or two of orange liqueur, it is a wonderful dessert for a cold winter evening. The mousse sets up almost instantly, so it is ready and waiting as soon as you put your dinner fork down.
Yield: 8 servings
This is a luscious marriage of rich chocolate and fresh oranges. Spiked with orange liqueur, it is a wonderful dessert for a cold winter evening. The mousse sets up almost instantly, so it is ready and waiting as soon as you put your dinner fork down.
2 large oranges
12 ounces extra-firm silken tofu
1/2 cup natural sugar
9 ounces bittersweet vegan chocolate,melted (see note) and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Pinch sea salt
Optional garnishes: vegan whipped topping, orange slices, or candied violets
Arrange 8 (4-ounce) ramekins in a 9 x 13-inch pan and set aside. Zest and juice the oranges and transfer to a food processor along with the orange pulp, discarding the seeds and pith. Add the tofu and sugar to the food processor, and process until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the melted chocolate, vanilla and almond extracts, and a pinch of salt. Process for several minutes until smooth and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins. Cover the top of the pan with foil. This method is faster than covering each individual ramekin and makes them easier to transport. Chill the mousse until set, about 30 minutes. Serve chilled, garnished as desired.
Note: melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave for about a minute at 30 second intervals, whisking in between. Alternately, melt on the stove in the top of a double boiler.
For 150+ additional gifts of the season, please consider The Blooming Platter Cookbook for yourself or as a gift for a health- and taste-focused friend or loved one.
(Please note that the new 2017 gluten-free version of these cookies, in a different color box, contains egg white powder.)
Yesterday afternoon, I had just left the farmer’s market with a bag full of super-healthy produce, and needed to stop by Trader Joe’s for a few remaining items on my list. But, though, my grocery bag was looking very virtuous, I was thinking impure sugar-laden thoughts.
I prefer homemade cookies any day of the week, but I was jonesin’ pretty badly for something sweet on the fly. We had just come from a Friday night stay at the rustic-elegant Sanderling Inn in Duck, North Carolina, which serves tea and homemade cookies in the afternoon. How I would have loved some cookies with my tea after our 4-mile walk on Friday, but alas, they were off-limits. So, I came home with cookies on my mind.
Therefore, at TJ’s, I detoured down the cookie aisle in search of something sweet and vegan. I must have picked up every box on that aisle to read the list of ingredients only to be met with whey, milk powder, eggs, butter, and all the rest of it. Finally, I picked up the least likely looking box and–Eureka!–all vegan. It turns out that Trader Joe’s brand of Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s in their cheery holiday-striped box are vegan approved!
Think Oreo’s, but with a peppermint filling. So, while you probably won’t want to serve these at your next party, you might want to tuck a couple into you or your child’s lunchbox, or serve up a little quasi-guilty pleasure at a party-for-one when nobody’s looking.
Yea, I know, I’m a seasonal vegan cook, and this recipe hardly fits that description… unless, like me, you consider chocolate to be a perennial food.
This recipe was inspired by a pan of dessert bars I spied in our administrators’ kitchen at school about a week ago. Theirs had a thin chocolate crust topped by a thick peanut butter layer and another thin chocolate ganache layer. They looked so good that I thought I would absolutely perish if I didn’t figure out how to make a vegan version and fast.
However, I couldn’t get started on them as quickly as I’d hoped because, after I went to the store, I came home to put the groceries away and could not find my (honey-free) graham crackers anywhere. Figuring that I must have stuck them somewhere really odd, I looked in places like the freezer…and the washing machine. No luck. So, I went back a couple of days later, bought another box, and made them on Sunday for my students’ National Art Honor Society meeting last Monday. A hit!
After just a little research, I put a couple of recipes together and fell head over heels for the result. They are FAR better than my memory of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And they are very well-behaved, slicing beautifully. They do need to stay refrigerated, but that’s a small price to pay for creamy perfection!
Yield: 24 bars
Crust:
1 3/4 cup finely crushed vegan graham crackers (Nabisco brand “original” are honey-free), that’s one wrapped package within the box
1/2 cup vegan butter, melted (I like Earth Balance)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Filling:
2 1/2 cups natural creamy peanut butter (crunchy is fine, but the mixture is processed and ends up creamy anyway)
3/4 cup vegan butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
Ganache:
1/4 cup soy creamer
11 ounces vegan chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together all crust ingredients. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13″ pan. I like to use the bottom of a glass to help with this task. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven, and cool completely. Once partially cool, I like to place the pan in the freezer for the crust to finish cooling. (Avoid placing a hot pan in the oven as it might raise the temperature of the compartment to a potentially dangerous level.)
In the bowl of a food processor, combine all filling ingredients and process just until smooth. Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar and process until combined, pulsing if necessary. Add the remaining cup of powdered sugar and do the same. Dollop the mixture over the cooled crust and pat evenly to cover. Cover the pan and refrigerate until the ganache is cool enough to use.
In a 1-quart saucepan, bring soy creamer to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat, add chocolate chips, and stir or whisk until mixtures is smooth. Let it cool to room temperature and then spread thinly over the peanut butter layer. It will look like there might not be enough ganache, but there is the perfect amount (if you don’t eat too much of it while frosting the bars!). Cover and refrigerate for 2 more hours. Slice into bars and serve. Store any leftovers–leftovers, yea, right–in the refrigerator.
This recipe was adapted from Midwest Living (Eagle Ridge Inn and Resort).
Just 2 days left in my Blooming Platter Cookbook giveaway! Go here for the details and simple directions on how to enter and win!
The Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco was the first vegan restaurant in which I ever dined. It was many years ago while at an art conference with my good friend, Anne Wolcott, who had heard about it. (If you live in San Fran or ever visit the area, do yourself a favor, and put this restaurant on the top of your list!)
I thought my initial experience was spectacular and I would hazard a guess that many, if not most, of this gourmet restaurant’s patrons are not necessarily vegetarian or vegan, just lovers of delicious, beautiful and creative food. I was so enchanted by it that I purchased one of their cookbooks and it has remains a source of inpiration.
So, when my dear San Francisco friend, Yvette Hetrick, suggested a private West Coast book-signing dinner for The Blooming Platter Cookbook in combination with a trip to the West Coast to celebrate one of my “milestone” birthdays, the Millennium leaped immediately to mind. Planning the party for 30 in the restaurant’s private “Millennium Wine Room” with the help of general manager, Alison Bagby, was a delight.
Now in a new location on Geary Street, but still connected to a hotel, the food and atmosphere are as appealing as ever. For a very affordable price of $50 per person, not including wine (more on this soon!), the chef offered three appetizers (including corn flour-dusted fried oyster mushrooms to die for–reminiscent of fried calamari–and everyone’s favorite); a delightfully fresh salad with a lemony dressing; 3 different entrees with beautiful sides and sauces (an Asian crusted tofu, a tamale, and a beet-and-barely cake); and either sorbet or my choice: Chocolate Almond Midnight, the restaurant’s signature dessert.
One of the guests, who were almost entirely meat-eaters (but very generous in their embrace of The Blooming Platter), said after tasting the Chocolate Almond Midnight, “I would become vegan for the desserts alone!”
