i have a serious brain disease. please bring me a cat.
I finally dove into My Sweet Vegan and tried the Mexican Chocolate Tart. I haven’t actually cut into it yet, so can’t comment on how it is, but the parts were tasty as I was making it. The candied pecans would even be nice to have around as a munchie. And of course I cannot resist the chocolate chilie combination. Next time I might either use more cayenne in the filling or switch it to ground red chilies for a little more warmth.
Holy crap! I think I went into an instant sugar coma after biting into these. Mine ended up muffining out out over the top and sinking in the middle. But the eat up just fine. And the little dent was the perfect place to stick the frosting. The black cherry preserves and small bit of whiskey add a lot of dimension to the flavor of the cupcakes also. Crazy good. Oh yeah, they’re the Brooklyn Brownie Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
Seriously, how long did you think I was going to wait before breaking in the bundt pan? Apparently not much more than 24 hours. This is the Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake from Veganomicon. And it’s a very forgiving recipe. I actually ended up being short on sugar and probably subbed about 1/4 cup of brown sugar for some of it. I was also probably short a little bit of lemon zest. And then we have my fun-loving oven that decided to pop up by 100 degrees during the first 20 minutes of baking. I turned it down twice and never was able to get it all the way down to the suggested cooking temperature. No matter. It came out moist on the inside, lightly browned and a little bit crisp on the outside. I suspect the crispiness will go away once it cools which is always what seems to happen. But I love that the crazy oven temps didn’t ruin the cake. And just look at it!
I was watching the Food Network while at the gym this morning and saw the tail end of some Tyler guy making these Crepe Suzette cups. What a nifty presentation and an easily veganizable recipe as well. There are certainly enough vegan crepe recipes bouncing around out there. Let me throw this on the pile of stuff to try. I can also totally see using the crepe cups to hold fresh fruit. Hell maybe even pudding. Oh the possibilities…
So today was the bake-off at Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe. I’m not one to develop my own recipes, but for the fun of it thought I’d go ahead and enter something. Since my last doughnut experience was good, I thought I’d work out the mini doughnut pan and try to see if I could come up with chocolate doughnuts. But I’m always looking for an excuse to mix chilies and chocolate, so I thought Mexican Chocolate Doughnuts!
My mini doughnut pan came with a chocolate doughnut recipe so I started with that, subbed the animal bits and tossed in some cinnamon. For the ganache, I used the recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and tossed in some chili powder. I felt like the doughnuts were a little bit denser, heavier than I would like. I think next time I try them I will half the egg replacer and try something else like maybe souring the soy milk with vinegar. But no matter what I thought, the little guys won Most Creative Recipe! Yay! I got a medal and an apron and a cook book as prizes. Yipee! I was really surprised, but after I tasted the other entries I was even more surprised. There were no “losers” there. Everything was super nummy. Hooray for vegans!
Mexican Chocolate Doughnuts
for doughnuts
1 ½ cups flour
⅓ cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
3 teaspoons EnergE Egg Replacer, whisked with 4 tablespoons of warm water
⅔ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup plain soymilk
2 tablespoons Earth Balance, melted
for ganache
⅛ cup soy milk
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon maple syrup
¼ teaspoon chili powder (ground chilies, not the spice mix)
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Lightly spray mini doughnut pan with cooking spray. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix egg replacer mixture, sugar, vanilla, soy milk and Earth Balance until well mixed. Add flour mixture to wet mixture a little at a time until mixed. Fill each doughnut mold about 2/3 full. You may need to spread with your finger to even out. Bake for 8 minutes. If you’re using a full sized doughnut pan you will need to bake longer. Cool slightly. Remove carefully and continue cooling on a rack.
When doughnuts are cool, make Chili Chocolate Ganache. Bring soy milk to a boil in a small pan. Remove from heat and add chili powder, chocolate and maple syrup. Mix with a spatula until melted and smooth. Drizzle over tops of doughnuts with a spoon.
