Healthy Chocolate Pudding Pie [vegan]

(Healthy) Chocolate Pudding Pie-Vegan 

A few years ago I made a batch of tofu chocolate pudding and was absolutely enamored with it.  It was SO simple to make and I ended up eating a whole batch, thinking tofu automatically made it a health food (not that you can taste more than a hint of soy).  Flash forward to a couple months ago, when I saw a recipe for a Chocolate Bar Pie on a wonderful (healthy) dessert blog called Chocolate Covered Katie (she has recipes which make even me LOVE garbanzo beans). Yum yum yum!

I realized, looking at her gorgeous pictures, that my life called for some serious tofu chocolate pie.  Not one to follow recipes, I kinda took a glance at the recipe on CCK, and ended up guessing ingredients and their amounts.  To my surprise, it was a experimental success (trust me, my experiments aren’t usually so pretty, haha).  I made a chocolate shortbread crust for the pie, and it complemented the silkiness of the filling really nicely.  I would continue rambling about the pie (and I could, believe me!), but it’s five in the morning (hello jetlag, you have too much power over me), and I think I should go back to sleep.  G’night or good morning, and until next time!

Chocolate Tofu Pie

Inspiration from Chocolate Covered Katie’s Chocolate Bar Pie

Crust:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter [vegan butter, if desired]

1. Add the flour, cocoa, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Cut the stick of butter into thin slices, and add to the bowl.
3. With your finger, work the butter into the dry ingredients until a crumbly dough forms.
4. Press the dough into a greased pie pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
5. Allow to cool completely.

Filling:

• 1 container of silken tofu, 16 ounces, drained
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (half a 12 ounce bag)
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 pinch salt

1. Melt the chocolate chips, and stir until smooth.
2. Place all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.  Easy peasy!
3. Pour into the cooled pie shell and refrigerate until the filling holds its shape.
4. Garnish with chocolate shavings and fresh berries. 🙂

EDIT: Gave a slice to my friend who’s really finicky about Tofu and she liked it.  Success!

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Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Happy almost New Years everyone! I can’t believe 2011 is almost over :O

I probably should make a list of resolutions for the New Year, but if I do, I doubt I’ll end up following through anyways.  It’s worth a try though, I suppose!!!

Next year I will:

1. Keep baking!
2. Bake different styles of food! (aka. gluten free, vegan, raw, ect.)
3. Improve my food photography.
4. CONTINUE POSTING ON CHOMPSOFLIFE. (emphasized so I don’t get lazy, hee hee)
5. Read and draw more.
6. Learn a new skill.
7. Do steps one to five, and repeat!

To celebrate this new year, what’s a better treat than chocolate cake? A luxuriously moist yet fluffy one at that! Top it with this Nutella frosting and you’ll opt out of New Years fireworks, choosing instead to stay with the cake.  A brilliant decision I might add.

Ultimate Chocolate Cake

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¾ cup boiling water

1. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso power in a large bowl.
2. Add the milk, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla to the dry ingredients, and whisk together for a minute, or until homogenous.
3. Pour in the boiling water, and whisk until smooth.  Batter will be quite runny.
4. Pour into 2 greased 9 inch cake pans, and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted without any crumbs. Cool completely.

Homemade Three Musketeers Bars

Two years ago I knitted my whole family scarves for Christmas.  Wait…that’s not right.  Oh yeah, I started five scarves and finished two, three are still half-made and somewhere in the back of my closet.  Last year I think I forget to buy presents altogether.  As you can probably tell, I’m not exactly the greatest at gifting during the holidays, but this was my year for redemption..

One of the gifts I made were these homemade three musketeer bars for my other half-brother Phil.  They were extremely simple to make, and they turned out amazing.  I ate myself silly on these little bite of chocolate heaven, but shhh, don’t tell Phil that the recipe made a lot more than the amount he received!

I always say to try out the recipes I post, but I’m really seriously about this one! With only three ingredients, you cannot go wrong and even if  you do-there’s no way the end result won’t be absolutely delicious!

Homemade Three Musketeer Bars Recipe

• 4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (2 regular sized bags)
• 1 (8-10 ounce) container of frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 tsps shortening or butter

Making the filling:

1. In a double boiler, melt 2 cups (1 bag) of chocolate chips.  Pour the chocolate in a large bowl.
2. Whisk the chocolate until no longer hot (lukewarm or cooler), and then fold in the thawed whipped topping.
3. Place wax paper on the bottom and sides of an 8×8 inch pan, and then spread the filling in the pan.
4. Freeze the filling for an hour, and then cut into whichever shapes are desired (I made small rectangles).

Coating the filling:

1. In the same double boiler as before, melt the remaining bag of chocolate chips along with the 2 tsps of shortening or butter.
2. Once the chocolate is completely homogenous, one by one, dip the frozen filling shapes in the chocolate, and then place on parchment paper to dry.
3. Store the homemade three musketeers bars in a freezer, or fridge.
4. ENJOY!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (regular or sugar free)

I never use to stay up past midnight on school nights.  I remember one night, sophomore year, where I stayed up until 11:30PM to finish a school paper-but that was an anomaly and every other night I would be asleep by 11:00PM.

This year, continuing that blissful sleep schedule has become impossible.  Even into the wee hours of the morning, I still find myself finishing Physics projects, putting the final touches onto English essays (you do not know how nerve wracking it is to write essays when your ability to write cohesively has decreased by 50% XD), or even just trying to start my math homework.

I’d like to blame my teachers for assigning so much homework-and they do-believe me, but I’m also not exactly the best at managing my time [could you say no to the internet? ;)].  As a result, these last few weeks have been a sleep deprived jumble of events, and there have been no blog posts for way. too. long. D:

BUT-it’s winter break now! 😀 I’m ready to sleep 18 hours every day (KIDDING), bake new recipes, take more pictures of food, hang out with my friends, and have fun.  To celebrate this momentous occasion-here’s a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  They’re easy to make, fun, and really delicious.  I hope you try them out and enjoy them!

Alice’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source of recipe here.

Ingredients

• 2 ¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 cup unsalted butter*
• ½ cup sugar**
• 1 ½ cup brown sugar, packed**
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 bag)

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. Cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together for 3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla.  Continue beating for another minute.
4. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients, and then gently fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. Drop ¼ cup sized cookie dough balls onto a parchment papered cookie sheet, and bake for about 9-12 minutes.  They are finished when the edges are golden brown, and the middle is barely cooked through.

* I decided to add ½ cup butter and ½ cup oil.  The oil adds a certain chewiness that the butter alone cannot achieve.

**I went for a sugar free cookie and replaced the sugar with 2 cups of coconut palm sugar and about 1 ½ tsp molasses.

Chocolate Sheet Cake with a Caramel Glaze

It’s almost halloween 😀

That of course means candy, pumpkin carving, halloween decorations, and, of course, scary movies parties with my friends.  Tonight, some friends and I watched Poltergeist, which turned out being the most unscary “horror” movie ever, haha!

And then I ended up putting makeup on myself and a friend (my makeovers are pretty awesome, if a total mess is what you’re aiming for ;D), which of course meant we needed a myspace style picture HAHA!

CLICK HERE for a video of my friend in the back (wearing the beautiful makeover by moi). Then, make sure to subscribe to her brilliant youtube page! 🙂

Now I just need to decide what to be for halloween….hmmmm…

Chocolate Sheet Cake with a Caramel Glaze Recipe:

Chocolate sheet cake recipe here.

Caramel glaze recipe here.

1. Make the chocolate sheet cake.  Allow to completely cool.
2. Boil the caramel glaze, and when still warm, pour on the cake and frost evenly.
3. Embellish the cake with sprinkles or just leave plain.  Enjoy!

Fleur de Sel Cupcakes

I first met my Tibetan godmother, Yeshi, when I was extremely young, probably still in nursery school.  At first she was solely my Nanny, but eventually, her family (she married and had three daughters) and mine were so close that when my parents decided to move to a new house, they specifically bought a lot with two main houses (connected) so that my Yeshi and her family could live with us.  Strange, I know. Whenever I try to explain how my godfamily and I are “related,” I always get a few blank stares.

Anyways, here’s to the 11th birthday of Yeshi’s eldest daughter, Lhaga.

She’s the most helpful, selfless, and considerate person I know, and she’s way too mature for her age (she’s more mature than me!).  She’s the one that’ll join me when I clean up my room, assist me when I bake, and help me without any complaints.  Happy birthday Lhaga, I hope your life as an 11 year old is amazing!

Fleur de Sel Cupcakes

*NOTE: All recipes are below.

• 1 batch chocolate cupcakes
• 1 batch Buttermilk Caramel Syrup (there will be leftover caramel, yum!)
• 1 batch whipped chocolate ganache
• Fleur de sel sea salt

1. Cut out cylindrical pieces of cake from the center of the cupcakes, and fill with the buttermilk caramel syrup.
2. Frost the cupcakes with the whipped chocolate ganache.
3. Sprinkle with the fleur de sel sea salt, and enjoy!

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¾ cup boiling water

1. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso power in a large bowl.
2. Add the buttermilk, eggs, oil, and vanilla to the dry ingredients, and whisk together for a minute, or until homogenous.
3. Pour in the boiling water, and whisk until smooth.  Batter will be quite runny.
4. Pour into ~30 cupcake wrappers, and bake at 350 degrees for 16 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted without any crumbs. Cool completely.

Buttermilk Caramel Syrup

*NOTE: Does not taste like buttermilk at all.  It’s quite honestly the best caramel you will ever eat though. 🙂

Recipe originally found here.

• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter
• 2 tbs corn syrup
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. In a large pot (And I cannot stress large enough.  Stick caramel sauce on a stove is not fun to clean up….not that I know ;P) combine all the ingredients but the vanilla.
2. Boil on medium heat until deep golden brown colored.
3. Take off heat, add vanilla, and then stir until combined.
4. Cool completely.

Whipped Ganache Frosting

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream (1 pint, I believe)
• 2 cups chocolate chips (1 bag of chocolate chips)
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Heat the cream until just about boiling.  Pour over the chocolate chips and allow to sit for a couple minutes.
2. Whisk the mixture until completely smooth.  Add the vanilla and stir to combine. Place in a fridge until cold (it’s essential that it’s not the teensiest bit warm).
3. Beat with an electric mixer until the frosting holds its shape.  Enjoy! (I honestly like whipped chocolate ganache more than this nutella frosting, shocking, I know!)

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I’m notorious among the people I know as being a baker.  In fact, whenever my friends come to my house, it’s normal to find us crafting various baked goods (well, in some cases it’s me baking and my friend eating XD).  My friend Sonia came over last week, and we made chocolate chip pancakes.  But, the problem (well, I wouldn’t say it’s much of a problem!) was that we made a rather large batch of chocolate-studded batter, even too much for two teens with voracious appetites!  Even after gorging on countless pancakes, I still had a gallon of batter.  Then, I proceeded to eat pancakes at every meal for the next three days.  Um, yum.  But anyways, one would think that after all those pancakes, I wouldn’t be able to look at them without feeling sick.  Nah, my love of pancakes remains firm.

These pancakes are perfectly fluffy, flavorful, and filling. If you’re not super paranoid about preservatives, you can make them super quickly using Bisquick, but if you’re more of a from-scratch type of cook, I’ve included the homemade biscuit mix recipe I myself use.  The homemade biscuit mix makes a lot, I must warn, but don’t fear, it can be used in any recipe calling for Bisquick.  (In fact, I’ll have an amazing recipe for pumpkin pie which uses the mix, which I plan on sharing shortly, perhaps when the weather cools down a bit)

Bisquick Style Biscuit Mix

• 4 cups all purpose flour (some can be subbed with WW flour)
• 2 tbs baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¾ cup buttermilk power (dry milk can be subbed, but buttermilk powder ensures optimum texture)
• 1 cup shortening (I used non hydrogenated, and it works great!)

1. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.  Whisk to combine.
2. Add the shortening, and kneed the mixture with your fingers until shortening is evenly distributed, and the mix barely holds its shape when squeezed.  Use in any recipe calling for bisquick.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

• 2 cups bisquick/biscuit mix (2 ½ cups for thicker, but still fluffy, pancakes)
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup milk (buttermilk if using bisquick)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup chocolate chips (increase or decrease as desired)

1. Mix the sugar, lemon juice, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.
2. Pour into bisquick/biscuit mix, and stir until barely combined.
3. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Cook the pancakes at medium heat for about 2 minutes, flip, and then cook until no raw batter remains.  The batter can be stored for up to three days (maybe even more, but there’s no way they won’t be all eaten by then!), covered, in a refrigerator.
5. Serve with whipped cream or pancake syrup, and enjoy!

Rolo Filled Brown Butter Cookies

Delicious.  Decadent.  Caramel-y. Chewy. Moist. Chocolate-y. Crispy edges. Soft centers. Fragrant.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words (and according to one of my old history teachers, ten thousand), but there are quite frankly no proper words to describe this picture.  I could write a novel describing the luxurious texture, and nutty, slightly vanilla-y scent of these cookies, but that wouldn’t even cover the most basic aspects of these cookies.

I’m serious when I say that taking pictures of these warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven-cookies required every ounce of my self control.  For my older brother, the temptation was perhaps even worse. Being the maniacal sister I am, I made him hold the cookies for the pictures and slowly break them apart to reveal the caramel…all with an empty stomach. Muhahaha  Needless to say, Once I finished snapping a couple shots, we quickly (and I mean quickly!) ate a majority of the batch, savoring each and every caramel-laced bite.  Here’s my advice to you: make em, savor em, finish em, make em again, repeat.

Rolo Filled Brown Butter  Cookies

adapted from here

• ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups AP flour* (you can replace 1 cup with whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ~30 rolos, unwrapped

1. Heat the butter in a saucepan at medium until the butter has a slightly nutty scent and is amber colored.  Pour the butter in a large bowl.
2. Add the two sugars and stir until combined.  Allow to cool completely (essential step!).
3. Beat in the two eggs, and the vanilla.
4. Sift the dry ingredients together in another bowl.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, and stir with a spatula until combined.
6. Measure out 1 tbs balls of dough, and wrap the dough around a rolo. (tip: used a bit of flour to stop your hand from sticking to the dough)
7. Bake at 350 degrees F, for about 8 minutes, or slightly golden brown around the edges.
8. Enjoy with a glass of milk, or tea, or coffee, or plain! 🙂

*NOTE: Others who have tried this recipe have had problems with the dough being too wet.   In my experience, the dough is very soft and sticky, but dusted with a little flour, it’s not too hard to shape them into balls.  If the dough is obviously too wet to even hold its shape, you can either a) add more flour (too much could result in tough cookies) b)place the dough in the fridge for an hour before forming the cookies.  I plan on playing around with this recipe a bit more, but until then, the two tips above should ensure nice cookies.

P.S. If you have a dog, make these to share.  Aiya [pictured above] wasn’t so pleased when I refused to give her any of the rolo cookies. Oh silly puppy 😛

Faux Hostess Cupcakes

At the beginning of the summer, I’ve joined a Tae Kwon Do program at the YMCA with some friends.  Why? Well, it looked like fun and during the summer, I hate being bored  (btw curing summer boredom is also a reason for the existence of this blog).  For a while at least five of my friends would do Tae Kwon Do together, but eventually that number dwindled to just two, my friend Sonia and I.

When Sonia went on vacation with her family, I was desperate to find another friend to go with me to Tae Kwon Do.  My friend Cecile (acciobojan on Tumblr) was the only person available to go with me, but convincing her to do Tae Kwon Do was no simple matter.  She had done Judo as a child, found it horrifying, and was reluctant to do any martial arts with me, even if only for an hour.  It turns out, cupcakes are good negotiators, especially when they’re filled with marshmallow cream and topped with ganache.  It’s a win-win situation for both of us!

Recipe for Faux Hostess Cupcakes here.

Chia Chocolate Pudding

If you’ve seen any of my posts already, it’s pretty evident that a majority of the time, I’m pretty unambitious with my culinary creations.  Even though it may appear like this dessert is simply another one of those lazy creations, for this pudding, I actually had a vision.  I hypothesized that a chocolate pudding, healthy enough for breakfast, could be made using Chia seeds.  Unfortunately, *spoiler alert*, it can’t!  As delicious as chia seeds are in recipes like chia seed pudding (a tapioca pudding made with chia), when blended, they are extremely bitter.  Heh, it was a nice attempt (and turned out really pretty!).  If you have any suggestions for how to create such a breakfast pudding, tell me, and I’d love to test out new ideas. For now though, my quest still continues for a breakfast chocolate pudding. mmmmm, chocolate pudding for breakfast, wouldn’t that be the life?

Since I feel bad posting a recipe that wasn’t exactly delicious, I recommend that instead, you make the chocolate pudding recipe below.  It’s relatively healthy (no cream or egg yolks!) and still really yummy (although, it’s more of a quick, light snack, than an indulgent dessert).

Recipe for chocolate pudding here.