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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Pumpkin Pudding (Pie)

I think I should change my name to Miss. Indecisive.  -really!

I’m the one who spends hours at restaurants going “ummmm ummmmm can I have the grilled chee…wait no….ummm can I have the vegetable pasta…actually I think I want grilled…”

Then there are multiple choice tests where I go back and forth between two answers until my brain is mush.

And then there was that time where I went and bought a really nice dress-and then I decided it was too expensive and returned it…without even leaving the store!

Oh yeah, and then there was the time when I tried to write a blog post about Pumpkin Custard, and I didn’t know what picture to choose. Since I’m still deciding on that one, in honor of the Taco Shell Girl:

So there you have it-both pictures of the pumpkin custard (and a third bonus picture below!).  Make this recipe as soon as humanly possible.  It can’t replace the joy of a traditional pumpkin pie-nothing can- but it certainly couldn’t hurt to have one more pie at thanksgiving.  Plus, you can make it crustless and call it healthy-I mean, pumpkins are vegetables, aren’t they 😉

Pumpkin Pudding (Pie)

Crust:

• 6 ounces cookie crumbs (I used spiced ginger cookies, yum!)
• 6 tbs butter

1. Melt the butter and stir together with the cookie crumbs.
2. Press on the bottom of a spring-form cheesecake pan, and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  Allow to cool before adding pumpkin filling.

Pumpkin Pudding:

• ½ cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbs pumpkin pie spice
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 tbs butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Add the sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, milk, and pumpkin puree into a large pot.  Heat until just about boiling.
2. In a regular sized bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and corn starch.
3. Add about ½ cup of the hot milk mixture to the egg yolks, a little at a time, whisking constantly.
4. Pour the egg yolks into the pot, and cook together for about 3-5 minutes, or until thick.  Whisk the mixture as it cooks (or it will burn, eek!)
5. Pour the hot filling onto the pie crust, allow to cool at room temperature, and then refrigerate until chilled.  Cover the top of the pie with plastic wrap to stop the custard from forming a skin.  Alternatively, pour the custard into small bowls or ramekins and serve pudding style.  Enjoy!

P.S. I made some custom “Chompsoflife” cups in my ceramics class.  A giveaway in the future perhaps?!

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.