Vegtastic!

This recipe is based on one of the first I veganized and posted on VegWeb way back in 2007: Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Brownies.

(Can I just say how awesome VegWeb is? The interface hasn’t changed a bit in the five years I’ve been using it, but it’s still a fantastic crowdsourced resource for vegan recipes.)

I call them “monkey brownies” because they use banana instead of egg — I was living in a suburb of Boston (booo) without a car in 2007, and the Shaw’s down the street definitely didn’t have commercial egg replacer or ground flax. Mashed banana seemed like the best alternative, and even though I’m not a huge fan of bananas, you can barely taste them.

Based on the comments, I doubled the baking chocolate and added chocolate chips. And because I never got to have nuts in brownies growing up (my bro hates them), I added a healthy dose of walnuts for added omega-3s.

They’re soy-free if you use soy-free peanut butter, Enjoy Life chocolate chips and a nut milk — I am loving the new Blue Diamond coconut-almond mix.

Monkey brownies

makes one 8″ x 8″ pan — 16 small squares

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 mashed banana
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, room temperature — the really creamy and processed kind
• 2 oz. melted bittersweet chocolate
• 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup walnuts

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
2. In another bowl, mix the banana and sugar. Add the peanut butter and melted chocolate.
3. Mix flour mixture into sugar mixture, adding the non-dairy milk a little at a time.
4. pour into a greased/floured 8″x8″ pan. Mixture will be very thick, so you may need to spread it out a bit.
5. bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out more or less clean. They will solidify a bit as they cool, too, so it can be a little soft in the middle.

Street food is super hot right now. The Guardian shared a list of the world’s best street foods, and xôi chiên phồng (xoi chien phong) — Vietnamese crispy donuts —  were conspicuously absent.

They’re my new obsession.

Erika was invited to the grand opening of La Lot, a new Vietnamese restaurant, and Mary, Janet and I got to join. We were treated to a buffet including the best fresh tofu spring rolls ever (they had a little bits of crunchy fried spring roll wrapper on the inside), skewers of shiitake mushrooms, taro-filled sweet dumplings, and a bunch of stuff other stuff that wasn’t vegan (Erika confirmed that these dishes were).

Mary and I went to the bar for a cocktail, and when we turned around, there was a golden orb larger than a bowling ball on the buffet: xôi chiên phồng. A server cut it into pieces with a pair of kitchen scissors, and we dug in, and our worlds changed a little bit.

Xôi chiên phồng is made from “coconut-infused sweet jasmine rice, fried into a crispy ball” (“xôi chiên phồng,” from what I can tell on the web, translates to “bloated, fried sticky rice“) and is almost like toffee: crunchy at first, then softens to a delightful chewiness.

The manager stopped by our table to ask how we liked the food, and I gushed about the donut. “How do you make them?” I asked. He clarified that he did not make them, and that they’re deep fried — here’s a good explanation of the science behind it.

He explained that they are popular street food in Vietnam, but are virtually unseen here.

Xôi chiên phồng are supposed to be good with spicy foods, and “it’ll stay [puffed] like that for 5 hours.”

La Lot is open to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights, and I think xôi chiên phồng will soon be a popular post-bar snack.

Prepare yourself for the most delicious dessert you’ve (maybe) never heard of: karioka (also spelled kareoka, not to be confused with karaoke, and just as fun). Or maybe karioka are old hat to you — I just assume that my thoughts and experiences reflect everyone else’s in this world.

Something about deep-fried dough balls on a stick, glistening with syrup, caught my fancy one day at Uwajimaya. Looking at the ingredients, I noted that they were vegan.

Madeline shared with me a recipe from Art of Dessert, which provides a thorough and foolproof walk-through of preparing karioka. Rianne’s version is crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, with a coconut-brown sugar glaze you will want to eat by the spoonful.

I don’t have a deep-fryer, but a emptying a bottle of canola oil into a deep frying pan did the trick — I’d never deep-fried before, and found it to be frighteningly easy. Hellooooo, chicken-fried chickpea cutlets!

Just be careful not to overknead the dough (this isn’t seitan, folks) — this will make the insides cakier. Still delicious though.

SpaBettie posted a recipe for orange cardamom rice krispie treats that I have been meaning to make for a while.

Go look at them — I’ll wait. Aren’t they pretty? Don’t they look fresh-tasting and summery?

I am a huge, huge fan of cardamom. Teenage-girl-with-Justin-Bieber huge. Autograph-my-chest-so-I-can-later-tattoo-it huge. Malamute huge. Audaciously huge.

It’s probably the best spice out there. Seriously, candle companies, please manufacture a cardamom candle so that my apartment can always smell festive and exotic.

However, the brisk air has me craving warmer flavors, and sunny oranges aren’t capturing the season for me.

So, playing with the cardamom theme, I tweaked it a bit. Added other chai spices:

And toasted coconut.

Image by Joyosity via Creative Commons

And there you have it, a cozy, easy dessert for autumn days.

Coconut Chai Rice Krispies

Ingredients:

• 3 tbs vegan margarine (I’ll try coconut oil next time — makes more sense, right?)
• 1 (10 oz) package Dandies marshmallows
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground clove
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• 6 cups Rice Krispies
• 1/2 cup toasted coconut*

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in a large pot.
2. When butter is completely melted, add marshmallows and spices. Stir until marshmallows are completely melted
3. Remove from heat and stir in marshmallows and toasted coconut until completely mixed.
4. Press mixture into a greased 13″ x 9″ x 2″ pan (for more, shorter squares) or 9″ x 9″ x 2″ pan (for fewer, taller squares). When cool, cut into squares.

* To toast coconut, heat a dry skillet over medium heat and add coconut, stirring until fragrant and brown.

During my first week at the small liberal arts institution in Maine that I attended for college, I sampled two unfamiliar local delicacies: Moxie and whoopie pies. I never took to the first, but developed an instant love for the second, mainly because Moxie is rancid carbonated urine, while whoopie pies taste like kittens playing with unicorns — magic.

Whoopie pies are essentially marshmallow fluff, sugar, and shortening sandwiched between the tops of cupcakes. They’re sold everywhere in Vacationland, and the best ones come wrapped in plastic so that the cake softens into the filling and it all turns into a delectable stick-to-your-fingers mess.

After I graduated from college and moved to Boston and then Seattle, I left whoopie pies for good. Or so I thought.

The New York Times (who loves coastal Maine possibly more than they love even Portland, OR, which is to say a lot) published an article in March, 2009 proclaiming them as the successor to the cupcake, and put whoopie pies on the national foodie map. They’re everywhere. Even Trader Joe’s and Starbucks sell them, and Oddfellows Cafe here in Seattle has held a whoopie pie baking competition for now two years running.

Peanut butter and fluff is a lunchbox favorite that easily translates to the whoopie pie, and since you can never go wrong with peanut butter (unless you’re deathly allergic, I guess), I typically make mine that way.

Since marshmallow is traditionally made with gelatin, whoopie pies wouldn’t be vegan without some help from Suzanne and her wonderful rice-based fluff.

Ahyup. The way life should be.

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Whoopie Pies

(adapted from VegWeb)

Cakes:

• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa, sifted
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup safflower oil
• 3 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer blended in 4 tablespoons warm water
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/2 cup hot coffee
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:

• 1 1/3 cup Suzanne’s ricemellow creme
• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter

I’m still tinkering a bit with this; 1 cup ricemallow creme : 1/2 cup shortening : 1/2 cup powdered sugar : 1/2 cup peanut butter makes too little, while 1 1/2 : 3/4 : 3/4 : 3/4 makes too much. I believe that the above stated quantities are the perfect amount, but when in doubt, go with 1 1/2 : 3/4 : 3/4 : 3/4.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
3. Beat together sugar and oil until combined; stir in coffee, soy milk, egg replacer and vanilla.
4. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and add wet to them. Stir until just mixed.
5. Using an ice cream scoop with a trigger, scoop batter into mounds 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
6. In a large bowl, beat together peanut butter and shortening until combined. Add ricemallow creme and beat until incorporated. Stir in powdered sugar. Pipe or spread between two halves.

That’s right, my very non-vegan (but veg-supportive) mother made a very non-traditional dessert.

My dad is having surgery on Monday, which sucks in and of itself, but the fact that they had to call off their vacation for the procedure makes the situation all the more bitter. This comes just a few weeks after the passing of a close family friend, so their spirits were already low.

So, I figured this was a good time for a visit and flew down to California for the weekend.

Mom hinted that there would be something sweet waiting for my arrival.

And there was! She made Vegan Culinary Crusade’s coconut lime cheesecake. I had tweeted the recipe, hoping to try it myself, and its manifestation as reality was wonderful — sweet, rich, unbelievably creamy, and quite fresh, just as I imagined it to be. My brother, not knowing it was vegan or raw, agreed that “the date cake” was really good, nodding his approval.

“wait! I forgot to put coconut on it!”

I knew it was a good thing Mom’s on Twitter.

She also stocked the fridge with tofu for morning scrambles,

baked cornbread because the bread she had on hand has honey,

whipped up a batch of quinoa salad (minus the cilantro — my brother is a cilantro hater),

left a sweet surprise on my nightstand,

and didn’t mind that I obsessively photographed it all for my blog. She even got in on the camera action.

Goodness, I’m spoiled. Thanks, Mom!

Much like adolescent girls with Twilight heartthrobs, brownie lovers fall into two camps: team fudgey and team cakey.

If you are a member of team fudgey, you will enjoy these brownies. If you fall into the cakey camp, you might want to look for an alternative dessert. Or, you can suck it up and just enjoy something ooey and gooey and chocolately, which describes these brownies pretty accurately.

If you are on a low-fat or soy-free diet, you will also love these brownies — they use no oil or egg replacer.

What do they use instead? Black beans.

So, they’re actually kinda sorta good for you, in the same sort of way that Vitamin water or baked potato chips are good for you. As in, not really good for you, but not as bad as some alternatives.

I’m not going to say these are the best brownies on the face of the planet. They aren’t. They lack the oily crumb that makes full-fat brownies, fudgey and cakey alike, so delicious. You probably wouldn’t request these brownies as part of your last meal.

They’re also sort of polarizing: some people will gobble down, like, 5 of them, while others will take a bite and leave the rest untouched on their plate — I served them at a party and this is exactly what transpired.

So why am I posting such a love-’em-or-hate-’em-recipe that even I say is not the most delicious thing since the dawn of time?

Well, mostly because I’ve been curious about black bean brownies and wanted to report the facts and only the facts, ma’am. And I suspect you may be curious about them too. Plus, I feel that the spirit of VeganMoFo is an honest representation of everything you’ve cooked — what vegans really eat.

Also, they’re really good for what they are: a low-fat dessert — low fat desserts are never going to be as scrumptious as their full-fat alternatives.

Smother them in So Delicious coconut frozen dessert and hot fudge and call it a brownie sundae and you’ve got it made. That sorta defeats the purpose of low-fat, but increases the deliciousness factor. Or, stir them into a blended frozen banana.

I used No Meat Athlete’s black bean brownie recipe using all purpose flour instead of whole wheat and walnuts instead of hazelnuts, and added chocolate chips for a little extra decadence.

My college dining hall served some pretty killer dessert options, and these babies were one of my favorites.

In fact, I credit magic bars for ending my first foray into veganism. And also for 7 of the freshman 15.

After going vegetarian my freshman year, I deviated back to pescatarianism during my junior semester abroad in Russia because reliable sources told me I would starve in The Motherland if I did not — I wouldn’t compromise now, but I was young and naive then.

Despite allowing fish into my diet, I still consumed an insane of dairy in Russia. What, no meat? Why, serve her some cheese, comrade!

I ate dairy products I never would have eaten in the US. For example, I remember sitting in a small cabin above the arctic circle two ours outside of Murmansk, eating condensed milk on thick crackers, with a local repeating over and over “sgushonoye malako… sgushonoye malako… gushonoye malako” — condensed milk — before I could finally remember how to say it.

When I returned home, I was so disgusted with dairy — not from any ethical standpoint but just the bloated over-consumption of it — that I gave it up. And eggs, just for good measure. And I ate vegan all summer, aided by muffins and cookies from Nabolom.

But that all ended the day following my return to campus when the dining hall served no other than magic bars, those rich confections of chocolate and coconut atop a crust of buttery graham, bound by a sweet web of… sgushonoye malako. I caved.

I’ve managed to recreate almost everything I enjoyed before going vegan, but condensed milk has been the proverbial thorn in my side, being the one item that I could not find a vegan substitute.

But someone made a vegan condensed milk, and my little vegan world is full of magic (bars) again.

Vegan Magic Bars

Adapted from AllRecipes

makes 9

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup  margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 (330 ounce) can condensed soy milk
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine butter and graham cracker crumbs, and press into a greased 9″ x 9″ pyrex dish.
3. Pour condensed soy milk over crumbs.
4. Evenly cover with chocolate chips, walnuts and coconut.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until coconut is toasted.
6. Refrigerate until cool, then cut into squares.

Susan tweeted her pleasure at the number of cats in VeganMoFo posts, but that there could always be more. Zeno crawled into my light box while I was taking photos, and was happy to pose for the camera.

Avocado? In a dessert? Whaaaa…?!

No, this chocolate mousse from Love Veggies and Yoga does not taste anything like an after-dinner guacamole. The avocado gives the body a rich lightness, but coco powder and agave nectar completely mask any avocado flavor. It’s all chocolate, baby.

Seriously, one bite of this raw, egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free, tree nut-free, peanut-free, processed sugar-free chocolate confection will prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can eat decadently on any diet, no matter how many restrictions. (Unless you’re allergic to avocado, in which case… I pity you.)

Proof: a friend is allergic to gluten and cane sugar, among other things. I’m vegan. Finding the common denominator of foods we can both enjoy can be tricky, but not impossible. For her birthday this past weekend, I whipped up a batch of VCTOTW’s chocolate gluten-freedom cupcakes made with palm sugar and topped them with this chocolate mousse and raspberries.

Success.

Cupcake photo by Carlos Sanchez, who is a talented professional photographer, so I probably shouldn’t be stealing his photos, but they’re my cupcakes, so… sorry, Carlos.

Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse — from Love Veggies and Yoga

• 4 Avocados
• 2/3 c cocoa powder
• 1 and 1/3 cups Agave
• 1.5 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

You can sub out another liquid sweetener for the agave — I subbed 1/2 cup of maple syrup for 1/2 cup of the agave in mine.

Back in the day, I started following Bing on Facebook because I had an interview for a social-media-related position with that team. I didn’t get the job, but still follow Bing’s page because the folks managing it actually share interesting stuff.

Yesterday, Bing posted a list of must-haves for perfect cupcakes.

Now, I bake a lot of cupcakes, and I don’t use half the crap on that list. I’m by no means a master baker, but I do win friends with my baked goods. Here are my essentials.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: other vegan baking books have cupcake recipes, and you can always look online or veganize something from Betty Crocker, but this book is really the vegan cupcake bible; if I ever have to swear some sort of vegan cupcake oath, I will place my hand on Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

A pastry bag and a few tips: Cupcake presentation is all in the frosting. The cupcakes of the bake sales and birthday parties of your youth may have been all about the spooned-on globs of frosting, someone’s mom trying to finish up a banal project as quickly as possible so that she could open a bottle of wine to forget about her wasted potential, but that won’t fly. Today it’s all about being Martha F*cking Stewart. You need a real pastry bag and a few nice tips, like a 1M for fluffy grocery-store style cones, a #1-3 for writing, a #104 and #190 for making roses, or other fancy options.

Also, you need to make your own frosting. The Pillsbury or whatever varieties are tasty enough (and many are actually vegan), but they’re full of all sorts of unhealthy stuff. I mean, cupcakes are technically “unhealthy,” but the crap in store-bought frosting is really bad for you. Transfats and preservatives– ick. So, you will want to whip up a batch from non-hydrogenated shortening and buttery sticks and the vegan powdered sugar you get at Whole Foods.

A couple of sturdy mixing bowls: I’ve heard people to say that you need a stand mixer to make light, fluffy frosting. Pshaw. My grandmother cooked for a living and never used anything other than elbow grease and a spoon. You think folks didn’t make cake before we had electricity? Nope — a sturdy bowl (glass or thick recycled plastic) and an ol’ fashioned work ethic is all it takes.

A whisk: Lumps in the batter? Yup, you’re gonna get ‘em, but you don’t want to over mix. A whisk is mighty handy when combining liquids and powder.

A large spoon: You’re going to be gripping it pretty tightly, so you want a spoon with a thick handle that won’t cut into your hands when beating frosting. Bamboo spoons work well for this purpose.

A sifter: Lumps in the batter are easy enough to get out, but lumps in frosting are a whole ‘nother animal. Sift your powdered sugar for smooth, decadent icing.

A cupcake tin: You don’t need anything fancy or flexible or teflon coated — search at Value Village or Goodwill before buying one at the grocery store. Use unbleached, eco-friendly liners when possible — cute and colorful liners are tacky anyhow.

A spatula: Essential for scraping the last bit of batter or frosting from the bowl and into the liners and/or your mouth.

A collapsible cupcake carrier: I did the “transporting cupcakes in a box” thing for a while, which failed because a) boxes are awkward to carry for long distances (it’s a 1.75 mile walk to my work) and b) I rarely have a good box lying around. A collapsible cupcake carrier like this one doubles as a cake carrier, has a handle for easy transportation, and collapses for apartment kitchen storage.

image by veganheathen via Creative Commons