Weekend Discovery: Vegan Chocolate Mousse

I drove out to the country to visit a friend over the weekend and we made a visit to the Farmer's Market, which is smaller in size than I'm used to (and the townspeople were oddly apologetic about it), but had such a nice variety of things that don't make it in to the city's market that I may be tempted to drive out on a Saturday in future.

One of the many goodies that I took home with me was a small container of chocolate mousse from a catering company. I was really after their beet, goat cheese and pecan salad, but when the man in front of me started raving about the mousse I had to try it out for myself. It was rich without being heavy, and had a darker more intense flavour that I really liked. Then I read the accompanying ingredient list on the container's lid. It didn't strike me as odd to read that the dessert was made with avocados (I'd heard of it before, and have even made chocolate pudding using tofu, so it didn't bother me at all). Some of the other ingredients, however, seemed bizarre and piqued my curiousity, so I hung on to the lid and later did a quick google search, not expecting to find anything.

Except that I did. And this afternoon I whipped up a small 'practice' batch, since I plan to serve it over Christmas and want to be sure that nothing goes awry. Avocados are such a marvel. This recipe, like the Mexican tofu chocolate pudding from last year, is definitely a keeper. I may not even tell anyone what it's made of.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse
Recipe:

1 ripe avocado
4 Tbsp. maple syrup (or agave nectar)
1 Tbsp. coconut butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp. tamari (a thick soy sauce)

Mix ingredients well in food processor. Add 1/2 cup sifted cocoa powder. Process until blended. Add more sweetener if necessary (mine needed an extra Tbsp or so).

Chill in refrigerator to set for a firmer dessert or eat right away. Garnish with berries, fresh mint leaves, or even a dash of Mexican chili powder for a spicy kick.

image source: What Katie Ate

Sweet Tooth - The Holiday Edition

For gifting:  

Cascabel Chili Chocolate Fudge via Anthology

...

For hosting:  

Hazelnut Chocolate Pudding via Sweet Paul

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For toting to avoid arriving empty-handed:  

Gingersnap Cherry Cheesecake via RealSimple

...

For snacking on while watching Xmas movies:  

Dark Chocolate Caramels with Fleur de Sel

recipe via David Lebovitz

image via What Katie Ate

Sweet Tooth

Be forewarned: this post is not for the weak of will and may induce serious cravings. The days are getting shorter and colder, so naturally I've been gravitating to the kitchen, mostly to make soups and breads, but ever since my Thanksgiving pumpkin custard tart triumph I've had the urge to bake. 

I've been salivating over these desserts and waiting for just the right occasions to make them for a while now ... and am still waiting, because were I to make them on a whim (like I've nearly done several times over the last two weeks), they would sit on my counter and taunt me until consumed. Especially that pumpkin s'more cake. Unreal. 

For real, though, I may just start at the bottom of this page with the apple hand pies (hand pies!) and work my way up. Or I may just surrender after the pies and make these beauties, which I've been lusting after for a while: homemade twix bars. Enjoy...

pumpkin s'more cake 

from dessert for breakfast

dark chocolate salted caramel tart 

from sweetapolita

harvest cake with vanilla cream 

from roost

lemon raspberry breakfast rolls

from joy the baker

cheddar apple hand pies 

from dessert for breakfast

oh but there's more... double chocolate caramel pecan brownies, my no-fail go-to chocolate fudge, no-bake peanut butter tart, s'more pie, and homemade oreos

Dream Shoppe

source 1 & 2

The Selby featured this delightful pie shop in T Magazine today. It's called Four & Twenty Blackbirds and is located in Brooklyn, and now I'm sad because even though it hadn't crossed my mind to call my (non-existent) pie shop Four and Twenty Blackbirds, now I can't name it that, just like I can't use Queen of Tarts.

I was (half) joking with an acquaintance from my undergrad who I haven't seen in years about dropping everything and opening up a pie shop this past weekend after commiserating over the dismal outlook for those trying to enter the workforce with a graduate degree in the arts. Dismal. Hence, pie, because who doesn't love pie?

Sisters Melissa and Emily Elsen love pie and opened their pie and coffee shop over a year ago. Funnily enough I actually came across their recipe for maple buttermilk custard pie last week while searching for recipes for the pumpkin custard tart that I planned to make for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. It so happened that such a recipe doesn't exist, so I made it up myself and was quite pleased with the results (see recipe below), but didn't take any photos because I was too busy brining/roasting a turkey and making cranberry sauce, roasted vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes, all while it was almost 30 degrees outside. Unreal.

all photos from The Selby via T Magazine

Pumpkin Custard Pie
*filling adapted from blackberry custard pie recipe; Sweet Tart Pastry from Baking Illustrated

Filling:
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1/2 cup ricotta
3 eggs
4 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pastry:
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups flour
2/3 confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp
1/2 cup butter

Wild Blackberries

My hands and feet are covered in scratches from my forage into blackberry bushes this weekend, but it was so worth it. I picked about 2 quarts worth in less than an hour, and then spent about 4 hours in the kitchen creating these beauties:

The peach and blackberry galette was inspired by a recipe I found via gojee.com (my go-to lately for searching recipes by ingredient) which I decided to make with the excess pastry left over from the tarts. Because the tart pastry was so sweet it ended up tasting like a giant shortbread cookie (not a bad thing, in my books), and the peaches and blackberries were such a good complement.

The blackberry custard tarts are my best recipe find in a while. They were fairly time-consuming (such an understatement considering I picked the blackberries myself in addition to the many stages of pastry prep). Since I was using mini tart pans I had to halve the custard recipe and even then I still ended up tossing a bit of the custard mix down the drain, so next time I will either buy more tart pans or get a regular size pan. These are too good to waste.

There are still lots of blackberries remaining from the weekend, some of which I tossed in a salad (the blackberry juices were really good with the olive oil and balsamic dressing I made). I think the rest will go in a blackberry apple crisp later this week ...

On A Stick

I really love this photo from food photographer/blogger Matt Armendariz's cookbook On A Stick. Those mojito melon skewers look like the perfect post-beach treat, and the frozen bananas (which I've only had twice in my life, the first time was when I was very young on Canada Day someone was selling them in our little town park - this left a big impression on me) I will always associate with the Frozen Banana stand in Arrested Development. They look like they require some prep, but surely they can't be that hard to assemble?

A year or so ago I discovered his blog Matt Bites and found a link to his photography portfolio. It has since been updated so my all-time favourite dessert photo guaranteed to induce salivation and sweet cravings has disappeared forever. It was a rustic baking tin filled with what looked like a home-made twix bar in cake form: biscuit base, caramel centre, and dark chocolate layer on top. 

Ode to The Minimalist: Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding

Mark Bittman has left his post as The Minimalist at the NY Times where for over a decade he deconstructed and simplified cooking and baking for the Everycook. My two favourite recipes that he introduced to my repertoire are Jim Lahey's No-Knead bread and his cheese and herb scone recipe from How to Cook Everything (I made this one at least three times a week throughout the fall until Christmas took over and my backyard rosemary plant succumbed to the frost).

He recently re-posted a video from 2 years ago featuring his recipe for mexican chocolate tofu pudding. I was intrigued, so I made it for my sister's birthday this weekend in lieu of cake. This one's a keeper. It was spicy and chocolaty and smooth like pudding - except the texture came from the soft tofu and not heavy cream. I doubled the recipe and kept the leftovers in the fridge overnight, which meant that by the morning it had set and was rather like a mousse. I may prefer it that way, actually.

Birthday Tofu Pudding

Mark Bittman makes pudding

Jim Lahey's no-knead bread