Tag Archives: chocolate

Vegan

Amazing Vegan Brownies

Taste amazing!

Ingredients

  • 275ml Plant based milk (I used Alpro Vanilla)
  • 150ml Ground nut oil (I used coconut)
  • 2tsp Vanilla Extract (I used 1 pod)
  • 2tbsp Ground Flax seeds
  • 60ml Hot water
  • 125g Plain Flour (I used SR)
  • 125g Cocoa powder
  • 1/2tsp Baking powder (only for plain flour)
  • 175g Soft brown sugar
  • 150g Vegan Choc Chips (optional)
  • 100g Chopped Hazelnuts

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 160C
  • Line a 20x20cm baking tray with baking paper
  • Whisk the milk, oil and extract and put aside
  • Mix the Flax and hot water and set aside
  • Whisk all the other ingredients together, except the chips and nuts
  • Beat the Flax seeds into the milk mixture
  • Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture and add the chips/nuts
  • Scrape into the lined tin
  • Bake for 20-25 mins
  • Let them cool completely and cut into pieces.
Vegan

Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake

Ingredients (One 1-layer cake with frosting)

For Cake:
3/4 cup peeled, cooked, and cooled orange sweet potato (see note)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water, divided
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole-grain spelt flour
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup mini or regular non dairy chocolate chips
1/2 scant teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 scant teaspoon baking soda
For Frosting:
1 loosely packed cup peeled, cooked, and cooled sweet potato (see note)
2/3–3/4 cup coconut sugar or other unrefined sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 scant cup raw cashew butter or almond butter
1/4 rounded teaspoon sea salt
2–5 tablespoons non dairy milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

For Cake:

  • Preheat oven to 170°C/350°F. Lightly coat an 8” x 8” brownie/cake pan or a 9” round cake pan with coconut or other oil, and fit the bottom of the pan with a small piece of parchment paper.
  • In a blender (or using a handheld blender and a deep cup or vessel), puree the sweet potato, 1/2 cup of the water, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, and vanilla extract until completely smooth.
  • In a large bowl, combine the flour, coconut sugar, chocolate chips, and sea salt, then sift in the cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda.
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry (be sure to scrape out all the blended ingredients with a spatula, and use the remaining 1 tablespoon of water to rinse the blender jar and get out any remaining puree).
  • Mix until just well incorporated. Transfer to the prepared pan, bake for 21–23 minutes, remove, and let cool on a cooling rack.

Sweet Potato Note: Orange sweet potato is a little sweeter and also a little looser than yellow sweet potato. If you’d like to use yellow, add another 1–2 tablespoons of water, and another 1 tablespoon of maple syrup to the wet ingredients to loosen slightly.
For Frosting:

  • Place the sweet potato, coconut sugar, cocoa powder, cashew butter, sea salt, 1–2 tablespoons of the milk, and vanilla extract in a blender or food processor and puree until very smooth. It’s best to use a blender or processor (versus a stand mixer) if using orange sweet potato, to fully smooth out the potato.
  • Taste, and add more sweetener if desired, and also another 2–3 tablespoons of milk if needed to thin to preferred consistency (you may need more milk using yellow sweet potato as they aren’t quite as moist as the orange).
  • Puree until smooth, scraping down the blender/processor bowl as needed. Puree until as smooth as possible.
  • Transfer to a container and refrigerate until ready to use. Or, get a spoon and dig in!
Vegan

Chocolate Cherry Porter Bread

Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8-10

INGREDIENTS

For the Bread
  • 2 cups (350g) SR flour
  • ¾ cup (70g) sugar
  • ½ cup (50g) cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp. baking powder (if using plain flour)
  • ½ tsp. baking soda (if using plain flour)
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 12Oz (350ml) Porter Beer (Sainsburys TTD)
  • ¼ cup (60g) Vegan Margarine, melted (Pure Soy)
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 cups (250g) fresh cherries, pitted and coarsely chopped
For the Chocolate Glaze
  • ½ cup (100g) Vegan Chocolate
  • ½ tbsp. Vegan Margarine (Pure Soy)

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the Bread
  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. Grease or spray a 2lb loaf tin (unless it's nonstck)
  3. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  4. Add porter, margarine and vanilla. Stir just until blended.
  5. Fold in cherries.
  6. Pour into loaf pan.
  7. Bake 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Make the Glaze
  1. Melt chocolate chips on stove top or by microwaving in 30 second increments.
  2. Add margarine and stir until melted and blended.
Finish
  1. Allow loaf to cool and then remove from pan.
  2. Drizzle with glaze.

IMG_20150207_181145

Verdict

Unfortunately this turned out very bland.  The texture was OK, just not much taste.  I'll tweak this until I get it right, then I'll update.

Vegan

Vegan Chocolate Cake

For the cake

190g SR flour
225g sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
240ml warm water (you may substitute this for coffee if you want a deeper taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
80ml vegetable/Coconut oil
1 teaspoon white or apple cider vinegar

For the glaze

115g sugar
4 Tablespoons margarine or vegan butter substitute
2 Tablespoons soy milk
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1) Prepare the Cake

Preheat oven to 350F (177C). In an 8 x 8 inch square pan, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt with a fork. Add the water or coffee, vanilla extract, vegetable oil and vinegar. Mix the ingredients together. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

2) Prepare the Glaze

In a small saucepan bring the sugar, margarine, soy milk and cocoa powder to a boil, stirring frequently. Simmer for 2 minutes, remove from heat and stir an additional 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract.

3) Glaze the Cake

Pour the glaze onto cake and let it cool for one hour. This recipe makes 1, 8 x 8 inch square Vegan Chocolate Cake.
IMG_20140208_192022
Ok it doesn't rise much, but seriously... it's goooooood!
Unfortunately, the photo doesn't do it justice. :(
Note:  I find if you have a tin where the side comes off, if you pour the frosting on top while the cake is still in the tin and then leave it in the fridge over night.  The frosting becomes a viscous fudge of awesomeness!
IMG_20140209_125235
Vegan

Peanut Butter Brownies

Ingredients:

  • 225g crunchy peanut butter
  • 200g bar dark chocolate, broken into pieces
  • 280g soft light brown sugar
  • 3 egg replacer
  • 100g self-raising flour

Method:

  1. Set aside 50g each of the peanut butter and chocolate.
  2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking parchment.
  3. Gently melt remaining peanut butter, chocolate and all the sugar in a pan, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has just about melted.
  4. Turn off heat and use a wooden spoon to beat in the eggs one by one.
  5. Stir in the flour and scrape into the tin.
  6. Melt reserved peanut butter in the microwave on High for 45 secs, or in a pan, until runny, then drizzle over the brownie.
  7. Bake for 30-35 mins until it has a crust, but the middle still seems slightly uncooked.
  8. Melt reserved chocolate, drizzle over the brownie, then cool in the tin before cutting into squares.

Notes:

Apparently this makes 16 squares!!  :)

Allow to go completely cold before cutting.

I doubled the ingredients for the picture below.. ;)

IMG_0003

Vegan

Guinness Cake

Ingredients

for the cake

250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa powder
400g caster sugar
142ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

for the topping

300g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double cream (or whipping cream)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
  2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
  3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
  4. When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
  5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.