Recipe Box

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce

I wanted to make a cake for my roommate’s birthday party and got the whole chocolate raspberry idea in my head.  Found the recipe linked below.  Came out really yummy, even though I only had a square glass baking dish.  I mixed a little water in sugar to sub for the corn syrup in the glaze, and we got ice cream to go with instead of whip cream. It was a big hit! (I also made the balloon bouquet out of water balloons and green glitter pipe cleaners.)

Chocolate Pudding

Needed some comfort food tonight and was happy to find some cornstarch in the cupboard so I could make pudding!

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cups skim milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Got the proportions here: http://www.food.com/recipe/thick-chocolate-pudding-76491

but I prefer to make my pudding on the stovetop, so I sifted the dry ingredients together and then added a little milk at a time whisking away.  I love that magic moment when it starts to thicken, especially after it seems like it’s just not going to work.  That’s also when I added the vanilla.

Yum.

Cashew Cacao Coconut Confection

(OK, so I was on a “C” roll there and Confection sounds better than Balls to me)

In a bit of a chocolate panic but trying to both be good and not go out or spend money to indulge it, I found myself rummaging around the kitchen for a substitute.  Hot chocolate wasn’t going to cut it, I wanted it chewable.  Seeing a bag of cashews and remembering my little almond treats from previously, (ok, yeah, the grinder was still out on the counter from when I just made some more of them!) I decided to experiment again.

I think it was about a cup of finely ground cashews, about two heaping tablespoons of raw cacao powder, and then I turned on the mixer and started drizzling honey in until it looked like it was going to hold together.  

Rolling little balls by the rounded tablespoonful, I remembered that I still had some shredded coconut as well, so I ended up rolling them in a layer of that.

They are kind of intense, like a strong dark chocolate, and definitely satisfying! 

Cacao Dusted Almond-Honey-Protein Cups

Once again you’re going to have to forgive my amazing webcam photo.  It’s sort of a this or nothing deal in terms of actually getting a post up!

A few parts of my recent quest to up the protein in my vegetarian diet are to take more time preparing and enjoying my meals, simplify, and also find protein sources that are easy to grab on the go.  On top of that I’m trying to reduce sugars and starches where I can.  Oh, and try not to spend too much money.  Sort of all common sense, works on a lot of levels type stuff.

One of my ideas for grab and go snacks was to try adding in more nuts, which I’ve usually avoided because of the high fat/calorie counts.  However, it seems to be working out that if I have more carefully chosen proteins and fats, I’m not as hungry for starchy things.  It’s all a bit of a balancing act in the experimental stages right now.

In any case, I found some pretty tasty and simple protein bars at the local health food store that just had almonds, honey and whey protein in the ingredients, which made it seem like they couldn’t be all that hard to make myself!  They also reminded me a bit of the Indian fudge called burfi, so I started looking up some burfi recipes.  I found quite a few but none that were as simple as those three ingredients.  

But with a few of those ideas in mind, I toasted some almonds and ground them up in my little coffee grinder, and dumped them in the Kitchen Aid with some honey and whey protein powder.  The consistency was pretty near the same as my store-bought bars, but the vanilla flavored protein powder flavor was rather overwhelming, and not really my favorite flavor in the first place, which is probably why I still had some left to use.

So I began a little trial and error of adding more nuts, more honey and eventually even adding a bit of salt and some cardamom until I felt like the whey was no longer the dominant flavor.

Then when I was looking for a pan to press the mixture into bars, I saw my super mini muffin tins.  Seeing those also triggered a memory of my little heart-shaped chocolate molds, so I dragged those out too and tried pressing some into both.  Since they kind of just mushed when I tried to take them out, I stuck them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to get them more solid for un-molding. (One batch that went in longer than that was also hard to get out, too stuck.)  I also did put a portion of it into a small square pan so I can try cutting out bars.

Inspired by the heart theme, I remembered I have a teeny little heart cookie cutter, so I pressed that into the muffin tin ones and sprinkled in some raw organic cacao powder.  I dusted some of the hearts with the powder as well, and stuck a goji berry on the non-dusted hearts, and found some little petite-four papers to put them all in.  Super-duper cute!

I think these would also be tasty without the protein powder, or with a non-flavored whey.  Some of the burfi recipes called for soaking the nuts for a few hours or overnight in order to remove the skins, and most of them used sugar rather than honey.  It seems there are really many possibilities!  I haven’t checked out whether or not it’s cheaper to make these than to buy the bars, but at least for this batch I used honey and protein powder I already have had for a while.  But they are tasty and easy enough that I am definitely willing to keep experimenting!

Eggless Cheesecake

There is a story in my family lore about “The day my brother ate the cheesecake”.

For some reason the middle brother was left home alone while the rest of us (me, the youngest brother, our two cousins and my best friend) went to church.  He may not have actually been ALONE alone, but he was alone with the half full 9x13 inch pan of my mom’s cheesecake for long enough to eat the whole thing.

When we all came home to find a few graham cracker crumbs, feeling understandably robbed, we took to MacPaint to express our frustrations.  I recently uncovered a copy of our protest letter during a de-cluttering session. (Names have been blurred to protect the innocent and not so innocent)

If you can’t quite read my classy webcam shot of the letter, this is what it says (I am quite sure the all caps are for angry emphasis):

DEAR MOM,

[BROTHER] ATE ALL OF THE CHEESECAKE WHILE WERE AT CHURCH.  WE ARE VERY ANGRY AND THINK WE DESERVE SOME DESSERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE ALSO THINK THAT [BROTHER] SHOULD GET IN TROUBLE BUT YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF THAT.

THE ANGRY, DESSERTLESS KIDS,

HEATHER MILLER

[YOUNGEST BROTHER] MILLER

[COUSIN ONE] MILLER

[COUSIN TWO] MILLER

[BEST FRIEND]

P.S. NOT ONLY DID [BROTHER] EAT ALL THE CAKE, HE GAVE HEIDI A LOT OF TROUBLE.  HE WOULD NOT EAT.  WE WONDER WHY?  ALL HE HAD THIS MORNING WAS HALF A CHEESECAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The captions on the image say:

[BROTHER] “CAKE EATER” MILLER

SMELLY HAIR —->

JEANS STILL FIT MOM HE JUST NEEDS HELP TO BUTTON THEM. HA! (this was something he was known to say when growing out of his pants)

Heidi was our babysitter.  You may not be able to see the shower of crumbs spraying down his mouth (spray paint tool anyone?) Notice also the perforated strips of holes in the paper for the printer to pull it through.  Old school!

Anyway, when my friend sent out a semi-panicked Skype to a group chat last week because her boyfriend had requested an eggless cheesecake for his birthday, I was pretty sure my mom’s old recipe would do the trick.  Mom was able to track down the recipe in time to save the day, although the boyfriend decided he wanted to go out and the actual cake making was put off to another day, so I haven’t heard back from my friend yet as to how (if) it worked for her.

from Miriam Kasin’s Age of Enlightenment Cook Book

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup milk
2 8 ounce packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind (optional)

mix cornstarch into milk until there are no lumps
place in a blender with cream cheese, sugar and lemon rind. Blend until smooth

pour mixture into a 9 inch pie pan lined with graham cracker crust (choose your favorite - could alternately be some other sort of cookie crumb crust)

bake 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes - until top is lightly browned in a few places

topping options - when cool
a layer of lightly sweetened sour cream
berry sauce
lightly sweetened cut fresh fruit 

another option I used to make was to make “cheese cake bars”

to do this I added an additional 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch
lined a 13 x 9 inch cake pan with graham cracker crust
this produced a thinner firmer layer of cheesecake that could then be cut into bars

Then I asked her about making it mocha, which was also part of the boyfriend’s request.  I also looked up a couple recipes, they seem to say 1/3 a cup of espresso or very strong coffee, added after the cheese/milk part is blended.  I would maybe start out with a couple tablespoons at a time so that it doesn’t get too liquid-y.  Another option could be to use a powdered instant coffee blended in.  Some recipes also add a wee bit of vanilla at that point as well.  Anyway, this was her reply:

yep, I think mocha would work. then leave out the lemon for sure

Since mocha is also chocolate some fun ways to do that would be a chocolate cookie crust

or a graham cracker crust then a layer of chocolate chips.  I would heat the chips on top of the crust at low temp - not to cook the crust but to melt the chips. The using the back of a spoon to press them down to a single layer.

then pour on the espresso flavored cheesecake blend and bake

Yeah, I mean, I guess can’t really say I blame my brother for eating all that cheesecake. The stuff is darn good!  As well as that gem of a letter!  Maybe I should get back into graphic design…