Peanut Butter Pillows or Heaven in a bite

Sometimes I indulge and most times it's by coming up with recipes I think up before I go to bed. Then I will dream that I'm in Charlie's (Vegan) Chocolate Factory and Johnny Depp is baking the most delicious looking things for me. Sigh. This recipe I did not dream up, but dreamed of a lot. It's a recipe I had bookmarked a long time ago because it involves mixing my two favourite things, chocolate and peanut butter.

Every time I stole this cookie from my fridge I wanted to pinch myself for giving in again. I am trying to reverse my cavities and the progress so far has been pretty good. I don't feel immense pain when I eat something sweet and that's only because I have stayed away from the good stuff (refined, sugary and fried food).  It's hard to stop eating sweet specially because I bake mostly sweet stuff and I have to keep tasting batters and frosting which then starts the whole craving sugar cycle. But this cookie will destroy all resolutions. It can be made healthier and may be one day I will dare to try it again. Whoever got a few of these cookies finished it all within the hour. 

This recipe is an adaption of Terry Hope Romero's recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows which I found on the Post Punk Kitchen's website. The instructions are the same with a few changes I made, like making the peanut butter from scratch and using whole wheat instead of maida.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup any neutral oil

1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons black cocoa or more cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1 cup roasted peanuts

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons non-dairy milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, black cocoa if using, baking soda and salt. Mix to form a moist dough.

To make the peanut butter, put the roasted peanuts in a grinder jar and grind it. Stop after the sound changes to scrape the sides off. Continue the grinding process and stop at intervals  of about 20 seconds to scrape the sides. Do it till you get a creamy peanut butter (takes less than 5 minutes). Add salt and proceed to make the filling.

In another mixing bowl beat together peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk and vanilla extract to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is too dry, stir in remaining tablespoon of non-dairy milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar.

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease your baking tray.

Shape the cookies. Create the centers of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into 24 balls. Scoop a generous tablespoon of chocolate dough, flatten into a disc and place a peanut butter ball in the center. Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll the chocolate ball into an smooth ball between your palms. Place on a sheet of waxed paper and repeat with remaining doughs. If desired gently flatten cookies a little, but this is not necessary (I did flatten them).

Place dough balls on lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and let cookies for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to complete cooling. 

Store it in the fridge. They are nicer when they are warm and they tend to become softer cookies as days go by. So you can heat up the oven and warm them for about 5 or 7 minutes before you eat them again.

This is going over to the #chocolatelove bloghop, being co-hosted by Richa @ HobbyandMore and so many other wonderful bloggers. 

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Quick Dessert: Chocolate Agar Agar Mousse

A lot of times we have impromptu film screenings or friends pop in and I can never let anyone go without eating something. On one such 45 minute notice period I made a quick dessert for our visitors since they were coming post diner.

This recipe uses agar agar also known as china grass or as I heard someone on Master Chef Australia call it Aey-gaar Aey-gaar. (I bet they must be making fun of our accents. Have you ever wondered if there is ONE true accent?)

Agar Agar calls for some experimentation on your part. Sometimes it's hard to get it right but you will learn from your mistakes. I have previously made a Lime Nutmeg Jelly with Agar Agar which is a bit more work than this recipe. For this recipe, I used the strips of Agar Agar which are available in the grocery stores if you ask for China Grass. Each pack of Agar Agar has one thick strip which is enough for half a litre of milk. 

This is the plain, unflavoured Agar Agar (China Grass) I like to use

Since this wasn't planned with enough time, I used sweetened chocolate flavoured soy milk which I had. But you could do the same with any other non dairy milk if you prefer. You can do it with cashew, almond, coconut or even rice milk.

You need:

1/2 litre (roughly 2 and a half cups) of Chocolate Soy milk at room temperature

1 Strip of Agar Agar (Cut and powdered in a dry mixer)

1/4 cup water

Mix the powdered agar agar flakes with the water and bring it to a boil. Stir frequently and make sure most of the agar agar has disappeared. A few small lumps are okay. Now, little bit at a time, while stirring continuously, add the chocolate soy milk. Keep it on the stove for about 3 minutes more till the soy milk is hot and take it off the stove. Pour into a big glass bowl or small moulds to set. Keep it in the fridge and let it set for at least 45 minutes.

It always has a better texture after about 6 hours, but it's like a perfect mousse after an hour.

Top with some grated/ chopped vegan chocolate (Bournville, Mordes) and serve cold.

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Chocolate Upside Down Pudding

Here's an experiment that went wrong somewhere mid-way but turned out fine in the end after all.

This recipe has been adapted and modified from the book 'How It All Vegan' and The 'Compassionate Cook Cookbook'. The cake is a bit on the sweeter side but it's nice once in a while.

You need:

For the Cake

1 cup flour (Use whole wheat flour)

1/2 cup Sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup oil

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup soy milk or water

some walnuts or almonds if you like

For the fudge

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1 and 1/4 cups boiling water

Preheat the oven to 270 degrees C. Oil a big baking pan say about 9 inches, bigger than what you would normally use for a cake. I will elaborate why.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, soda and salt. Make a well in the center of this mix and add the soy milk, sugar and oil. Mix everything well. The batter will be thicker than a cake batter (almost like what a brownie batter texture) like on the right.

Spread this in a big baking dish. Mix the remaining cocoa powder and sugar and sprinkle it on top of this batter. Pour hot water over it and bake it.

I goofed on the size of the baking tin. I used a small baking tin. When I poured the water on the batter, the water level was just under the edge. I didn't realise that the batter will rise pushing the water out of the tin and into my oven! (Ya I know it's a dumb mistake).

So when I started out,everything was in a 9 inch round tin, mid-

way I heard steam and opened the oven to find a mess. Then moved the half-risen batter to a bigger rectangular tin and poured the same water on top. In the end, it was all good! The cake was moist and there was a layer of fudge at the bottom. To serve I cut out portions and turned them over so the fudge layer was on the top.

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Chocolate 'Cheesecake'

Here's the recipe for the pictures I put up on the 30th. It might look complicated but it's not and totally worth the effort!

1 cup ground almonds
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup margarine

1 package of tofu (200 gms)
1 cup any kind of sugar
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (the darker the better, I use Hershey's Cocoa Powder)
1/3 cup rice bran oil (or any non smelly oil)
1/2 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 165 degrees C. In a bowl mix the ground almonds, whole wheat and margarine with your hands till it resembles tiny bread crumbs. Put it in a springform pie dish which looks like the picture below. If you don't have this you could try putting it in any round baking tin. The only problem will be removing the cake after it's done.

Put this pie crust in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Crumble the tofu into a blender and add in the sugar, cocoa, soy milk, oil and vanilla. Blend it into a smooth creamy paste. Pour this on to the pie crust and bake for about 50 mins or until the filling seems set.

Allow it to cool before you try doing anything to it. Remove it from the pan (I would only try this if I was using the springform) and add whatever nuts you like on top and eat !

Don't worry if you have an excess of the filling. I had too much of it left because my recipe had much more tofu so I've tweaked it here. I took a about 5 one inch pieces of agar agar (china grass),chopped them fine, boiled it in 3 tablespoons of water and added it to the excess filling. I let it set in the fridge till the cheesecake was baked and it was done.

Here's what it looked like (in case you haven't seen it in the older post)

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Today's Experiments

Today for my parents 30th Wedding anniversary I decided to do something I've been pushing for too long. I made a vegan chocolate cheesecake and also an unplanned mousse happened. Recipes will be up soon, but here's a preview...

Chocolate 'Cheesecake'

'What An Awesome Chocolate Mousse'

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