Mexican Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats

I feel a little guilty bringing you this sort of simple, no-brainer recipe after such a long absence. We moved to a new house and had internet issues, so that's slowed me down a bit. Now that we're settled in and up and running, I'll make up for lost time.

There are some familiar and much-loved foods that you think you'll never see again when you go vegan, and Rice Krispy treats were probably toward the top of my list. There are a few store-bought kinds that just don't taste quite right. The texture is there, but the flavor is off in a way that you can't quite put your finger on. When you think about it, there's really no reason to be buying them pre-made. In 30 minutes, you can have fresh, homemade ones that have your own little spin on them. Chocolate-dipped Rice Krispy treats are probably my favorite of the next-level kinds, but the possibilities are endless.

Vegan marshmallows have come a long way in just a few short years. Now there are quite a few varieties of good-quality marshmallows to choose from. I used Dandies brand for these, and they worked perfectly. The texture is right, the flavor is spot-on and they melt really well.

A note about the chocolate: I really love cinnamon. I used a ton of it in this chocolate because I wanted it to really come through. If you'd rather have it be more subtle, dial it back a bit and work up from there.


Ingredients
4 tbsp Earth Balance
4 cups of vegan marshmallows
6 cups of puffed rice cereal
1 bag of vegan chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark)
1 tbsp cinnamon, or to taste

Grease up a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray and set it near your stove.

In a large pot, melt the Earth Balance over medium-high heat. Add all the marshmallows and stir them around until they're well-coated. Keep them moving around and don't let the heat get too high. This will prevent them from scorching. They take a while to melt, but if you whip them around vigorously with a wooden spoon, it will happen. It takes about 5 minutes or so.

Add the cereal 2 cups at a time, stirring between each time to incorporate.

Once it's all in and well-incorporated, take it off the heat and scoop it all out into the baking dish. Use the spoon to smooth them out so the top is level. Place the dish into the freezer for 15 minutes.

While they're cooling, pour the bag of chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave them for 30-40 seconds, take them out and stir them with a spoon. They should be softened up enough to start melting. Do another 10-20 seconds if not. Don't go more than a minute or so. Once a few of them are melty, stirring them will cause the others to melt.

Add the cinnamon. If you're worried about using a full tablespoon, just do a teaspoon at a time and taste test until you've got the right amount.

Pull the dish out of the freezer and use a sharp knife to cut out squares. Put them back into the freezer for another 2-3 minutes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it near your bowl of melted chocolate.

Take the dish back out of the freezer and pull out individual squares. Dip one end into the chocolate, making sure to coat all four sides well. Place them on the baking sheet to let the chocolate set.

Chocolate Eggnog Cake

I've never been an eggnog guy. The name alone is enough to gross me out. Maybe it's all the "g" sounds. What is nog, exactly? Aren't you just drinking french toast batter? How is that okay?

Doug is a big eggnog fan and was initially bummed about having to give it up when we went vegan. It turns out that there are some pretty good vegan eggnogs out there. There are also some strange ones that taste nothing like eggnog. I used a rice milk variety for this cake and it turned out fine. For drinking, it's a different story. He loves the coconut milk eggnnog, which isn't always easy to find. He's been drinking a soy variety that's just so-so. He took a swig of the kind I used in this cake and said it tasted nothing like eggnog at all. I think you'll be fine no matter what kind you use, honestly. There's so much going on in this cake that the type of "nog" won't be noticeable.

This is a big cake, as you can tell from the frosting ingredients. I originally made a single cake (basically half of each recipe), which just didn't seem right. It's a holiday-themed cake and should really look special, right? I say this in the notes below, but want to reinforce it here: don't skimp on the frosting. This makes much more than you'd think, so really pile it on to that first layer. If you worry about running out and skimp on it, you won't be able to go back later and put the excess in the middle. Throw caution to the wind and really frost that first layer!



Ingredients
For the cake:
2 cups vegan eggnog
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp rum extract
2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

For the frosting:
2/3 cup Earth Balance buttery stick (11 tablespoons), softened
2/3 cup vegetable shortening (I used Earth Balance for this as well)(11 tablespoons), softened
4-4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 tbsp vegan eggnog
1/2 tsp rum extract
3/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two round cake pans by lining the bottoms with cut-out circles of parchment paper and spraying the bottom and sides of the pans.

Make the cake: Combine the eggnog and vanilla and set aside for a couple of minutes. Combine the eggnog mixture, sugar, oil and extracts in the bowl of a mixer. In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

With the mixer running, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, a bit at a time to give them time to incorporate. Divide the batter evenly in the cake pans and put them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Set the finished cakes on a wire rack to cool. Try not to accidentally dent the top of the cake like I did.

Make the frosting: Using a mixer, cream the butter and shortening together until they're smooth and well incorporated. Add the powdered sugar a bit at a time (I do a 1/2 cup), allowing time for the mixer to incorporate it. It won't really look like much while you're doing this, but don't panic. Add the eggnog, rum extract and nutmeg and then let the mixer do its thing for 4-5 minutes. It'll start out looking kind of limp and dull, but once it's done, it'll be fluffy and white. Take a taste and see if it needs more nutmeg.

Assemble the cake: Once the cakes are fully cooled, run a butter knife around the edges of the pan and invert it onto a plate. It should come right out, but if it doesn't a gentle, but firm, shake should do the trick. Turn it right side up and frost the first layer.

Be generous with the top of that first layer! I was afraid of running out of frosting and skimped a bit. I ended up having a ton of leftover frosting and middle layer in the cake that was a bit wimpy. Add the top layer and frost it, making sure to fill in gap between the two layers with frosting.

If you're feeling extra fancy, you can slice the rounded top off the bottom layer so the alignment is more professional-looking. I'm not a professional, so I wasn't worried about that. You could also pipe the frosting on and do some cool things with it, or lightly dust the top with nutmeg or colored sugar. The sky's the limit, really.

Whoopie Pies

Some people like to read or watch TV when they're bored. The really good ones clean the house or work on long-postponed projects. Me? I bake. We aren't exactly having what you'd call baking weather here in Seattle, but the idea of having a pie or a cake or cookies is too powerful to resist. The idea of having whoopie pie, even more so. So when there was nothing else to do the other night, I decided to bake whoopie (sorry, couldn't resist). I'm rather proud of these, as the flavor is pretty much right on. If you're a vegan who misses whoopies, this recipe is just what the doctor ordered.

Whoopie pies are an Amish creation, so it's not totally true that they don't have a decadent streak. Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Maine all loudly proclaim that they are the official home of the whoopie pie. Maine even went so far as to codify in law that the whoopie pie was their official state treat (they already had an official state pie and didn't want to rock the boat, I guess).

The "cookie" part of this is more cake-like, which is why it has more ingredients than normal cookies. That also means they'll expand and spread quite a bit while baking. I hadn't thought about that and put 2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheet before popping them into the oven. The result was a giant whoopie pie, just a bit smaller in diameter than a McDonald's cheeseburger. They're filling, so you may want to dial the size back a bit, especially if you want more pies out of a batch (this made about six). You can make little mini whoopie pies with no more than a tablespoon of dough for each cookie.

Ingredients

For the cookies:
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup Earth Balance butter, softened
1/4 cup evaporated cane sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp vegan sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup vegetable shortening, softened
3 tbsp soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Make the cookies: In a small bowl, whisk together the soy milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes. In a medium bowl, combine the flours, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars, making sure they're completely combined and creamy. Mix in the sour cream.

Stir your soy milk mixture (it should be thicker now) and add the vanilla. Beginning with the wetingredients, add both wet and dry to the butter/sugar mixture with the mixer running, scraping down the sides as necessary. Beat everything together at a medium speed until it's just combined.

Scoop out balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets. You can do 1 or 2 tablespoons for each, depending on how big you want them to be. Give them at least 2 inches of space in between as they will spread quite a bit.

Bake them for about 10-12 minutes, until they've flattened out and crackled a bit on top.

Make the creme filling: Start with the mixer on low and beat the powdered sugar and shortening together. Add the soy milk and vanilla and continue on low until they are incorporated. The filling will be sort of limp and dull-colored at this point, but don't panic.

After the ingredients are all incorporated, throw the mixer into high gear and let it whip the filling for 2-3 minutes. It will turn fluffy and bright white.

To assemble the pies, choose two cookies that are similar in diameter. Turn on over so the flat side is up and drop a healthy dollop of creme filling on it. Press the other cookie down on it, pushing the filling out to the edges. These will keep in an airtight container for a few days, but they probably won't be around that long.

Orange-Vanilla and Chocolate-Chili Creamsicles

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Right after my first popsicle post, Seattle's summer weather stopped being polite and started getting real. The house was like a convection oven for a solid week, and we resorted to sleeping out on the deck for a couple of nights to escape it.

That kind of weather called for more popsicles. The fruity popsicles are fun, but what every vegan really misses is a good creamsicle. I'm a big fan of interesting, unconventional ice cream flavors. When it comes to popsicles, I tend to want to keep it relatively straightforward. You don't have a lot of time to enjoy a popsicle before it starts to become a messy game of beat the clock, so it makes sense to leave the more complex flavors to a bowl, where they can be savored more leisurely.

These take even less time than the strawberry and peach popsicles because there's no chopping or blending involved. The chocolate flavor needs to be cooked just a bit to smooth everything out. I'm only recently coming around to the whole chocolate-chili combination, and I'm a big wuss when it comes to heat. I found this amount of chili powder to be just right. You don't really taste it, but you do feel it. It was a bit hotter than I usually like it, but it worked well with this. If you're a big fan of hot chili and chocolate, feel free to bump it up a bit. If you have some left over, you can make it into pudding by refrigerating it for a bit so it sets up.


Ingredients

Orange-Vanilla:
2/3 cup soy or almond milk
1 1/3 cups orange juice
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate-Chili:
2 cups soy or almond milk
6 ounces of chopped dark chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the orange flavor, just combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

For the chocolate flavor, combine all the ingredients except the vanilla in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking frequently until the chocolate has melted and everything is smooth. Stir in the vanilla and remove from the heat. Let it cool a bit.

Pour both flavors into the molds, put the caps on and let them freeze for about 8 hours or so.

To unmold, just run warm water over the mold and lightly wiggle the handle until the popsicle comes out.

Chocolate Strawberry Tart

I'm like a giddy schoolgirl when summer comes around. I know it's not summer yet, but the produce selections are starting to look like it, and that's good enough for me. Fruit-wise, it doesn't get any better for me than strawberries (peaches are a close second). They take me back. We had a strawberry patch in my back yard when I was growing up, and I would root around on my hands and knees to find the biggest, juiciest ones. I apologize in advance if this blog gets a little strawberry-obsessed this summer. I simply can't help it.

Like most of the dishes I make with strawberries, this is simple and pretty unadorned. Strawberries don't really need a lot of help in the flavor department. Nothing's worse than having a gussied-up dessert that hides the true potential of its main star.

Ingredients

Crust:
1 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tbsp evaporated cane sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp Earth Balance vegan butter, cubed and cold
2 tbsp vegan chocolate chips (Ghirardelli brand is usually the only vegan option available at the store)

Filling:
2 lb. strawberries, hulled and thickly sliced
2 tbsp evaporated cane sugar
2 tbps cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp of vanilla extract, or 2 vanilla beans, sliced and scraped out

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Make the filling: Combine the strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and vanilla in a bowl and stir to combine. Set it aside for 30 minutes so the strawberries will release their juices.

Make the crust: In a food processor, pulse the flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt about 10 times to combine. I usually put the cubed butter into the freezer for a minute or two while I'm doing this, so it'll be good and firm. Drop the butter into the food processor and pulse another 10 times, until the butter is the size of peas and is combined well into the flour mixture.

Add the water and pulse a few times until the dough is crumbly, but can stick together when you press it.

Put the dough into a tart pan and press it flat, working it into the corners and up the sides. If you've ever made a graham cracker crust, this is pretty much the same thing. You should have plenty to work with.

Place your tart shell on a sheet pan and put it in the oven for 20 minutes to set it up.

Put the chocolate chips into a bowl and melt them in the microwave for 25-30 seconds or so. Once they're hot enough, you should be able to stir them until they're fully melted.

Lightly spread the chocolate over the top of the crust with a pastry brush. You can also just do this with the back of the spoon, but do it carefully as the crust will pull away with your spoon if you do it too fast. Don't worry about going up the sides of the pan, Just a thin layer of chocolate over the bottom of the pan will do.

Give your strawberries a stir. They should be much juicier than they were when you set them aside. Pour the whole thing into the prepared crust and spread it around evenly. Put the tart shell onto the sheet pan and put it back into the oven for another 20 minutes. Once it's done, pull it out and let it cool on a rack.

It'll still be pretty juicy, though the juices should be thicker by now. Once it's cool, you're pretty much ready to go. You can eat it as-is or top it with a sprinkling of cocoa powder or powdered sugar, if you want. Vegan whipped cream would be nice on this as well.