Holiday baking has a way of slowing everything down. Not in a dramatic, snow-globe way — just enough to make the kitchen feel like the heart of the house again. There’s flour on the counter (and flour on Avery, of course), music in the background — everything from Nat King Cole to Avery doing a full SpongeBob SquarePants dance — and a general agreement that whatever else needs doing can wait.
My girls can sing and bake — two things I can’t really claim — and they’re both incredibly funny. They move easily between tasks, harmonizing without thinking about it, setting timers, sneaking tastes. It’s just fun to watch them as they’re getting older, to see the relationship they’ve built between themselves — the shorthand, the ease, the way they work side by side without needing much direction from me anymore.
It was also fun watching them make their annual gingerbread house this year. We’ve been doing that every year since Sidney was four, and she’ll be 21 in a few months. Somewhere along the way, it shifted from sticky chaos to actual planning. I have to say, they outdid themselves this year.
The kitchen has always had a way of connecting me to some of my fondest memories, and that includes making cookies as a kid.
These are traditions that were handed to me, and now I’m handing them forward — something moving quietly from my family to theirs. It’s not just about being in the moment; it’s about being in the memory. I have no doubt that what they’re making now is something they’ll want to recreate one day with their own children. Not because it’s expected, but because it feels like home.
It’s also just really nice having Sidney home from college. I don’t always realize how much I miss her until she’s here again — back in the mix, back at the counter, singing while something’s in the oven. You get used to the quiet when they’re gone, and then they come home and the house remembers itself.
These truffles are a vegan adaptation of a recipe that’s been part of our holidays for a long time. They’re simple, a little nostalgic, and meant to be made with extra hands nearby. No guarding. No saving for later. Just roll, dip, taste, repeat.
These truffles are incredible! Incredibly easy and incredibly delicious! This batch will make approximately 60 truffles. You can use the basic truffle recipe and modify anyway you want!
1 1/3 cup vegan white chocolate (for coating truffles)
Shredded Coconut, White Nonpareils, or Sparkling Sugar
Instructions
To make the truffle mixture:
To make the basic truffle mix, melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a glass dish over boiling water. Stirring constantly.
Remove dish from the heat and whisk in coconut milk, maple syrup and sea salt.
Divide the mixture into 3 bowls, one for each of the flavors.
For the chocolate orange truffles add the orange essence. Mix well.
For the dark chocolate raspberry truffles add dark rum and raspberry essence. Mix well.
For the vanilla truffles, add the vanilla essence. Mix well.
Put all three bowls in the fridge for at least 5 hours to fully firm up.
After the truffle mixes are firm, use a teaspoon to spoon out mixture and roll in your hands to make small balls, about half the size of golf balls.
Set out the truffles on parchment lined baking pans. Just make sure you know which flavor is which. Freeze for at least 3 hours.
To decorate:
In a glass bowl over boiling water, melt chocolate to cover the truffles in.
For the orange truffles, and the raspberry truffles melt the dark chocolate. For the vanilla truffles, melt white chocolate.
I like to use this chocolate dipping tool, but you can also use a fork. Dip truffles one by one into the melted chocolate, and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Immediately decorate each truffle, while the chocolate is still melted.
For the orange chocolates, sprinkle with flaky sea salt and orange zest, or edible gold dust powder. You can also add two thin slices of candied orange across the top. For raspberry truffles, dust in cocoa powder and ground dried raspberries. For vanilla truffles, sprinkle with coconut or white sparkling sugar (blue sanding sugar is also very pretty).
Put all covered and decorated truffles in the fridge for an hour or so to set. Then they can be served.
Notes
The truffles will last in an air tight container the fridge for 2-3 weeks. They can also be frozen.
I love to read as much as I love to write. The eloquence of the written word has consistently captivated and consumed me, but it rarely eluded me—until I read Gertrude Stein. I have a minor in philosophy, and let’s say reading Descartes or Kierkegaard is more straightforward than reading Stein. Like the great treatises, her works require intense examination, patience, reflection, and a willingness to grapple with complex ideas and arguments rather than simply absorbing the traditional narrative form.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the latter. Ms. Stein’s Lost Generation contemporaries wrote some of my favorite books. Hemmingway, Elliot, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck were gifted writers whose works will undoubtedly stand the test of time. Their writings, each unique in style and content, continue to captivate readers and inspire new generations of writers.
Although some argue Steinbeck’s writing was more grounded in realism and social commentary than the Parisian expatriates’ experimental and modernist styles, Steinbeck’s novel The Red Pony is still one of my favorite books. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by St. Louis native T.S. Eliot is one of my favorite poems. But, alas, I digress.
While Hemmingway’s writing is direct, Stein’s work is multi-layered and open to interpretation. Like her dear friend Pablo Picasso, who deconstructed and reassembled objects from multiple perspectives, Stein uses simple words and everyday language, arranging them in a way that makes them almost unrecognizable.
As is my habit with art that I admire, I often delve into the artists’ lives to understand their work better. During one of these explorations, I stumbled upon a significant figure in Gertrude Stein’s life, Alice B. Toklas. Perhaps it was Alice who helped me understand Stein best.
Alice was more than just a figure in Stein’s life. She was her confidant, lover, cook, secretary, muse, editor, critic, and general organizer, chiefly living in the shadows (thanks, Wikipedia). Behind every great woman is another great woman. Alice, it turns out, wrote a cookbook and the very first recipe for pot brownies. Yep. While I may be wrong, cannabis makes Stein’s writing style make much more sense.
“Haschich Fudge” was printed in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book in 1954. Of course, this wasn’t Toklas’s recipe—it was sent to her by a friend, the artist Brion Gysin, who lived in Morocco. (You may not recognize the name, but he’s a literary celebrity in his own right or should be: Gysin invented the cut-up method, which William S. Burroughs made famous.) But that is a story for another time.
Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein Via: The New Yorker
Publishers left the risqué recipe out of the US publication; the 50s weren’t ready for her recipe or her pot pals. Eventually, in the early 1960s, a second edition, including the recipe, was published for US consumption, and hippie culture crowned their queen. Hence, the 1968 Peter Sellers movie I Love You, Alice B. Toklas.
I love this movie for so many reasons. The film’s exploration of racism, culturalism, religion, traditional norms, and how superficial facades of convention fade after having a few brownies is a nostalgic reflection of the 1960s culture.
Whether it was a traditional family or a group of stoned-out communal hippies, Sellers realized each group had their own expectations. Are you square, or are you hip? In the end, it turns out it was all the same thing.
Finally, at the movie’s end, Sellers’ character, Harold Fine, decides that the constraints of each of those two worlds were not a world he was comfortable in. However, once cannabis opened the door in his mind, he realized he didn’t have to settle for the confines of either. So, he seeks to find a third life—one that combines the relevant elements of the previous two existences, sheds the unyielding expectations of everyone, and sets out to find his own path. Like Stein’s work, the movie is fantastic and open to interpretation.
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968) Photo Via: Turner Classic Movies
So, Tolkas’s recipe calls for stoned dates, which made me laugh out loud! Stoned simply means removing the seed (or stone) from the dates. While I recommend chopping and dicing first, feel free to fire one up and blow some smoke their way. The original brownies recipe doesn’t do much in the way of “getting you high,” like the more modern versions using canna-oil. You see, THC needs a fat molecule to dissolve and release from its plant, so we infuse it into oil.
However, overheating this mixture will cause the THC to evaporate, and all your efforts will have been for nothing. So, please repeat after me, I shall not let my oil boil! I tried to make a recipe that was as close to Toklas’s. It’s raw vegan (okay, mostly raw) and uses either oats or hemp seeds, though I prefer the texture of oats. Before making this recipe, please read the Description and disclaimer in the Notes section!
With respect to dosing, if you have one, use a ruler to cut the brownies. Were there no weed involved, this would be embarrassingly fussy. But there is weed involved! Carefully cut pieces mean reliable dosing, for cannabis with 20% THC, an 8×8″ pan cut into 12 pieces shakes out to about 8⅓ milligrams THC per piece.
This is right for many, but some prefer less, and others want more. You do you. For a smaller dose, cut 16 pieces for about 6¼ mg THC per piece. For a larger dose, cut 9 pieces for about 11 mg THC per piece. If this is your first time trying an edible, go small—you can even cut 32 pieces for 3⅛ mg THC per piece. Resist the urge to eat more if you’re not feeling anything. The effects can kick in within 30 minutes but might take 2 hours or more.
If you have a decarboxylator, it dramatically helps dispel the smell! Otherwise, know that your kitchen will smell like weed while baking and cooking the oil. I have a decarboxylator but wanted to write a method everyone could use. If you want to cut down on the smell, open the windows and burn some Nag Champa like a true hippie!
Ingredients
Scale
Canna-Coconut Oil:
½ g cannabis flower (I used sativa)
½ cup coconut oil
Brownies:
3/4 cup rolled oats (or hemp seeds)
3/4 cup walnuts
1 cup stoned medjool dates (pit removed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 heaping tablespoons cacao powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
Pinch coriander (optional)
Pinch of salt
3-4 tablespoons of coconut oil infused with cannabis.
Chopped peanuts
Glaze:
1 tablespoon each of almond butter, maple syrup, and cacao powder
Instructions
Decarboxylate your cannabis.
Place a rack and an oven thermometer in the middle of the oven; preheat to 225° F.
Using your fingers, gently break up ½ g cannabis flower into raisin-size pieces and spread out in an even layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake, gently tossing every 10 minutes or so to avoid burning, until weed turns brownish green (indicating it has decarboxylated), 10–20 minutes if using old or lower-quality weed, 15–30 minutes for cured high-quality weed, or 45–60 minutes for anything recently harvested and still damp.
Let cool on baking sheet.
To make Canna-Oil:
Grind or break down cannabis. A grinder will break your weed into an even consistency, but you can just as easily use your hands. Keep in mind that anything small enough to fit through a strainer will end up in your finished product, so don’t grind your cannabis into a fine powder.
Heat oil and decarbed cannabis.
Add oil and decarbed cannabis to a double-boiler, slow cooker, or saucepan and simmer on low for 2-3 hours. Make sure the oil temperature stays between 160-200ºF.
Put a mesh strainer or cheesecloth over the oil container and pour the oil/cannabis mixture through it. Do not squeeze it out—this will add more chlorophyll to your oil and make it taste more vegetal. Discard the plant material.
The oil will have a shelf life of at least two months and can be extended with refrigeration.
Label the bottle.
Brownies:
Pulse the oats and walnuts in your food processor until they become a powder. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until they all stick together.
Press into a parchment-lined 8×8 baking dish and put in the fridge to set for a few hours.
Spread on your glaze.
Top with chopped peanuts.
Enjoy!
Notes
DISCLAIMER
Recreational cannabis is not available in all states. State laws impact what dispensaries can and can’t sell to recreational customers and certified patients. Not every type of product, consumption method, dosage form, or potency mentioned on this blog will be permitted in all locations.
You assume full responsibility for using your best judgment when cooking with cannabis and seeking information from an official food safety authority if you are unsure. You must also take care to not physically injure yourself by coming into contact with hot surfaces, sharp blades, and other kitchen hazards. It is your responsibility to review all listed ingredients in a recipe before cooking to ensure that none of the ingredients may cause a potential adverse reaction to anyone eating the food based on recipes featured in this blog post.
This includes allergies, pregnancy-related diet restrictions, etc. Please consult with your medical professional before using any recipe if you have concerns about how you may individually react to the use of any particular recipe or ingredient. By voluntarily creating and using any recipe provided here, you assume the risk of any potential injury that may result.
The author disclaims liability for incidental or consequential damages and assumes no responsibility or liability for any loss or damage suffered by any person as a result of use of the information provided in this blog post. The author assumes or undertakes no liability for any loss or damage suffered as a result of the use of any information found on this Website. From time to time, this Website will publish content with recipes. All such recipes have been tried and used successfully, but results may vary from person to person.
Consult your medical professional before using any recipe if you have concerns about how you may individually react to the use of any particular recipe or ingredient. By voluntarily creating and using any recipe provided here, you assume the risk of any potential injury that may result.
If I could have three different careers, I would choose cooking, writing, and designing in no particular order. Or all three? The joy I felt creating the interior for my mid-century Treehouse was unparalleled. I carefully chose furniture and artwork indicative of the Dutch Modern and Eames eras, pouring my love for design into every detail.
A picture of my “CH07 Shell Chair”.
Charles & Ray Eames Photo via: Wikipedia
The emphasis on abstraction, simplicity, and functionalism in Dutch Modernism has significantly shaped my design choices. I deeply admire the minimalist aesthetic it promotes. Minimalism, as a philosophy, encourages us to focus on what’s important and eliminate distractions, a concept known as simple or intentional living.
The focus on simple designs with minimal decorative elements, clean lines, and open spaces aligns with my design philosophy. I also appreciate Dutch Modernism’s eco-friendly approach. Most furniture pieces are designed with practical use in mind, prioritizing comfort and usability. And some…just look really cool.
“Manner of Gerrit Reitveld” Steltman Chair-1970’s Dutch Modern
Garret Rietveld, a Dutch architect and furniture designer, led the De Stijl art movement. This movement, which was a reaction to World War I, was based on the hope that art could lead to social and spiritual renewal. We could use some of that today, eh?
Many people, including Charles and Ray Eames, two of my favorite designers, were notably influenced by the Dutch Modern De Stijl, or “The Style” movement. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, designer and architect Charles Eeams made groundbreaking contributions to the world of architecture, furniture design, industrial design, manufacturing, and the photographic arts. Charles and Ray met at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where Charles taught design and Ray was a student. His wife Ray had previously studied with the venerable and incredibly influential painter and teacher Hans Hofmann. I could do a whole post on Hofmann (and I may).
Influenced by cubism, Hofmann (right) became friends with Picasso, Georges Braque, and Henri Matisse in Paris. Photo Via: WikiArt
Charles Eames, a true visionary and ardent admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright, coined the phrase, “The details are in the details.” His influence on my life’s philosophy is profound. Can I get an amen?
To me, this is not just a saying but a way of life that permeates everything I do, reflecting my passion and commitment to what I care about. When I embark on a project, whether cooking, writing, or designing, I invest my heart and soul into it. I believe that the essence of anything remarkable lies in the details, and I always strive to bring this depth and thoughtfulness to my work.
So, like a proper design nerd, I eagerly awaited Pantone’s announcement of the color of the year. Pantone, a company that sets the color trends for industries such as fashion, design, and manufacturing, never fails to surprise. And this year, they did not disappoint with their choice of the most exquisite shade of brown, ‘Mocha Mousse.’ And I love it!
In general, I am not one for sweets. You’ll likely notice that I have a few desserts listed, but not many. I have more of a savory palate. This recipe is a rare exception. The creamy mousse and the light, airy texture of the cake make you almost feel like you’re eating a cloud. I like this recipe as it’s a take on a classic tiramisu. Adding the slightly bitter espresso cuts some of the sweetness that tends to be too much for someone like me.
I thought about making a gluten-free version, but the gluten is needed to keep the cake moist and fluffy. This cake is all about texture. It is 100% vegan and uses no eggs, which is kind of a big deal in baking. There are a lot of good dairy substitutes, but eggs are not as easy. I haven’t tried JustEgg, but if anyone does, reach out and let me know your thoughts.
This cake uses applesauce as a substitute for eggs. Plain yogurt works; too-1/2 cup of yogurt is the equivalent of 2 eggs and the equivalent of the 2/3 cups of applesauce in this recipe. For the mousse, I used Navitas cocao powder. It’s good quality and Regenerative Organic certified, meaning it meets the world’s highest standard for organic agriculture with stringent requirements for soil, animal welfare, and social fairness. And you can pretty much find it anywhere. For the plant-based cream, I used Country Crock Plant Cream. Right now, they have a $1.50 off coupon on their website.
For the top of the cake, since it’s a mocha espresso after all, I thought it would be fun to do a take on a mocha latte using white royal icing and pipe a little latte art. This is certainly not necessary, but it made for a pretty picture. If you are adventurous and ambitious enough, this is a cute and simple YouTube video about doing something like this. (FYI, I used a chopstick instead of toothpicks to draw the design.) Otherwise, I might recommend shaving a bar of vegan chocolate over the top or simply dusting cocoa on the top with a fine mesh sieve.
This recipe is for a 2-layer cake. It’s a bit of work but well worth it! You can decorate with cocao nibs, chocolate sprinkles, or dust with cocao powder.
Ingredients
Scale
2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (60g) cocao powder
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (170g) unsweetened apple sauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup oil + 2 tbsp (115g)
1 cup (245g) plant-based milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup hot water
1 tsp instant espresso powder
Vegan Chocolate Mousse:
1/2cupvegan semi-sweet chocolate
1cupraw cashewssoaked for at least 15 minutes in hot water
15ouncecan full-fat coconut milk
2tablespoonscocoa powder
1/4teaspoonvanilla extract
1/3cupsugar
1/4teaspoonsalt
1tablespooncoffee from above
Chocolate Ganache:
6ozgood quality dark chopped chocolate (vegan)
1cupfull-fat coconut milk (firm, creamy part only, at room temperature)
Instructions
Chocolate 2 -layer cake:
Preheat the oven to 350F and spray (2) 8″ cake pans with nonstick spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Mix together the milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle (making a vegan buttermilk).
Whisk together the flour, cocao powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, either whisking by hand or with an electric mixer, combine the sugar, apple sauce, oil, and vanilla.
On the side, mix together the hot water and espresso powder. Set aside.
To the sugar mixture, alternate adding the milk and dry ingredients, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Stop and scrape down the bowl about halfway through.
Once that’s smooth, slowly mix in the hot espresso. Now the batter will be very thin.
Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then remove from the pans and let them completely cool at room temperature before frosting. To speed up this process, you can pop them into the fridge.
Chocolate Mousse:
Add the chocolate to a skillet with about 1/4 cup of the coconut milk over medium heat and mix well. Once the milk starts boiling, the chocolate will start melting. Switch off the heat.
Continue to mix until the chocolate is completely smooth. You can also microwave the chocolate in bursts of 30 seconds. Once it starts to melt on the edges, whisk well until all of the chocolate is melted.
Add the cashews, remaining coconut milk, cocao powder, vanilla, sugar, salt, and melted chocolate to a blender and a tablespoon of the coffee, then blend. Blend it for one minute, then let the blender sit for 5 to 10 minutes so the cashews can soak more moisture. Blend again for 30 seconds. Then, wait a minute, blend again for 30 seconds, and repeat until the mixture is smooth.
Refrigerate for 15 minutes to thicken.
Taste and adjust the sweetness and flavor if you like. You can add more cocao powder, coffee, vanilla, or sugar and blend well after adding them.
Ganache:
Place a bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water (a double boiler). Add chocolate and allow to melt, stirring frequently. (Alternatively, you can melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave.)
Remove bowl from heat, and allow chocolate to cool slightly.
Add room-temperature thick coconut milk and allow the mixture to sit for a minute for the temperatures to assimilate.
Stir or whisk gently to combine cream and chocolate.
Use immediately as a drizzle over cake.
Assemble:
Only frost the cake once the layers have completely cooled.
Spread about 1 cup of mousse between each cake layer (a small offset spatula is my favorite tool). Once all layers are stacked, place the naked cake in the fridge to set. Otherwise, the cake will slide around when trying to frost the sides. Chill for 20 minutes.
Once firm, remove the cake and plop the mousse on top of it (yes, all of it). Spread it out towards the sides and let it hang over the edges. Spread that overhang down the sides to the bottom of the cake. The sides don’t have to be perfect, but make sure the cake is completely covered.
Use your offset spatula or a spoon to create the swoops and swirls around the cake. Sprinkle with your favorite toppings.
Enjoy!
Notes
Sifting flour and cocao powder breaks down lumps and aerates the ingredients, ensuring a lighter, more consistent texture and an easier batter.
I love summer. I love the long warm days, eating juicy watermelon by the pound, and spending as much time in the water as possible. Summer’s bounty includes tomatoes, cucumbers, cherries, all the berries, but especially strawberries. I have fond memories of those little round shortcakes filled with fresh strawberries and cool-whip my mom used to make! And I still love it.
I have also grown quite fond of fresh rhubarb. Although rhubarb is a vegetable, it is often put to the same culinary use as a fruit. The leaf stalks can be used raw (I love it thinly shaved), and it tastes a lot like celery. But most commonly, it is boiled down with sugar and made into things like pies or this sorbet!
When choosing rhubarb, look for crisp stalks that are firm and tender. Try to avoid stalks that are too woody or thick. And unlike its friend, the strawberry, color doesn’t have much impact on taste.
There is some sugar in this recipe but do not reduce the amount. Sugar lowers the freezing point of water and helps prevent crystallization.
Finally, when choosing strawberries, look for the gariguette strawberry. They are the sweetest and most fragrant strawberries you’ll ever taste. If you can’t find the french variety, try to buy them locally if you can. A fresh strawberry should be firm to the touch, bright red, and free of bruises. And yellowish/green berries do not ripen at home, so remember that when you won’t think you want summer berries in December!
Basically frozen water, fruit, and sugar, a sorbet is a perfect summer dessert! This frozen base would also be great as a margarita, or daiquiri.
Ingredients
Scale
3 stalks of fresh rhubarb, washed and thinly sliced
1 lbstemmed and chopped gariguette strawberries
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons orange zest (about 1 orange)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated or minced
1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
In a medium saucepan, bring all ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the rhubarb is quite soft. Remove from heat and let cool.
Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor and carefully mix until smooth. If using a blender, do so in batches so the mixture doesn’t overflow and burns you. Chill the mixture in the fridge for about 3 hours, or until cool. (About one hour in the freezer).
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
If you are not using an ice cream maker, you can also pour the mixture into a freezer-safe container and freeze. It will be ready in about 3-4 hours. Best made the day before and frozen overnight.
I’ve wanted to make this recipe for a long time. I also wanted to create a yummy recipe for the 4th of July. Hence, the raw cheesecake! Key Lime Pie screams summer, but I wanted to make something a little more festive for a holiday. At first, I tried making a red, white, and blue cheesecake, but that idea came crashing down when I couldn’t get a pretty red layer. It kept coming up pink. And on one occasion, it even turned brown! The alternative was to use food coloring, but I wanted to keep it clean. In the end, I decided the red should come from fresh raspberries. You could even use pomegranate arils, or pitted cherries as an alternative. It is beautiful, as well as delicious!
Since it does require some freezer time, you’ll want to make this the day before. For the first layer, I would recommend freezing for at least 3-4 hours before adding the second layer. When I made this the first time, I used soft-baked vegan oatmeal cookies pulsed with coconut oil for the crust. It was yummy, but it wasn’t raw. If you decide to use the cookies, you will need at least eight large soft-baked cookies and 1/4 cup coconut oil. I liked the addition of the raisins in my crust, but if you don’t, either pick them out or find oatmeal cookies without raisins (not easy to do, by the way).
If you make this let me know how you like it! Be sure to let the cheesecake thaw for at least 25-30 minutes before serving.
Line a round 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper, and set aside.
Add all ingredients to a food processor and blitz until a fine meal has formed. The crust should stick together well. If too dry and crumbly, slowly add up to 1 tablespoon water.
Press mixture into pan, or small individual pans (will make about 12 small tarts).
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Blue spirulina layer:
Add all ingredients in a processor and process until smooth.
Pour mixture over the refrigerated crust. Place in the freezer for at least 3-4 hours.
Key Lime Layer:
Repeat the same process for the key lime layer. Pour mixture over the set blue spirulina layer and freeze overnight.
4. When ready to serve, remove cheesecake from mold and place it on top of the base and garnish with red fruit of choice and freshly grated lime zest. Allow to thaw for a few minutes before eating.
Enjoy!
Notes
Be sure to soak, or boil your dates—especially if they have been around for awhile!
When I first became a vegan, I couldn’t find a non-dairy whipped cream anywhere. Now you can buy it pretty much anywhere, but it costs a small fortune, and my last two cans quick working with half of the cream still in the can. While making the sugar whipped aquafaba for my cornbread recipe, it occurred to me that if I added cream of tartar, vanilla extract for sweetness, that I would have a vegan whipped cream!
If you’re looking for an easy whipped cream recipe for a yummy Thanksgiving pie, I’ve got you covered! Be sure to add this to your dish right before serving. The whipped cream will deflate after a few hours, but you can re-whip it again and again and it will come back to peaks in 2-3 minutes.
Looking for an easy and inexpensive whipped cream? If the answer is yes, this recipe is for you!
Ingredients
Scale
1 can garbanzo beans, drained, reserve liquid
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
Instructions
Drain garbanzo beans and keep the liquid (aquafaba). Set beans aside for another use. Add aquafaba (I use all of what was in the can) to a mixing bowl (I used a stand mixer). Mix on high for 5 minutes, or until mixture begins to foam. Add cream of tartar, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. Mix for a few minutes more until soft peaks begin to form, about 3-5 minutes. Taste for sweetness and adjust to preference. Do not overmix, or the whipped cream will fall and flatten out.
I have a love/hate relationship with the word vegan. On one hand, it encompasses many fundamental aspects of who I am. Legitimate scientific concerns about my health and the systematic destruction of our planet, topped with my love and compassion for ALL of God’s creatures, far outweigh any desire I might have for a Delmonico Ribeye. But, on the other hand the word vegan strikes fear into the hearts of most people. And its presumed connotations immediately separate me from the flock. For many, vegans are seen as extremists. Fanatics, who are either angry animal right suffragists, or gaunt, pale hippies who live on scant amounts of lettuce and tofu. Just Google the phrase, “Vegans are…” and see what comes next. Adjectives like crazy, stupid, weird, and extreme, popped up in my search bar. But ya know what? I’m kinda getting over it.
When an “Omni'” eats a meal I’ve prepared, they are intrigued. Almost beguiled by my ability to make not only a palatable, but delectable meal without using any part of an animal. It’s as if they’ve suddenly realized eating meat and cheese isn’t the only way to be truly satiated. And one of my favorite ways to showcase my vegan culinary prowess is with this Chocolate Cream Pie.
CRUST:
• 2 cups raw pecans
• 1/4 cup date sugar or maple sugar (I used coconut sugar and 1 tbsp maple syrup)
• 1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp chipotle powder (optional, but highly recommended)
FILLING:
• 2 1/2 cups vegan dark chocolate chips (add half semi-sweet vegan to make pie sweeter)
• 2 packs of organic firm silken tofu (I like Mori-Nu Organic firm)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of sea salt
Preheat the oven to 350°F
To prepare the crust, combine the pecans and sugar in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process until the mixture resembles a fine meal. Add the coconut oil, salt and optional chipotle powder and pulse to combine well.
Transfer the mixture to an 8- or 9-inch pie pan (I use an 8″ springform pan). Press and shape the mixture into the bottom and sides of the pan to make a pie shell.
Place the chocolate chips in a baking tray or shallow pan, Transfer to the preheated oven and heat for 3 to 4 minutes or just until melted. Watch carefully as the chocolate can burn quickly. Remove from the oven.
While the chocolate is melting, combine the tofu, vanilla and salt in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add the melted chocolate and blend until very smooth.
*Note: For the tofu, if you cannot find firm silken tofu, “soft” tofu can be used instead. In this case, use 600 grams total.
Pour the mixture into the reserved pie shell, smooth the top with an offset spatula and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes or until firm. When firm, slice and serve.
