Black Bean Chocolate Cupcakes (Gluten free)

These cupcakes are like eating a cloud of fluffy chocolate brownie cake frosted with the inside of Lindor truffles.

My dad has been sneaking into the kitchen and taking two at a time, and he usually only nibbles at the desserts I make. I can’t blame him though; I’ve lost count of how many I’ve eaten.

These cupcakes are super chocolatey, and not too sweet (though a extra quarter cup of sugar or a few drops of stevia can fix that if sweeter desserts float your boat) and the frosting tastes like the inside of lindor truffles. Really, it does! 

The cake is more creamy and dense than traditional chocolate cake and it reminds me somewhat of brownies, but that’s the only distinction I can make. There’s no bean taste whatsoever.

If you’re feeling particularly healthy, you could replace the eggs with egg whites and sugar with erythritol, but these aren’t bad as is. So relax, and eat a couple (or ten). 

Black Bean Chocolate Cupcakes

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup cooked black beans
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup sugar (increase to 3/4 cup if you like sweeter desserts)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Blend all the ingredients in a food processor, blender, or with a hand emersion blender until smooth. The batter should be very creamy and thick — like chocolate pudding.
2. Divide into 30 mini cupcake liners.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
4. Frost, or eat plain!

Inside of Lindor Chocolate Truffles Frosting

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup coconut oil

1. Combine and microwave until melted.
2. Let sit at room temperature until spreadable, or speed up the process using an ice bath.
3. Frost the cupcakes!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

Unless I’m baking for a particular reason (a present, a party, to try making a new dessert), I don’t usually follow recipes. There’s something liberating about blending ingredients without any idea of what the end result will be. It’s the ultimate trial and error method for learning how ingredients interact - and I’m a trial and error sort of person (did you know I once spent 2 days making vegetarian marshmallows 3 different ways). 

For a while I would just make simple cakes and biscuits, but lately I’ve been having more fun, working quinoa and beans and oatmeal into the baked goods I make. I just throw ingredients together and scribble down in what quantities, and usually, the end result is fine! 

An example “recipe”

This method is how I somehow ended up with this gluten free pumpkin bread (which I’m pretty excited about, not gonna lie).

It wassuper easy to make, and it’s not dry NOR gummy like many gluten free baked goods tend to be. I’m already thinking about all the possible variations: chocolate cake, banana cake, carrot cake, everything cake. Yum~

I topped it with this cream cheese frosting, but I’m sure most anything would taste good.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked oatmeal
• 1/4 cup gluten free protein powder
• 1/4 cup potato starch (I’m willing to bet tapioca starch would work too - and it’s easier to buy think.)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 ounces plain greek yogurt*
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 2 tbs syrup (maple, honey, or pancake syrup)
• 2 tbs oil
• 1 egg

*The final bread had a bit of tanginess from the yogurt. I liked it, but will probably replace with applesauce in the future.

1. In a food processor, blend the oatmeal until powdery. Add the protein powder, potato starch, baking powder, salt, and sugar, and pulse a couple times until combined. 
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, pumpkin, syrup, oil, and egg.
3. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Whisk about 30 seconds.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for around 30 minutes in a greased 8x8 pan, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
5. Top with frosting, and serve.

Dulce de Leche Gelato (with cookie chunks!)

When I was in Mexico I ate an embarrassing amount of dulce de leche.

Dulce de leche drowned chocolate ice cream. Dulce de leche crepes. Dulce de leche drizzled doughnuts. Dulce de leche everything.

You can blame me though—you would too if you were in Mexico and had an unlimited supply of it. 

In honor of this delicious topping, I made Dulce de Leche Gelato with dulce de leche cookie chunks. Unfortunately I don’t have the recipe for the cookie chunks, because they resulted from a experimental recipe flop, but I think nearly any type of crushed cookie would work fine for this recipe (oatmeal especially, yum!).

The recipe for the ice cream base is creamy and caramel-y, but not too sweet. It took a matter of ten minutes and seven people for the entire batch to be eaten, and we were licking our bowls afterwards. Let me tell you, I can foresee a lot of this ice cream in my future. A lot.

Dulce de Leche Gelato

recipe adapted from this book

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup dulce de leche
• 1/2 cup crushed cookies

1. Combine the milk and heavy cream in a saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until bubbles start to form. Stir occasionally.
2. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. 
3. Gradually pour about 1 cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking the entire time.
4. Add the egg yolk sugar milk mixture back in the saucepan. Whisk until smooth.
5. Heat the mixture until it is 185 degrees, and thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
6. Pour the base into a bowl, cover the top with ceram wrap, and allow to cool.
7. Whisk in the dulce de leche, and then refrigerate until cold.
8. Churn the ice cream base in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Right before the ice cream is finished, add the crushed cookies and allow to process for about 10 seconds.
9. Place the ice cream into a container, and then freeze for several hours. Enjoy!

B is for Barmbrack

Yeasted bread.

It’s a phrase that makes me droll thinking about cinnamon rolls, french bread, brioche and ciabatta, while simultaneously cringing at the work required to make such treats.  

Plus, combine the work required to make yeasted bread with the fact that I’m the third quarter of my junior year of high school (and that I just started Track and Field, which is two hours every weekday) and you’ll see how low bread making is on my priorities. 

So here’s where the problem arises.  For my “Alphabet desserts around the world idea,” my next recipe was Barmbrack (Báirín Breac), a traditional irish yeasted bread.  To compensate for my laziness, as well as my lack of time, I ended up settling for a more tea-cake like version, a recipe I shamelessly butchered by added butter, but the results were awesome.

This weekend I actually have some time-weird-and I plan to try a more traditional yeast bread version and report back.  For now, this recipe should suffice.  The cake is fruity, sweet, and dense, and the perfect complement for a mug of hot tea.  How close it resembles it’s irish ancestor will tell, but never-the-less it’s a really enjoyable fruit cake.

Barmbrack 

Adapted from here.

A is for Apple Pie Cookies [vegan]

I have this idea in my head, an idea which I’ve been considering for the past few weeks.  Since one of my New Year resolutions was to, I quote: “Bake different styles of food!,” I’ve obviously got to follow through on that!  

To accomplish this resolution, my idea is: Desserts Around the World-alphabet style

Basically, every two weeks I will post a new recipe that originates from a foreign country.  Simple enough right?  The only other criteria is that there are going to be a total of 26 recipes, and each recipe name will begin with a letter in the alphabet.

To start myself off, here’s a recipe for Apple Pie Cookies, with the country being AMURICAAA. 

These are essentially cinnamon oatmeal cookies, with an apple pie filling and a simple icing on top.  The cookies have almost a biscuity texture, which really enhances the idea of an apple pie.  These cookies are made for eating with a glass of milk (I’d even go as far as to say glasses of milk are made for drinking with these cookies), and if you’re aiming for a totally vegan dessert, a glass of soymilk is perfect too.  Eat these cookies to celebrate the United States- a mess of a country, but one built on honest ideals.

Apple Pie Cookies

For the cookies:

• 1/2 cup butter (I used vegan butter)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup flour (reduce to 3/4 cup for a less biscuity cookie)
• 1 tbs corn starch
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Whisk in the vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the oatmeal, flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, and stir until a dough forms.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
4. Take 1/4 cup size balls of dough, and form into round disks on a baking sheet. Make an indent in the middle of each disk as a bowl for the apple filling.

For the apple filling:

• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbs butter

1. Melt the butter in the pan, and add the brown sugar.  Heat until bubbling.
2. Add the apples, and cook until they begin to soften. Reduce the heat and keep cooking until the apples caramelize and the filling is deep golden brown. Cook less for a more gooey filling (in my cookies, I cooked the filling until very golden brown, and it was almost like a chewy apple caramel in the final product).  Divide the filling among the cookies.
3. Bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until they are a light golden color.  Cool completely before adding the glaze.

For the icing:

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tiny splash vanilla
• milk (or soy milk)

1. In a plastic bag combine the powder sugar and vanilla.
2. Add a tiny splash of milk, and squish the bag until a homogenous icing forms.  If needed, add another tiny splash of milk.
3. Cut a corner off of the bag and pipe the icing onto the cookies.
4. Allow the icing to harden, then enjoy the cookies with a glass of milk.