A Month of Sundaes

There are quite a few fancy flavors of vegan ice cream out there these days. But their availability depends greatly on where you live. And extra nutritional needs, such as a need for an almond base instead of soy, or needing to avoid chocolate cuts down the options even further. I personally am grateful to have access to basic vanilla.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to dress it up with a little variety sometimes.

And a sundae is a classic way to do that. Most of the ice cream sauces and toppings that are sold in stores are not vegan, though. So I’ve come up with a few fun options. These are “hot” style sauces by the way—they should be made immediately before using and served while still warm, and not be made ahead. They’re so fast it’s no problem to do so.

Here are some sauces, all of them single-serving and ready in under 2 minutes:

Sundae with vegan hot fudge sauce, coconut and ginger cookie dough

Easy Hot Fudge Sauce

2 Tbsp nondairy chocolate or carob chips

1 Tbsp vanilla soymilk

Heat both ingredients in microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and mash with a small spatula until smoothly melted, heating a little more if necessary. Pour over ice cream and top with nuts, coconut, candy, or whatever else you like.

Variations: You can make a spicy version by adding a dash of cinnamon and cayenne.

You can also use other kinds of vegan chips if you can find them.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream Topping

Vegan  Sundae with peanut butter sauce& cookies crumbs

1 Tbsp Peanut Butter

2 Tbsp vanilla soymilk

drop of maple extract/mapelline

1 or 2 tsp sugar or sweetener

Dash of cinnamon

Heat peanut butter and 1 Tbsp of the soymilk in microwave for 30 seconds on high. Add rest of soymilk, maple extract, sweetener and cinnamon and whisk with fork until smooth. Pour over ice cream and add other toppings as desired.  

Making the sauce

Variation: Other types of nut butter may be used; hazelnut is particularly good. Adjust sweetness and flavorings for different nuts to taste.

Butterscotch Ice Cream Topping

Butterscotch and almond sundae

2 Tbsp soymilk

½ tsp cornstarch

4 tsp maple syrup (or sugar-free pancake syrup)

1 tsp vegan margarine or reduced fat oil spread (I used Smart Balance Light)

A drop each vanilla and maple extract/mapelline

Small dash of salt (optional)

Whisk together soymilk and cornstarch with a fork until completely dissolved with no lumps. Add syrup and margarine (don’t worry about stirring those in). Microwave for 30 to 90 seconds on high, until it looks quite thick. Stir, and add extracts and salt, if using. Stir again, and pour over ice cream.

This butterscotch sauce can actually be scaled up and used as an excellent pudding or pie filling as well. Cooking time will increase with volume.

Basic Fruity Sundae Topping (version 1)

Pineapple-coconut sundae

¼ cup canned fruit in juice or syrup (such as crushed pineapple or canned strawberries)

¼ tsp cornstarch

sweetener or flavoring such as cinnamon to taste.

Measure out your undrained fruit, aiming for a good mix of fruit and juice. Whisk cornstarch into the fruit and juice, trying to mash away any clumps of starch. Microwave for about a minute to 90 seconds, until thickened. Pour over ice cream.

Pineapple Sauce

This topping is just as good over sorbet as it is vegan ice cream.

Fruity Sundae Topping (version 2)

2 Tbsp of your favorite vegan jam or preserves

a few tsp water, as needed

Chopped fresh fruit, optional

Heat jam in a small glass bowl in microwave for 15-30 seconds. Stir and evaluate texture—if it needs thinning, add water as needed, stirring until smooth and pour-able. I find that sugar-free jam usually requires no added water but that other kinds may vary. Pour over ice cream. You can also stir chunks of fresh fruit such as strawberries or peaches into your jam sauce before spooning over your sundae. This fruit can either match the type of jam or merely be compatible (e.g. peach chunks + raspberry jam = yum).

This sauce tends to re-gel fairly quickly when it hits the cold ice cream. If this bothers you, try version 1.

Mango sorbet with strawberry sauce

Other toppings:

Magic shell: Any undiluted melted chocolate or carob chips will actually solidify immediately on contact with cold ice cream. The trick is getting it to form a thin breakable shell instead of a thick hard lump.  My solution is simple: make a basket or cage instead of a shell. Place melted chocolate or carob into a sandwich bag and snip a mere 1/8 inch off one of the corners. Pipe the chocolate over the ice cream in a thin stream, forming swirls and overlapping lines until it forms a basket shape over the ice cream. Enjoy! The thin interlocking lines will break as your spoon hits them.

Another option would be to take an ice cream cone or edible bowl and coat the inside with a thin layer melted chocolate and let it harden (a brief trip to the freezer will do this quite quickly). It’s actually not too hard to find vegan versions of ice cream cones at a typical grocery store.

Cookies: Crunchy cookies (such as wafers or oreos) can be crumbled and sprinkled over the ice cream. Soft cookies such as chocolate chip will moisten and semi-dissolve on contact with the ice cream and sauces, forming an effect very much like cookie dough. This can be rather desirable. : )

Candy: Any storebought vegan candy can of course be sprinkled on as is. Homemade vegan can be chopped or broken into bite-sized pieces for this purpose too. Sometimes, when you’re planning on making some candy anyway, it can be fun to make a little extra for this kind of thing. The easiest vegan candy bar and Vegan Rocky Road Candy are good possibilities for this.

General toppings: Any form of nut, not just the usual suspects of peanut, almonds, or pecans, but also pistachios, cashews, pine nuts, etc. Spiced or candied nuts work too. Coconut flakes, chocolate chips, and vegan marshmallows are nice rich options. Fruit, whether fresh, dried, canned or even in the form of pie filling makes for a great sundae too. Sometimes when I want semi-healthy treat, I’ll serve a large portion of fresh unsweetened fruit with just a tiny scoop of vegan ice cream on top.

Another sundae variation is to build a sundae on top of another dessert, such as a cake, pie, or brownie. Sometimes this makes a pretty hardcore dessert that’s better off shared.   ; )
Mixing and matching these sauces and toppings with different flavors of vegan ice cream should allow you to duplicate whatever non vegan ice cream treats you remember and crave. Or maybe create something brand new. Have fun!

Banana split, topped with nuts and both peanut butter and hot fudge sauces

A Pumpkin Pie Variation: Pumpkin-Apple Pie

I tried a new variation on my pumpkin pie recipe, and it turned out pretty well. I just took this pumpkin pie recipe, omitted the maple pecans, and arranged two sliced apples in the bottom of the pie shell before pouring in the filling and topping with the streusel. The addition of the apple made for an interesting flavor and texture contrast that’s quite different from a basic pumpkin pie. 

 










Maybe it would be a good addition to your thanksgiving table this year. Particularly if you’re having trouble choosing between apple and pumpkin pie. : )

 

Pumpkin-Apple Pie

The easiest vegan candy bar

Because sometimes you don’t want to break out the candy thermometer.

The average candy bar aisle can be a little barren for vegans. You’d be lucky to find a couple of plain dark chocolate bars, and not even that if you require carob. Pretty much nothing with fillings or add-ins such as nuts, toffee or peanut butter.

I’ve done quite a few posts on homemade vegan candy and chocolates—a couple of years ago I did a full week of posts on the subject for Valentines Day. Some of them are quite elaborate and produce excellent results. But sometimes you just want an easy treat without a lot of fuss and labor.

This recipe is the best balance I’ve found between easiness and still producing a recognizable candy bar with all the elements you miss from pre-vegan store-bought candy bars: layers of toffee, crunch, nuts, peanut butter and chocolate, all without needing a candy thermometer or the bother of hand-dipping in chocolate.

To me, it tastes most like a combination of a Butterfinger and a Heath bar or Almond Roca. Yum!

Safety note: even thought we're not using a candy thermometer here, we're still dealing with hot sugar, aka culinary napalm. So be careful, please, and no kids during the hot sugar part of the recipe. They can help make the cracker sandwiches if they want, but after that they should go play away from the kitchen until it's time to eat. 
 
 

Peanut Butter Toffee Bars

Chocolate--Peanut Butter--Toffee--Cracker Candy Squares

 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup turbinado sugar

1 Tbsp maple syrup

3 Tbsp smart balance light

2 Tbsp oil

dash of cinnamon

16 saltine crackers (matzo or ritz style crackers may be substituted)

about 3 Tbsp peanut butter (or other smooth nut butter)

1/3 cup vegan chocolate or carob chips

Optional: chopped nuts or crushed candy canes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Filling the crackers with peanut butter

Make little sandwiches out of the crackers and peanut butter by spreading half the crackers with about a teaspoon of peanut butter each and placing the other half of the crackers on top of them.  Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, and arrange the cracker sandwiches in a single layer across the bottom of the pan, breaking them if necessary to fit.

Place sugar, maple syrup, smart balance light, oil and cinnamon in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 2 ½ to 3 minutes, stirring once a minute, until the mixture forms large foamy bubbles.

Foamy bubbles

Toffee poured over crackers

Wearing oven mitts, carefully pour the sugar mixture over the cracker sandwiches. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 5-6 minutes, until the butterscotch is fairly brown (but not black).

While the bars are baking, melt the chocolate or carob chips in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. This took me about 1 minute 15 seconds, but that may vary.

When the bars come out of the oven, pour the melted chocolate on top and spread it out in an even layer using a spatula or the back of fork. Sprinkle with nuts or candy, if using. Let cool until the chocolate is completely hard.

Flip the bars out on to a plate and break them into pieces. They should break into fairly even squares along the borders of the cracker sandwiches.

Note: if you cook the sugar mixture for a shorter amount of time in the microwave, it will come out less like hard toffee and more like soft, oozy caramel. However, the bars will not hold together as well or come out of the pan very easily. It’s your call.

vegan candy bars

As far as the toppings are concerned, you can achieve a number of different effects. You may find you like salted, toasted or even spiced nuts better. The candy cane version would be nice during the holidays.

Vegan Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

These are intended to be a vegan substitute for those  classic bake-sale cookies that have a Hershey's kiss or peanut butter cup pressed in the middle. With peanut butter stirred right into the chocolate, it tastes like a mix of the two.

Unlike jam thumbprints, you don't really want to fill these before baking. After is better.

 

Vegan Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies, fresh from the oven

 

Vegan Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

Your favorite vegan cookie recipe—can be sugar cookies, shortbread, peanut butter cookies, chocolate cookies, oatmeal cookies, etc—scaled to make about 18 cookies.

heaping 1/3 cup chocolate or carob chips

2 Tbsp peanut butter (or other nut butter)

1-3 Tbsp soymilk

Directions:

Bake cookies as usual. While they are still warm and soft, press the back of a ½ teaspoon into the middle of each cookie to form an indentation.

Oatmeal cookies, with indentations

Microwave chocolate/carob chips, peanut butter, and soy milk together for 1 to 1½ minutes, stirring and mashing every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth.

Spoon the chocolate mixture into the indentations in the cookies. Let them cool to room temperature and store in the refrigerator.

Note: Use the smaller amount of soymilk for firm, Hershey’s kiss-like chocolate centers. Use the higher amount for soft, ganache-like centers.

Cooling and setting

Variation: Sprinkle the chocolate centers with chopped nuts, coconut flakes or crushed candy canes before the chocolate filling sets, or press a vegan marshmallow on top.

Sugar Free Vegan Cashew Shortbread Cookies

Sugar free desserts can sometimes suffer from texture issues due to the fact that sugar substitutes can only replace the sweetness of sugar, not its chemical or physical properties. One of the physical properties of sugar is a tenderizing effect on gluten, without which sugar-free desserts can become dense, gummy or bread-like.

There are different ways to combat this problem. One would be to lower the gluten content by cutting the wheat based flour with gluten-free flours. Another is to add oat bran, ground nuts or cocoa powder, all of which have the ability to interrupt strands of gluten and prevent them from getting too long and tough.

These shortbread cookies use a third option: limiting gluten development by restricting water content. Gluten is already present in the flour, but it does not develop its rubber band-like physical properties until combined with water and mixed or kneaded. Keeping water content low keeps the cookies tender and crumbly, the way shortbread should be.

Vegan Cashew Shortbread Cookies

 

Sugar Free Cashew Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

Stevia or splenda equivalent to 6 Tbsp of sugar

1/8 tsp cardamom

dash of salt

5 Tbsp oil

4 tsp water or soy milk

½ tsp vanilla

¼ tsp coconut extract

¼ cup cashew pieces  (not whole)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together the flour, cardamom, salt and sweetener (only if sweetener is dry. If sweetener is liquid, add it with the wet ingredients). Measure in the wet ingredients and stir to combine, using your fingers if necessary.

Roll dough into a 1½ inch wide log and slice off 3/8 inch rounds. Take each round and press and shape with hands to firm it up. Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle tops of cookies with cashew pieces and press down lightly to help them stick.

Pressing the cashews to the tops

Bake for about 8-10 minutes, rotating cookie sheet once, until cookies are golden around the edges and fragrant. Don’t let the cashews burn.

Let cool and enjoy. Makes about 20 small cookies.

Variations:

The cashews can be replaced with any other nut as well as sesame seeds or coconut flakes.

Shortbread cookies can also be made in a wide variety of flavors by changing the extracts and spices.

If you wanted to try these cookies with real sugar instead of sweetener, you should be prepared to add a little extra water or soymilk to get the dough to come together.

These went over pretty well. They’re fast and easy, so it’s easy to whip them up at the last minute to round out your dessert platter in case of an unexpected diabetic guest : ). The recipe can be halved or quartered if you only need a few cookies.

A Taste of Spring: Vegan Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry-Rhubarb is usually one of the first pies of the produce season. Strawberry and rhubarb get paired up because they have similar growing seasons and of course, because their flavors and textures are so compatible. They have a certain magic together that the two of them lack separately. 

Rhubarb is easiest to find at farmer's markets and some health food stores. The stalk is the only edible part; do not try to eat the leaves or anything else--some parts of the rhubarb plant are not only inedible but poisonous. Another name for rhubarb is "Pie Plant," and there's a reason for it: the distinct tang and jam-like texture of cooked rhubarb makes an exceptionally good pie filling, both alone and in combination with a variety of other fruits, particularly sweet ones that could use some extra tanginess.

 

Vegan Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Crumble Topping

 

Vegan Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:

1 prepared pie crust, either crumb or pastry style

Filling:

3 cup chopped rhubarb

2 cups fresh or thawed frozen strawberries, halved

1 cup sugar or sweetener

1/3 cup flour

½ tsp cinnamon

dash of cardamom

Topping:

¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour

¼ cup ground almonds or walnuts (other nuts okay too)

½ cup sugar or sweetener

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

dash salt

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 ½ Tbsp water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make topping: Stir together flour, ground nuts, sugar/sweetener, spices and salt. Drizzle in oil and water. Mix into crumbs with fingers; set aside.

Strawberry -Rhubarb Filling

Mix together dry ingredients for the filling; stir in fruit. Pour filling into pie crust. Sprinkle topping evenly over top.

With nutty crumble topping

Bake pie for 45 minutes, covering with foil halfway through if the topping starts to brown too much.

Let cool for 30-60 minutes before slicing.

Variation:

If strawberries aren't an option for some reason (availability, allergies, etc.) you could substitute an equal amount of diced ripe mango for a really delicious variation.

Now the only trouble is waiting to slice into it...

Pi Day Post: Black Cherry Almond Pie with Vegan Olive Oil Pie Crust

If you’ve never heard of it before, Pi day is a pun-tastic holiday in which math nerds around the internet make pies and decorate them with mathematic symbols and numbers in honor of Pi--the circumference-to-diameter ratio of a circle that makes appearances in geometry classes everywhere--and post pictures for other enthusiasts to admire. It’s celebrated on March 14, because the date 3-14 matches up with pi’s first three digits.

It’s always fun to see what people come up with. You get some very creative and non-traditional offerings.

Here I’ve posted my latest vegan pie crust recipe, which comes out fairly flaky and tender despite using olive oil instead of butter or shortening. I often just use crumb crusts for pies, but for Pi Day you need a dough you can sculpt and decorate with.

The filling is Black Cherry, which tastes great and has good color contrast against the crust decorations (these things matter : ). The almond crumb topping may seem a little redundant, and does obscure the lattice a little, but it tastes so good I couldn’t resist. Cherry and almond are best friends, you know.

Pi Day!

Vegan Olive Oil Pie Crust:

This makes enough for one lattice/cutout topped pie with a bottom crust. 

Dry ingredients:

1 ¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour

¾ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

3 Tbsp sugar or sweetener

1/3 cup olive oil

¼ cup water

1 tsp lemon juice

½ tsp vanilla

¼ tsp almond extract

Directions:

Mix together dry ingredients. Take 1 ¼ cups of the resulting mixture (reserve the rest) and combine it with the oil. It should look like peanut butter. Put the oil mixture in the freezer for 1-2 hours.

Flour and frozen lumps

When the time is up, take it out of the freezer. Pinch or cut it into pinto bean sized lumps. Add the lumps to the reserved flour mixture and stir to coat. Combine water, lemon juice, vanilla and almond extract. Pour into the bowl with the flour and lumps. Stir with a spatula until combined into a shaggy ball. Chill the dough for 20 minutes.

olive oil pastry dough

When the 20 minutes are up, take your dough ball and divide it into 2 pieces, one about 2/3 of the dough and the other 1/3. The dough will appear somewhat swirly and marbled; this is normal and contributes to a flaky texture.

Using flour as needed, roll out the 2/3 piece into a roughly 12-inch circle 1/8 inch thick. I used a silicon pastry mat, which made the process much easier. Transfer circle of dough to your pie plate and gently press it into place. Do NOT stretch the dough.

Pressed into the pie plate

Roll out the other piece of dough and cut into strips for a lattice, and/or make cutouts to top pie with.

Next, prepare filling and assemble.

A slice of Black Cherry-Almond Pi(e)

 

Black Cherry Pie

Ingredients:

Vegan olive oil pie crust (above)

Filling:

2 lbs frozen black or sweet cherries, thawed and drained

½ cup sugar or sweetener

1 ½ Tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1/3 cup flour

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp almond extract

Almond Crumb Topping:

3 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour

1 Tbsp almond meal (packed)

½ Tbsp sliced almonds

dash salt

1/8 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp sugar/sweetener

2 tsp oil

1 tsp water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Thaw and drain your cherries; if it is convenient you can cut some or all of them in half—this helps with the final texture and is also an opportunity to check for stray pits. It’s not mandatory though. Mix the cherries with the rest of the filling ingredients.

Stir together all crumb topping ingredients except for oil and water. Pour in the oil and water while tossing the dry ingredients with a fork. Crumble with your fingers until it looks like wet sand. Set aside.

Cherry filling in pie shell

To assemble: Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell, arrange lattice and cutouts on top and sprinkle with topping. I chose to place the lattice in a geometric ring pattern, put a pi cutout in the middle (for Pi Day!) and sprinkle the topping around the edges. 

Pi Cutout + lattice ring

With almond crumb topping

Bake for 45 minutes, until lightly browned and bubbly. Let cool for half an hour before cutting.

Happy Pi Day, everybody! Math is fun! (And delicious. : )

 

Partially decimated

Vegan Pumpkin Peanut Butter Mini-Cheesecakes

Pumpkin and Peanut Butter may sound like an odd combination but it's actually quite compatible--somewhat reminiscent of the more popular peanut butter and banana pairing, just a little subtler.

I liked these cheesecakes. They're fun, nontraditional, and not very difficult. Including the optional lemon juice gives you a more authentic cheesecake tang, but I like them better without (That tang was actually part of the reason I never liked real cheesecake). Use as much or as little as you like.

These mini cheesecakes were an opportunity to try out my new silicon cupcake liners. They worked very well.  Paper liners don't do all that well with crumbs crusts; they tend to get greasy (or stick).
The silicon liners released the cheesecakes easily, and their floppiness allowed me to peel down the sides while pushing up the bottom, almost like a spring-form pan. I was quite pleased with them.

Cross-section view ; )

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Mini-Cheesecakes

Crust:

1 ¼ cups vegan ginger snaps (about 23 1½ inch cookies)

3 Tbsp oil

1 ½ Tbsp sugar or sweetener

Filling:

½ cup peanut butter (the thick no-stir kind)

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 12 oz package silken tofu

¾ cup sugar or sweetener

1 ½ Tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp vanilla

¾ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

½ tsp dried orange or lemon zest

dash each cardamom and nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

optional: up to 1-2 Tbsp lemon juice (only add if you prefer a distinctly tangy cheesecake; I leave it out)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Making the ginger snap crust

Pulse ginger snaps in food processor until they are fairly finely ground. Add oil and sugar/sweetener pulse until mixture looks like wet sand. Press crumbs into the bottom and up to ½ an inch up the sides of 12 silicon muffin liners. Bake for 8-9 minutes. Let cool five minutes.

Blending the filling

Place all filling ingredients into the food processor (no need to rinse it between crust and filling) and puree until completely smooth. Spoon filling into your cups and smooth the tops. Don’t worry about leaving room; these don’t rise.

Ready to bake

Bake for 20-22 minutes more. They should look firm and not at all wobbly. Let cool completely before you try to get peel them out of the cups

Then enjoy! This isn’t one of those cheesecake recipes where you have to chill forever before eating (although leftovers should definitely be stored in the fridge).

Happy Thanksgiving! Have a fun, stress-free holiday. Or failing that, just have some cheesecake!

Cheesecake: Therapy for Foodies

Vegan Chocolate Wafer Cookies & Icebox Cake

There are quite a few uses for wafer cookies in baking: they can be ground into crumbs for use in pie crusts, layered into retro desserts or even used as a candy base. Unfortunately, most store-bought versions are not vegan. When you make your own version you can customize them even further for special diets. I’ve made a sugar free variation, for example, which worked quite well.

Chocolate wafer cookies

 

Vegan Chocolate Wafer Cookies

¾ cup whole-wheat pastry flour

6 Tbsp cocoa or carob powder

½ cup sugar or sweetener

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp instant coffee or caffeine-free coffee substitute

¼ cup oil

¼ cup warm water

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together all dry ingredients. Stir together wet ingredients, and then pour over dry ingredients. Combine until homogenous, trying not to overmix.

Form into 1 or more logs of 1 to 1 ½ inches in diameter. Wrap with wax paper or plastic wrap and freeze for about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment or silpat. Unwrap each log and slice into ¼ inch discs. Arrange cookies on cookie sheets. Press and shape each cookie with your fingers a little to help it hold together.

Bake for about 11 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Let cool completely before assembling into icebox cake or other dessert.

Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Icebox Cake

 

And here’s one of those retro desserts I was talking about. An icebox cake is a dessert made of cookies (usually store-bought) layered with either whipped cream or pudding and then chilled overnight. When it is sliced the next day it resembles a layer cake in miniature. Icebox cakes come in many shapes and flavors, most of them not vegan, but some with promise for modification : ).

Here I’ve used a tofu-hazelnut mousse in place of the whipped cream and these homemade wafer cookies in place of storebought ones.

Chocolate Hazelnut Icebox Cake

 

Vegan Icebox Cake

Vegan Hazelnut Mousse (whipped topping substitute):

1 12 oz pkg firm silken tofu

½ cup chopped toasted hazelnuts

1/3 cup sugar or sweetener

1 tsp vanilla

1-2 Tbsp soymilk (optional)

dash of cinnamon

One recipe Vegan Chocolate Wafer cookies (above), cooked and cooled completely

Directions:

For Hazelnut Mousse: Puree all mousse ingredients in a blender or food processor until completely smooth, adding the soymilk if necessary to help out the blender.

To assemble:

Spreading the lined pan with mousse

Line one large loaf pan or 4 mini loaf pans with plastic wrap. Smear the bottom of the lined pan with a thin layer of the hazelnut mousse.

Take one cookie and smear it with mousse. Press it against one inner edge of the plastic-lined loaf pan. Take another cookie, smear it with mousse, and press it against the first cookie.

Arranging the cookies in layers

Keep smearing cookies and pressing them against each other until the row reaches the other side of the pan. Make sure the last cookie in the row is smeared on both sides.

If you’re using the large loaf pan, start another row and keep going until you fill up the entire pan. If you are using the small loaf pans you will probably only need the one row per pan.

Covered and chilled

Smear more hazelnut mousse over the top and into the corners and edges.

Cover the top of the pan with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day, peel back the plastic wrap, and then slice and serve.

 

 

Variations

If you don’t want to use wafer cookies, you can use thicker cookies (such as chocolate chip) as long as you briefly dunk each one in soy milk before you put the cake together.

Icebox cakes can be made in different shapes. You could try a round one, or a tall tower.

The sugar-free version of this icebox cake (with both the wafer cookies and the hazelnut mousse made with stevia or splenda in place of sugar) was one the best-received sugar free desserts I have made. It’s definitely worth a try.

If you have access to a commercial version of vegan whipped topping, you could certainly use that in place of the hazelnut mousse.

Icebox cake made with store-bought vegan whipped topping

Vegan Chocolate Éclair Cake (with Vegan Vanilla pudding and Chocolate Glaze)

Vegan Chocolate Eclair Cake

If you’ve never heard of a Chocolate Éclair Cake before, I must warn you that it is neither an éclair nor a cake. Instead it is a one of those classic assembled desserts that combine various types of instant pudding, whipped topping and other prepackaged foods to a very tasty if not necessarily nutritious or sophisticated effect. These nostalgic recipes are often somewhat troublesome to veganize because of all those inflexible prepackaged ingredients.

The traditional recipe involves mixing prepared instant vanilla pudding with whipped topping, and then layering the mixture with graham crackers and finally topping the whole thing with an entire jar (!) of melted chocolate frosting and chilling overnight.

To veganize it, I whipped up a quick from scratch vegan vanilla pudding in place of the instant pudding (although you may actually be able to find a vegan brand if you like) and replaced that jar of frosting with a light, not-too-sweet chocolate glaze. For the whipped topping, I actually have a local source for a store-bought vegan whipped topping called Smackin’ Whip, so I used it. However, homemade would have worked okay for that too. For a discussion of homemade vegan cool whip strategies and a recipe, look here. I also replaced the graham crackers, which are sometimes difficult to find honey-free, with gingersnaps. Any other thin, crunchy cookie would work too.

With all these homemade components, there’s the issue of taking a very quick and easy recipe and making it much harder and more involved. I compensated for this by making some of the components (such as the pudding) on different days in larger batches, and then assembling the leftovers into this dessert. The final result was therefore not too time or energy intensive.

Vegan Chocolate Éclair Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups chilled Vegan Vanilla Pudding (recipe follows)

1 ½ cups vegan whipped topping

30-36 gingersnaps (enough to line the pan three times)

1 recipe Chocolate Glaze (see below)

Directions:

1st layer of cookies

Line the bottom of an 8 by 8 inch baking pan with 1/3 of the gingersnaps, breaking some of them if necessary.

Mixing the pudding and whipped topping

Fold the vanilla pudding and whipped topping together.





Spread half of the resulting mixture in an even layer over the gingersnaps. Lay a second layer of cookies over the pudding. Pour on the second half of the pudding mixture.
Arrange the final layer of cookies on top, then pour on the chocolate glaze and smooth with a spatula. The top can be decorated with sprinkles or toasted coconut if you like.

Covered with glaze and ready to chill

Chill overnight and cut into squares to serve.

Vegan Vanilla Pudding:

Vegan Vanilla Pudding

2 cups vanilla or plain soymilk

1/3 cup sugar or sweetener

2 ½ Tbsp cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

1 ½ tsp vanilla

2 tsp oil (margarine would be okay too)

Directions:

Mix together sugar/sweetener, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Add about ¼ cup of soymilk and stir into a smooth paste, mashing any clumps. Whisk in the rest of the soymilk and bring to a simmer over medium heat (or medium low if your stove runs hot). Stir constantly. Simmer 3-5 minutes, until thickened with large bubbles forming. The pudding should be a little thinner than you like because it will continue to thicken as it cools

Simmering away

Take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla and oil. Transfer to a bowl and chill for at least a few hours.

Variations:

The flavors, such as spices and extracts could be varied as much as you want. Ground cinnamon or coconut extract would be particularly nice.

The amount or type of thickener can be changed as well if you prefer a different texture or have a corn allergy. Potato starch or arrowroot can be substituted for the cornstarch 1 for 1.

Chocolate Glaze:

1 cup water

½ cup sugar or sweetener

¼ cup cocoa or carob powder

2 Tbsp cornstarch 

pinch of salt

½ tsp vanilla

1-2 Tbsp vegan chocolate or carob chips (more if you like)

Vegan Chocolate Glaze

Directions:

Whisk together sugar/sweetener, cornstarch, salt and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring continually. Simmer about 2 minutes, or until thickened. Pull off the heat and stir in vanilla and chocolate chips. Stir until chocolate melts, then pour on top of the éclair dessert.

This recipe can also be used as a cake glaze, or a hot fudge sauce.

I like this Chocolate Eclair Cake quite a bit. It was creamy and refreshing on a hot day, and convenient to make ahead. 

Chocolate Eclair Cake