Portable cheesecake

Following up on the pie in a jar notion, I’ve extended the same idea to cheesecakes. The following recipe is from La Dolce Vegan with minor modifications for convenience.

Filling

• 300g silken tofu
• 2 cups tofutti “cream cheese”
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract (I also added one vanilla bean)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (I think I put in 1½)
• 1 tsp lemon rind, finely grated
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ flour

Glaze

• 1 cup jam
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• ¼ cup water

Method

1. Using a premade graham cracker crust (much faster), ground it up and split it between 8 jars.
2. Blend the filling in a food processor (wets first, drys second) and pour into the jars on top of the crust.
3. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge.
4. The next day, bring the glaze to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly (make sure to mix the water and cornstarch first to avoid clumps).
5. Split the glaze between the 8 jars and refrigerate again for an hour.

Pie in a jar

Just about any pie recipe can be easily converted into jar pie. It’s really just a matter of form factor. Prepare a bunch, leave them in the freezer, thaw before use and bake at 375°F for 45 minutes. Couldn’t be simpler.

Alternate ideas: layer on multiple pie flavours, or partition them horizontally with the aid of construction paper. The photo below is cherry on the left, blueberry on the right.

Chocolate truffles

• ½ “butter” (Earth Balance works better than margarine here as consistency is important)
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1½ cups icing sugar

Cream the “butter” and mix the rest in slowly, one at a time. When you’re done, you can coat each with melted chocolate (as pictured above), roll them in cinnamon, top them with an almond perhaps. These keep fairly well in the fridge when they’re done, although I’m no chocolatier, so venture with caution.

Fondue and fudge

This recipe works well both as fondue (while hot) and a soft fudge (while cold).

• ¼ cup margarine
• 225 grams dark chocolate
• ½ tbsp flour
• ½ cup corn syrup
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp soy milk

1. Melt the chocolate and liquids in a double boiler.
2. Sift in the flour to thicken the mixture up.

Chocolate oatmeal cups

Sometimes a recipe doesn’t turn out the way you’d expect. I have this one for oatmeal cookies that’s always turned out much flatter than I’d like. Instead of putting them on a cookie sheet, I tried using a muffin sheet such that they might hold their shape a little better. Little did I know that they’d puff up and collapse, creating chocolate oatmeal cups. Fantastic.

Ingredients

• ½ cup margarine
• 1 cup dry sweetener
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 “egg” (I’m using Ener-G)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ¼ cup cocoa
• ½ cup flour

Method

1. Like with all cookie recipes, mix the wet, sift together the dry, combine.
2. Bake in a muffin tray at 350°F for 10 minutes.
3. Let them cool down before putting them in the freezer for at least an hour.
4. Fill with anything: jam, ice cream, peanut butter, etc.

Sesame ginger cookies

The following recipe comes from The Veganomicon, my newest of cookbooks.

Dry ingredients

• 2¼ cups flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Wet ingredients

• ½ cup vegetable shortening
• ½ cup chunky peanut butter
• ¼ cup brown rice syrup
• 1¼ cups sugar
• ½ cup soy milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp almond extract

Additional ingredients

• 5 oz. candied ginger, diced finely
• ⅓ cup sesame seeds

Method

1. Sift together the dry ingredients in one bowl.
2. Beat the wet ingredients in another until smooth.
3. Add the dry to the wet.
4. Mix in the candied ginger.
5. Roll small balls of batter first in the sesame seeds, then in some extra sugar before placing on a cookie sheet.
6. Bake at 350°F for 13 minutes.

Pumpkin cheesecake cupcake

Cheesecupcake? Cupcheesecake? Whatever. Delicious. The recipe is loosely based off of the pumpkin tofu cheesecake from La Dolce Vegan, but with necessary substitutions based on ingredient scarcity.

Ingredients

• 425g firm tofu and 300g silken tofu (I was short and used 350g firm tofu and an 8oz tub of Tofutti creamcheese)
• 1¼ cups sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp maple extract (I used about 2 tbsp maple syrup)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ground ginger (I doubled this as I love ginger)
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• 1 tbsp maple syrup (Omitted as per above)

The crust was just graham cracker crumbs with a bit of melted margarine and sugar.

Method

1. In a set of about 8 ramekins, crumble the crust into the corners, forming a thin bottom and a reasonable ring around the outside.
2. Blend the above ingredients (wet first, then dry) and pour the smooth mixture into the ramekins, on top of the crumble crust
3. If desired, sprinkle some crumbled pecans, sugar and cinnamon on top. Drizzle some maple syrup if you’d like too. It’s not necessary, but they spice up an otherwise bland surface.
4. Bake for 75 minutes at 150°C then let cool overnight in the fridge.

Pumpkin pie

I got this recipe from La Dolce Vegan and tried it out on family a few days ago. It worked so well I thought I’d pass it along to others.

Pie crust

• 2 cups pastry flour
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ cup margarine
• ¼ cup soy milk

1. Sift the flour and salt together.
2. Add the margarine and mix together until it becomes a coarse meal.
3. Add the milk in and mix until a dough forms.
4. Roll into a ball and refrigerate for at least an hour.
5. Roll it out into pie shell.

Filling

• 400 ml pumpkin purée
• ½ cup soy milk
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp allspice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix the milk and syrup together and slowly add the cornstarch, whisking if necessary.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

Topping

• ¼ cup walnuts
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp margarine

1. Crumble the walnuts as fine as you can. The dustier the better.
2. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix well.
3. Add the margarine in and combine.
4. Sprinkle on top of the pie evenly.
5. Bake at 375°F for 40-45 minutes. Done!

Peanut butter chocolate pie

• 2 blocks of silken tofu
• 12 oz of chocolate, double-boiled
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 pie crust

Blend the tofu, chocolate, maple syrup and vanilla. Spread the peanut butter in the pie crust. Pour the mixture on top and let it sit in your freezer for about an hour or two. Oh yeah.

Chocolate peanut butter cake

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen via Reddit some time ago. I’m a big fan of any combination of peanut butter and chocolate, so this recipe goes over quite well in my books.

The recipe originally called for a chocolate glaze on top of the icing, but that takes so much time and it’s just way more sugar than I’m willing to indulge in. Shaved dark chocolate on top does fairly well in stead.

Cake

• 2 cups flour (cake or all-purpose will do fine)
• 2½ cups sugar
• ¾ cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup “sour cream” (Tofutti’s probably the best option)
• 1½ cups water
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 “eggs” (dry egg replacer works well)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Mix the dry items together
3. Add in the wet items in the above order (although I doubt that really matters)
4. Pour into whatever forms you’d like (e.g. cupcake) and bake for until toothpicked (~35 minutes or so)
5. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so before icing

Icing

• 5 oz. “cream cheese” (again, Tofutti does the best job I’ve found)
• 2 oz. margarine
• ⅓ cup peanut butter
• 2 cups icing sugar

1. Mix the wets together until creamy.
2. Slowly add in the icing sugar, being careful to avoid lumps if at all possible.