Chocolicious Mocha Muffins

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Dear Diary,

I know it's been a long time since my last entry, but SOO much has been happening! Today I wore my pink capris with the white vee-neck sweater, and yesterday I got a note from that cute boy in my biology class - oh wait. Wrong blog. 

Just kidding.  It has been a while since we last posted any recipes, but to be truthful we're trying to lay off the baked goods for a while. Swimsuit season is fast approaching and we've been spending loads o time on the treadmill trying to get as swimsuit ready as possible. Diets be damned, we're back and ready to rock you with these delish chocolate muffins.

The original recipe came from theppk.com, and later became a recipe in Isa's book Vegan with a Vengance. (Don't you love how we say "Isa," without her last name, like we she's one of our pals?)

The original recipe calls for instant coffee, and we're posting it as written.  However, we've made a few modifications to it to suit our taste (and also because we were out of an ingredient or two) and the results were great. 

Both times we've made these, we've omitted the instant coffee. One, we're not crazy about coffee flavored items, unless it is actually coffee. And then, we're pretty much purists. Sweetener and creamer (soy creamer if necessary) are the only things that should alter the taste of a coffee bean. But, we digress. Two, our kids would almost certainly not eat anything mocha flavored because, well, they're kids, and mocha tends to be a grown-up flavor.

Okay, so the other thing we've done to change it up is use a couple of extra tablespoons of soy milk when we didn't have soy yogurt on hand. Both with and without the soy yogurt, the results were yummy.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 3/4 cups sugar
  
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
  
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee (remember, we left this out)
  
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 cup soy milk (see above - we used a bit extra when we didn't have soy yogurt)
  
• 2 tablespoons soy yogurt
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (if your soy milk is vanilla flavored, like ours, you could probably leave this out if you had to/wanted to)
  
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (dairy-free/egg-free/nut-free, of course - check your brand's label for details)
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffins tins with paper liners.
  
• In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients, except the chocolate chips.
  
• In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients until they come together.
  
• Add the wet to the dry and combine until the flour mixture is moistened, then fold in the chocolate chips.
  
• Fill the muffin tins almost to the top. 
  
• Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  

Happy Hamentaschen

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Why are the hamentaschen so happy, you may be asking? Or you may be asking: what exactly is a hamentaschen? In reverse order, a hamentaschen is a triangle-shaped cookie with an exposed fruit filling, traditionally eaten during the Jewish holiday Purim - think Mardi Gras without the parades, liquor, beads, or boobs. 

Now to the first question: the reason that these hamentaschen are happy is because they are dairy-free, egg-free and nut-free! Can you say "hurray"?! We can't hear you! Now, you, in the back row! Alright! All together now!

These cookies totally rock - no kidding! If you like yours a little crisper, roll them just a bit thinner than 1/4", and if you want them a little crumblier (crumblier?) stick with rolling them out to the recommended thickness.  Someone we know and love called the crisper ones "cookietashen," but what does he know? A beloved member of the older generation (read: our Mom) thought the crisper ones were better, and everybody knows Mom knows best. The dough ingredients are from the Fig Not-Ins cookies, in the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, but the method is ours.

Dough Ingredients

• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
  
• 1/4 cup shortening
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  
• 1/4 cup soy milk
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or to taste, depending on whether or not your soy milk is vanilla flavored like ours is)
  
• 2 cups flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  

Filling Ingredients

• Jam or spreadable fruit of your choice. Try to find one that seems pretty thick but won't lose too much moisture when baked. Traditional fillings are poppy seed, prune, apricot, but we've also seen strawberry and blackberry, so knock yourself out. You could probably also try apple (or apple pie filling - nice!) with great success. We think.
  

Steps

• In a mixing bowl, cream together the margarine, shortening, and sugar. 
  
• Add the cornstarch and mix well. 
  
• Beat in the soy milk and vanilla. 
  
• Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix well. 
  
• Refrigerate the dough, covered, until it's chilled but still malleable enough to be rolled out, probably around an hour in the refrigerator.
  
• Roll the dough to about 1/4-inch thickness, maybe just a little less.
  
• Using a round cookie cutter (with a decorative edge, if you have one) with about a 3-inch diameter, cut circles out of the dough. 
  
• Put a small dollop (around a teaspoon) of fruit in the center of the circle, then the tricky part: you want your circle to become a triangle. So, mentally divide the circle into three equal pieces.  Create a pinch in the dough (creating one corner of the triangle) at the "top", repeat it to create a second corner, and do it once more for a third corner. Note: You don't want to mangle your dough, but you don't want the cookie to open up in the oven and your filling to run out all over the place, either. Leave a good portion of the filling exposed. Look at the photo for tips on this.
  
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are as crispy as you'd like. The thinner you roll your dough, the less time it will take to bake to your preferred degree of doneness. 
• After 3 to 4 minutes on the baking sheet, remove to a wire rack to fully cool.

Chocolate-covered Just About Anything

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

You can embellish just about any dry good with chocolate and rainbow or holiday-themed sprinkles, nonpareiles, colored sugar, cupcake decorations, you name it. We recently made chocolate-covered, rainbow-sprinkled pretzel sticks for a Chinese New Year celebration, and they looked like little firecrackers! So cute. We've also covered pretzel mini twists (well, pretzels of just about every shape and size), graham cracker sticks and squares and animal crackers, and embellished them or not to suit our mood.

Ingredients

• Chocolate chips (we like the semi-sweet chips we can get at Trader Joes - if you don't have a TJs near you, read the labels to make sure the chips meet your food allergy requirements)
  
• Something to cover (like pretzels, crackers, etc.)
  
• Something to embellish with, or not
  

Steps

• Place a piece of waxed or parchment paper on a cookie sheet or two (depending on how much you'll be chocolate-covering). If you run into a bind, you can double the amount on one cookie sheet by using a piece of waxed/parchment paper in between each layer.
  
• Set out the embellishments you'll be using on flat plates covered with wax paper. We like to put a piece of waxed paper on the plate, because it helps us to get the embellishment onto the dipped piece of whatever.  We use a little sling action to move the sprinkles etc. around. If you'd rather just roll the chocolate-covered item around on the plate, that works, too.
• Melt the chocolate chips using the double boiler or microwave method. The amount you choose to melt will depend on how many goodies you want to make, but keep in mind that there's a little bit of trial and error here to get the quantity right. You may end up with too much or too little melted chocolate.
• Dip your dipping choice into the chocolate.
• Dip the chocolate-dipped deliciousness into the embellishment, if you're using one.
• Set it on the waxed paper and move onto the next.
• Put the cookie sheet into the refrigerator for the chocolate to set up and harden.
• Enjoy at will.  

Double boiler method

• Set yourself up with a double boiler, stirring an amount of chocolate frequently-to-constantly to ensure even melting. Be careful not to get even a droplet of water into the chocolate or it will seize up and you'll have to start over again.

Microwave method

• Pour an amount of the chocolate chips into a microwave safe container. 
  
• Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave on reduced power for about 30 seconds. If the chips haven't melted at all, put them back in at the same power for more time, or a slightly higher power for the same time, then check them again. Stir the chips every time you open the mic because you don't want the chocolate to burn. It'll stink up your house, believe us.
  
• Once the chips have almost completely melted, take them out of the mic and give them a good stir. The heat from the melted chocolate will take care of the remaining chips.

Notes

• Untempered chocolate will "bloom" (turn greyish-whitish) if it sits out too long at room temperature. You can take care of this problem by tempering your chocolate (this can be a complicated process), by making it shortly before you plan to serve it, or by storing it in the refrigerator.
  
• Adding an embellishment will affect how sweet the snack turns out, so keep that in mind.
• Consider too the chocolate-dry good ration. We love the sweet/salty/pretzel taste, and have found that the mini-pretzels almost are too small for the amount of enrobing chocolate. Use your discretion and consider your audience.