Vegan Cooking with Chloe Coscarelli and a Look at Her Crème -Filled Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

I’m a little bit vegan sometimes. Other times, I eat nothing but lean meats and vegetables, eschewing bread, pasta and rice altogether. There are weeks when I make nothing but Indian food. I bounce around, trying to find a healthy mix and I’ve found some truly awesome recipes.

This month I’m hooked on Chloe Coscarelli’s new cookbook, Chloe’s Kitchen: 125 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Making the Food You Love the Vegan Way, which was sent to me for review. I’ve made several of her recipes and my family members, all major carnivores, are really enjoying most of them. We’ve even repeated a couple in the short time I’ve had her book.

Chloe has a way of making vegan cooking accessible and when you eat her recipes you don’t feel like you’re missing something. They’re full of flavor and not full of weird ingredients to compensate for the lack of meat and dairy.

I recommend the Barley Bliss Casserole, delicious, creamy home cooking with a sauce I think about long after I'm done eating it. This is a great healthy substitute for those old cream of chicken based comfort food casseroles.

We also loved her Guilt-Free Garlic Mashed Potatoes with parsnips and cauliflower. These were amazing and pumped full of veggies. I will definitely be making them again.

Also, she’s authorized me to post her "Chlostess" Crème-Filled Cupcake recipe for all of you to try. These were surprisingly delicious and if I can sub them out for my family’s favorite 300-unpronouncable-ingredient treats, we’ll be better off. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that she makes a great cupcake. Chloe created the first vegan cupcake recipe ever to win the reality show Cupcake Wars. Try this recipe, check out her website, and then give her whole book a try. Enjoy!

“Chlostess” Crème -Filled Cupcakes

MAKES 14 CUPCAKES

Move over, you other name-brand cupcakes found in a little plastic bag! These are homemade, have half the fat, and are still crème-filled delicious! 

Make-Ahead Tip

The Chocolate Cupcakes can be filled with Crème Frosting and frozen for up to 1 month.

Thaw cupcakes and apply Chocolate Ganache topping and swirl design before serving. Any leftover Crème Frosting can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. 

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

1½ cups all-purpose flour*

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup cold coffee or water

½ cup canola oil

2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

*For a gluten-free alternative, substitute gluten-free all-purpose flour plus ¾ teaspoon  xanthan gum

CRÈME FROSTING

1 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 to 5 tablespoons soy, almond, or rice milk

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (dairyfree)

¼ cup canned coconut milk, mixed well before measuring

2 tablespoons canola oil

To make the Chocolate Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with 14 cupcake liners. 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In a separate

bowl, whisk together coffee, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture into the dry
mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not overmix.

Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full with batter. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting. 

To make the Crème Frosting: Using a handheld or stand mixer, beat the shortening until

smooth. With the mixer running on low, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon
nondairy milk at a time, as needed, until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. You
may not need to use all of the nondairy milk. Beat on high for 2 more minutes until light
and fluffy.

To make the Chocolate Ganache: Melt chocolate chips and coconut milk in a double boiler or microwave. Whisk in oil until smooth.

To assemble the cupcakes: Fit a piping bag with a small round or Bismarck tip and fill with the Crème Frosting. Insert the tip into the center of the top of each cupcake and squeeze the bag to fill the cupcake with about 2 to 3 teaspoons frosting. There is no need to scoop out any of the cake. Spread the top of each cupcake with a thin layer of Chocolate Ganache and pipe a 4-loop design with the Crème Frosting.

Blue and Gold Banquet Dessert - Campfire Brownies with Chocolate Ganache

This week was the Cub Scout blue and gold banquet and our church youth group offered to make the dessert. I looked online for ideas and I didn’t find much. Take a cake. Frost it with blue and gold frosting. That’s no fun. So I modified this campfire cake idea I found on Pinterest.




We made pans of brownies and cut them into 2.5”X2.5” squares (simple recipe below).



Then we smashed Werther’s candies and cinnamon Jolly Ranchers in a food processer, spread their dust in a shallow foil-lined, Pam-sprayed pan, and baked them at 350F for 8 minutes until they were melted. We let them cool and then broke them into little jagged flames. One bag of Jolly Ranchers and and one bag of Werther’s should easily be enough to make flames for two big batches of brownies. I’d bake them in a 9x13 pan or medium cookie sheet.



We topped the brownies with ganache and then broke Pirouline cookies into little log-sized pieces. We used one Pirouline cookie for each brownie. Cutting it in half and then breaking one half in half again for the smaller logs on the sides.




Arrange you Pirouline cookies on top of the ganache-covered brownies to look like a little campfire. Insert flames and enjoy!



For Valentine’s Day, I used this same brownie and ganache recipe (adapted from ourbestbites.com), but used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to shape the brownies after baking. I topped the brownies with ganache, sliced strawberries and whipped cream. Perfection!

Big Batch Brownies

www.biteuponbite.com

Cut-and-Paste Recipe

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
5 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate (chips are fine)
1 C + 6 Tbs real butter, cut into pieces
1 ¾ C sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt chocolate and butter in a glass dish in the microwave until melted enough to combine into a smooth liquid, stirring every 30 seconds. Let the mixture cool for 10-15 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350F. In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Never use an electric mixer for brownies. You’ll want to stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture to combine and then add the eggs two at a time, beating them in with a wooden spoon until they’re well incorporated. Beat in vanilla and then gently stir in the dry ingredients until there are no visible white spots. You want everything combined but not over-mixed.

Spray the bottom of a 12X17” jelly roll pan with cooking spray or line it with a silicone mat. Pour your brownie batter into the pan and spread it out evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick or stick of spaghetti inserted into the center comes out almost clean. A few crumbs are good but you don’t want it to come out wet with batter.

Chocolate Ganache

www.biteuponbite.com

Cut-and-Paste Recipe

1 C heavy cream
1 heaping cup (8 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

Heat the cream in the microwave in a glass dish until small bubbles form around the edges, about 2 minutes. Add the chocolate chips to the bowl and immediately cover with plastic wrap. Let sit five minutes. Whisk chocolate and cream with a fork until dark, creamy and smooth. Whisk in vanilla. This can be used immediately as a warm thin chocolate sauce or cooled to thicken. If placed in refrigerator, this will become thick and spreadable. This makes a perfect cake filling.