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.

Mini Food Blogger in Training

She doesn’t blog about mini food. She is mini and she’s already thinking like a food blogger.

Today I told Wanda it was lunch time and she said, “I want lunch abouuuuuuut apple sauce!” She added that she also wanted apple slices of the orange variety. All sliced fruits are apple slices, just different flavors.


The apple sauce is topped with probiotic powder or as we call it, “Sprinkles.” The Thomas train is not for consumption. Maybe I'll catch her with some protein or grains later. For now, I'm excited when she expresses interest in anything that's not candy.

I took this picture because once she’d laid out all the food, she said, “Okay, now take a picture of my lunch like this!” She staged and I shot. We are good team.

World’s Simplest Fruit Salad

Don’t let your fruit languish, my friends! I always seem to have a drawer full of sad fruit that nobody wants. When the berries and bananas are gone, we’re left with apples, oranges, melons and a scattering of fruits that no one’s excited to eat.

I’ve adapted Heather’s husband’s fruit salad recipe to help me deal with this problem. It’s probably overstating things to call this a recipe. It’s more of a preparation suggestion. However, I’ve made this for showers and parties and always get compliments and recipe requests. So, here it is:

Choose a sampling of fruits from your fridge, or if you’re making this for a baby shower or potluck, choose a sampling of fruits that look and taste good together from your local grocer. This is good, even if all you have are apples and oranges but it's fun to go a little more exotic every once in a while.

Chop the fruits into small pieces, the smaller the better. For example, grapes are ideal for this when cut in quarters.

Place all the fruit in a bowl.

Add a dollop of yogurt. Less is more here. You want just enough to moisten and flavor the fruit but not enough that you ever have “gobs” or white. No one wants “gobs” on their fruit salad. I prefer vanilla yogurt for this but I’ve used just about every flavor imaginable. Personally, if I’m using plain yogurt, I like to add a couple of tablespoons of applesauce or all-fruit jam to sweeten it a bit.

Gently stir to coat the fruit and you’re done!

I’ve served this as a side-dish at dinner in individual ramekins with a slice of orange on top and the kids can’t get enough. They will literally eat two to three times as much fruit when I serve it this way than when I simply chop it and serve it on a platter.

Cut-and-Paste Recipe

Simple Fruit Salad

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4 cups fruit
¼ cup yogurt (vanilla preferred)

Chop fruit into small pieces, no bigger than half an inch. Place them in a bowl with yogurt and stir gently. Take a minute to wonder why you printed off this non-recipe recipe card.

Honey-Lime Chicken

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because it was dinner time and the chicken was justifiably scared, considering how often we devour its kinfolk.

If you eat chicken as frequently as my family, you’re always looking for new ways to cook it. One of my favorites is this simple honey-lime preparation. With only five ingredients, all things I generally have around the house, it’s one of my go-to meals when I haven’t planned ahead.

It’s adapted from a Cooking Light recipe book I quite like.

Pour your soy sauce into a shallow baking pan, 8x8 or 9x13 depending on how much chicken you’re cooking.

Place the chicken in the soy sauce and turn to coat.

Bake on the middle rack at 350F for 30-40 minutes until done in the middle or until they reach an internal temperature of 165F. I almost always slice my chicken open to make sure there’s no pink in the middle.

While chicken is cooking, chop green onions or chives and set aside. Measure lime juice and honey into small sauce pan.

When chicken is cooked through, remove chicken from soy mixture and place on a serving dish. Add ¼ cup of the soy/drippings mixture to the honey and lime juice sauce pan. Heat them to combine and then pour over the chicken. Sprinkle with the fresh green onions and serve. This goes great with veggies, rice, quinoa, or even whole wheat couscous. 

Cut-and-Paste Recipe

Honey-Lime Chicken

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4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup honey
¼ cup lime juice
One bunch green onions or chives

Preheat oven to 350F. Pour soy sauce into shallow baking pan, big enough to hold all the chicken pieces with some space between them. Add chicken pieces to soy sauce and turn to coat. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the center.

While chicken is cooking, chop green onions or chives and set aside. Measure lime juice and honey into a small sauce pan. When chicken is cooked through, remove chicken from soy mixture and place on a serving dish. Add ¼ cup of the soy/drippings mixture to the honey and lime juice sauce pan. Heat them to combine and then pour over the chicken. Sprinkle with the fresh green onions and serve.

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

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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

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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.

White Chicken Chili / Tortilla Soup

One of my favorite recipes that Kathryn has ever made for me. She first introduced me and this chili when I was just a couple of days home from the hospital with my first baby almost eight years ago. It has been a staple in our home ever since. We love it. It is easy, delicious, and has won chili cookoff contests.

Start by cooking your chicken. The recipe suggests sauteing cubed chicken breasts in 1 tsp olive oil until just cooked through or starting to turn golden brown. I prefer to cook my chicken breasts in my pressure cooker with some green salsa over them. The chicken shreds and has a wonderful flavor this way. Either way, cook your chicken, and set it aside.

The next job is preparing the tomatillos. An excellent task for tiny hands. My 22 month old loves peeling tomatillos. I always make a triple batch, so it takes awhile. Give those kiddos a job, I say. They need to be husked, washed, and chopped.


I prefer to chop the tomatillos finely, because there is less of a final texture issue for my kids. I use the magical food chopper that I got from Emergency Essentials. Best $16.95 I ever spent. Takes a couple of minutes to dice these all beautifully.

Next finely dice your onions. I used purple this time, because it's what I had on hand. It tasted wonderful in the finished chili.

Cook onion, tomatillos, jalapenos and garlic in 1 T olive oil. Cook on high for about 5 minutes, until they release their juices. Then add spices, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for thirty minutes.

Add beans, corn, cilantro, lime juice, remaining spices, and chicken. Mix cornstarch with water and pour into simmering chili to thicken.

Serve with sour cream and shredded cheese and tortilla strips or chips.

Cut-and-Paste Recipe

Chicken Tortilla Soup

(Adapted from the Low-fat Living Cookbook by Leslie L. Cooper)

1 teaspoon + 1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 onion, chopped
10 tomatillos, husked and chopped
1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsps chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp sugar
Salt
3 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
2 cans (15oz each) pinto beans, rinsed and drained =3 C (Sometimes I use a mixture of pinto, black, and great northern beans.
1 1/2 cup corn kernels (1 can)
1/3 large bunch chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp lime juice
Ground black pepper
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp ground cumin

Start by cooking the chicken. Either sauté until just cooked through and starting to brown in 1 tsp olive oil, or cook in pressure cooker or slow cooker with green salsa over top. I prefer the second method. Set chicken aside.

Cook onion, tomatillos, jalapenos and garlic in 1 T olive oil. Cook on high for about 5 minutes, until they release their juices. Then add spices, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for thirty minutes.

Add beans, corn, cilantro, lime juice, remaining spices, and chicken. Mix cornstarch with water and pour into simmering chili to thicken.

Serve with sour cream and shredded cheese and tortilla strips or chips.

Kim Pop: Korean Sushi Magic

My Korean sister-in-law has introduced so much magic into our lives. But nothing more divine than Kim Pop. You can experiment with the fillings for these sushi rolls. Depending on my mood, I've added avocado, shrimp, imitation crab, salmon, and many other fillings. Below is exactly the way Hyun Joo first made the kim pop when I decided I must know how to make it for myself... oh... with avocado added.

If only I could avoid messing with recipes...

Start by getting some Japanese style roasted seaweed sheets and your bamboo roller. If you don't have a roller, you can technically just use a tea towel, but it's easier to get a nice tight roll if you use the roller, available from any Asian market, and probably from any world market or kitchen specialty store.

Next, you need to prepare the fillings. I start with the sticky rice, since it takes the longest to prepare. The perfect method for making sticky rice, according to Hyun Joo's directions, is as follows.

Put some rice (Calrose is what I use, or you can try a sushi rice) in a rice cooker. I usually add around 3-4 Cups. Soak the rice for about an hour. After you're done soaking the rice, drain off the water, and rinse three or four times until the water runs clear. Then add water to the pan of the rice cooker until it's about 1-2 inches above the rice. I know, this sounds crazy. Place your hand into the bowl of the rice cooker, and put your hand flat on the rice. The water should come up to your knuckles. Inexact? Maybe... but it works.

I've never failed with the hand-measuring technique. You could also make your sticky rice with some more exact directions from a package or research online... But try the Korean method sometime. I love it.

When the rice is finished, drizzle about 1-2 T of sesame oil over the top, and sprinkle lightly with salt, and mix the rice up. This will lightly season the rice.

Next, prepare the other fillings.

Marinated cucumbers:
Slice a cucumber into halves lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds, and discard.

Then slice the cucumbers lengthwise into strips. About six strips per half cucumber. Mix marinade out of 1/2 C soy sauce, 1/2 C white vinegar, 2 T sugar, and marinate them in this sauce until you're ready to roll your kim pop.

Sautéed spinach with garlic:

Sauté 2-3 C fresh spinach— preferably, or frozen if that's what you have, with 2 T olive oil and 1 heaping T minced garlic. Frozen spinach is what I had on hand, as you can see from my photo, and it turned out just wonderfully. If you use frozen, you should still use the whole leaf kind, not chopped. It's better for laying out in your sushi roll.

Sauté until spinach leaves are soft and bubbling. Set aside to cool.

Egg strips. You can use the egg, or replace with another protein. I've seen my sister in law use hot dogs. Honest, I swear. I am not a fan of this substitution. I have used shrimp, crab, imitation crab, salmon, and ham. The egg is the original thing I learned to do, so that's what I used this time.

Mix two eggs up in a bowl, and pour into a hot skillet. Cook like an omelet, flipping to cook both sides, and then remove from the pan, and cut into thin strips with a pizza cutter or kitchen shears.


Next shred carrots: approximately 1-2 cups. Sauté the carrots in a frying pan with a little salt, pepper, and olive oil. Drizzle just a little sesame oil over the carrots for flavor, and set aside.

Avocado: Slice into thin strips.

When you're ready to make your sushi rolls, set up a workstation with all the ingredients, and place your bamboo roller over top of a tea towel.

Lay a sheet of seaweed on the bamboo roller, and cover the entire surface with a thin layer of sushi rice.

Then lay your fillings at the near end as pictured below.

Roll up the sushi roll as tightly as you can.



Then roll it up in the bamboo roller, as tightly as you can.

roll the tube back and forth, compressing as much as possible.

Slice the roll with a good knife. I always eat the ends as I'm making my sushi rolls, because they are not very pretty, and don't hold together well. By dinner time, unfortunately, I'm usually full.

Arrange beautifully on a plate. Serve with the leftover cucumber marinade as dipping sauce. Add wasabi as desired. DELICIOUS.

Ingredients List

Sushi rice, or Calrose rice

fresh spinach
minced garlic
olive oil
sesame oil
salt and pepper
eggs or other protein (ham, shrimp, salmon, crab)
cucumbers
soy sauce
white vinegar
sugar
carrots
avocados
roasted seaweed sheets