Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Ever since my niece declared herself vegan, I paid more attention to vegan baking. This thing called Aquafaba, made from chickpea brine, is quite a wonder. Now I just have to find ways to use the chickpea.

Ingredients

Chickpea brine from 1 can of chickpea - about 2/3 cup
Dark Chocolate - 1 cup dark chocolate ,melted

Steps

1. Filter the chickpea brine from a 14 oz can of chickpea. You should get 2/3 cup of liquid from the can. Pour in a stand mixer bowl.

2. Using whisk on high speed to beat the liquid until a stiff peak forms.

3. In another bowl, melt the chocolate chunks with double boiler
4. Stir in the fluffy chickpea mixture into the melted chocolate, adding the fluffy mixture 1/3 cup at a time. Stir until fully combine and no white bites appears. 

5. Fill glasses with the chocolate mousse and refrigerate one hour.

Enjoy with extra grated chocolate, fresh berries, nuts or coconut.

Homemade Croutons

Simple, crunchy and tasty, considering the amount of butter added :-)

Ingredients

A loaf of French Bread, cut into cubes
Unsalted butter - 1 cup
Garlic powder or minced garlic, to your taste
Italian seasoning or dried parsley to your taste
Salt or garlic salt to your taste

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in seasoning and cook for a minutes.
3. Pour the melted butter mixture over the bread cubes; toss to make sure they are all coated.
4. Place coated bread cubes directly on baking sheet.

5. Bake for 15-25 minutes, or until crisp and lightly browned.

Soy Sauce Chicken

Ingredients

Whole chicken - about 1.5 lbs
Soy sauce - 5/8 cup
Dark soy sauce  - 1/2 cup
Water - 7/8 cup - 1 cup
Cooking wine - 1/8 cup
Star anise - 1
Fresh Ginger - 10 slices

Steps

1. In a deep cooking pot, add some oil and brown the ginger slices.
2. Put chicken in the pot, and add all the seasoning.  The sauce should be able to cover half of the chicken. Turn stove to high heat to bring sauce to boiling, then turn down to low heat and cook for one hour. Bath the chicken with sauce every 15 minutes, and flip it in 30 minutes.

3. After turn off the stove, keep pot covered for another 15 minutes to let chicken absorb more flavor.
4. Take out, cut up and serve.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcake

This is very moist and chocolaty vegan cupcake.

Ingredients

Hot water - 3/4 cup

Apple sauce - 1/4 cup

Vegetable oil - 1/4 cup

Vanilla extract - 2 tsp

White or cider vinegar - 1 tsp

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1/4 cup + 2 TBSP (refer Dutch cocoa powder)

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Mini chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (optional)

Salt - 1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Frosting with Vegan Chocolate Buttercream

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 

2. Line a cupcake pan with liners. 

3. In a large bowl, whisk all wet ingredients. Let sit at least 10 minutes.

4. Mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then pour wet into dry, stir just until evenly mixed.

5. Fill the cupcake liner up 2/3 of the way at most. 

6. Bake 20 minutes on the center rack. Let cool. These taste even better the next day, and the liners will peel off easily after a day.

Vegan Chocolate Buttercream

Ingredients

Powdered sugar - 8 cups

Cocoa powder - 1 cup

Palm shortening or vegan butter or combination  - 1 cup
Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Vanilla extract - 2 tsp

Steps

Add all ingredients in stand mixer and beat on low for 30 seconds, slowly increase speed to high and blend for one minute. If needed, add coconut milk to thin it or add powdered sugar to thicken it.

Swiss Roll with Pattern

This is a simplified recipe for the Marbled Swiss Roll. I added the pattern using decor paste recipe from this Patterned cake roll.

Ingredients

【Pattern - decor paste】

Butter - 1/2 cup
Powered sugar - 2/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp
egg whites  - 3
Flour -  1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp plain flour
food coloring
【Cake roll】
Eggs - 8, separated
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cake flour - 1 cup

Oil - 1/2 cup

Milk- 1/3 cup

【Filling】

Your choice, I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream mixed with Strawberry Jam

Steps

1. To make pattern paste, cream together butter and icing sugar using electric mixers until they are well combined. Add egg whites and beat well then stir in the flour. Color mixture according to the pattern.
2. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit your baking tray. Make the desired pattern by piping it, spreading it or stenciling it onto the parchment paper. Then freeze it for about an hour or until firm.

3. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

4. Separate the eggs into egg yolk and egg white. 

5. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat egg yolk, oil, water, salt together. Then sift in the cake flour. Mix well until there is no lumps in egg yolk batter.

6. In an mixing bowl, add egg white, and sugar. Use a electrical mixer to beat it to soft peak.

7. Pour 1/3 of egg white foam into egg yolk batter. Gently fold with a spatula to mix them. 

8. Pour the egg yolk batter into the egg white bowl in a thin stream. Gently fold the batter into the egg whites. Use a spatula to cut down vertically through the mixture. Move the spatula across the bottom of the bowl; bring it back up the other side, carrying some of the mixture from the bottom over the surface. Repeat this process, rotating the bowl, until the ingredients are combined.

9. Pour the mixture over the frozen pattern and spread it right to the edges. Bang the tray on the bench a few times to make sure the mixture gets all around the pattern.

10. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until the surface is golden.
11. Once your cake is ready take it out of the oven and immediately trim off the edges using a serrated knife.  Cover in parchment paper, add another flat baking tray or chopping board on top and flip it over.
12. And then you will be able to just lift off your tray, the edges will stay in the pan and you’re left with a neat cake. Peel off the paper straight away while it is still hot. Then leave it to cool.

13. Place a clean sheet of baking paper over your cooled cake and flip it over again.

14. Spread your chosen filling over the cake. Then starting at one end using the paper to help you roll up the cake up and transfer it to your serving platter.

Hot Chocolate Cup Cookie

This is one of the cookies featured in GMA 25 days of cookies. It is so cute.

Steps

1. Make egg free sugar cookie dough. Measured about 30 g dough to fill each mini-muffin cup. Use thumb to press down the middle.  Bake at 375°F for 12-14 minutes.

 2. Make chocolate Ganache and decorate the top of cup with hot chocolate and mini marshmallows. Use white candy melt as glue to put on handle cut from mini-pretzel.