cocoa powder – Oven Love

Quick Chocolate Avocado Pudding with Coconut Topping

Natalie — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 19:10:53 +0000

Raise your hand if you ate pudding cups when you were a kid. (Hand raised.)

Raise your hand if you ate pudding cups when you were in college. (Hand raised- no shame.)

Raise your hand if you still eat pudding cups as an adult? (I wish. Where do I find refined-sugar free, corn syrup-free, soy-free, dairy-free pudding cups?)

No pudding cups for me. So sad.

Unless.. (quick Google/Pinterest search..) chocolate avocado pudding?

My thorough internet research tells me that there’s a let’s-make-dessert-out-of-avocados-and-see-what-happens trend happening and among those desserts is chocolate avocado pudding. Sounds weird. Really, weird. Especially if you’re used to seeing avocado do it’s normal, savory, guac-related thing.

Luckily, I have already warmed up to avocado and chocolate as a pair (remember my Avocado Banana Bread with chocolate chips?). ‘Cause when your belly says “Chocolate Pudding, NOW” at 10PM, you have to (put aside your fears that it will taste like chocolate guacamole and) listen.

The recipe takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and doesn’t need any time chilling, unless you want to. You can eat it straight out of the bowl, you can top it with coconut whip, coconut chips, fresh fruit, nuts- just do what your belly tells you to do.

My belly told me not to share, so if yours says that, too, it’s completely normal.

So long, pudding cups. You’ve been replaced!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Quick Chocolate Avocado Pudding with Coconut Topping

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

10 mins

Grain-free, Gluten-free, Nut-free, Egg-Free, Paleo, Dairy-Free.

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado (should be soft to the touch so that it will blend easily)
⅓- 1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons maple syrup or honey (or a few drops of liquid stevia)
2-4 tablespoons coconut milk or other milk of choice (cow’s, almond, etc)
whipped coconut cream, yogurt or whipped cream, for serving
shredded coconut, coconut chips, nuts or fresh fruit, for serving

Instructions

Scoop the flesh of the avocado into a food processor or blender. Process until smooth.
Add ⅓ cup cocoa powder, vanilla, 2 tablespoons of your sweetener and 2 tablespoons of your milk. Process until ingredients are fully mixed. If it’s too runny, add some more cocoa powder. If it’s too thick, add more milk.
Taste it- if it’s too sweet, add some more cocoa powder. If it’s too bitter, add some more of your sweetener.
Serve immediately with your desired toppings or store in the refrigerator.

Paleo Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Coconut Whip

Natalie — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 19:23:00 +0000

PaleO-M-G.

It’s my first attempt at a Paleo cake.

Of course, I am not committed to the Paleo Diet as a lifestyle- ya’ll know I love me some raw milk and cheese. But I do see its merits in other ways and it seems to work well for a lot of people.

We had a little get-together at our house last night for Labor Day and it was just the right time to try my hand at baking Paleo-style. A few of our dear friends are eating Paleo and I wanted to make sure everyone could enjoy a treat and no one had to abstain. Let them eat cake, am I right?

To be honest, I was a little nervous about this recipe at first. I’ve been having some success with alternative baking, but you never know what could happen with a new recipe.

Thankfully, even though I thought it was a definite fail going into the oven, the cake was a hit with our friends. It has a nice, moist crumb which is difficult to achieve when working with coconut flour and without refined sugar. Perfect with a glass of milk, er.. coconut milk.

I was also nervous about the coconut whip- I thought my coconut cream was not solid enough to whip, but it came out just fine. Like coconutty “whipped topping,” if you will. And as for that skinny middle layer of frosting, I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough whip to top the cake, so I went easy on the middle. There was plenty left over, so I will be a little more liberal with the middle layer next time. This time I just ate the leftover whip 0with a spoon (this is also perfectly acceptable).

I think I will be doing some more experimenting with this cake in the future. I can already think of some fun variations- mint chocolate, mocha, chocolate raspberry, chocolate peanut butter… maybe I’ll get back into the baking business. Is there a market out there for paleo cakes?

I’m going to go ponder that idea over the last slice.

PS- I just shaved a little chocolate onto the top of the cake, but you could dust with cocoa powder or top with chopped fruit, nuts or berries as well.

Paleo Chocolate Cake

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

(makes 1 9-inch double-layer cake)

Author: via Paleo Spirit

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

1 cup coconut flour
¾ cup high cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon celtic sea salt
9 eggs
¾ cup coconut oil (butter or ghee), melted (more for greasing pans)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
¾ cup brewed coffee (or water)
1½ tablespoons vanilla extract
parchment paper for lining cake pans

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Combine coconut flour, cacao, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, with whisk attachment, whisk the eggs.
Add the oil/butter/ghee, maple syrup, coffee and vanilla extract and continue to mix until combined.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are incorporated – about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl (you may need to do this a couple of times) and beat cake batter on high speed for about one full minute so that the batter is fluffy.
Divide batter between the two prepared pans.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool on a wire rack for about 10-15 minutes. Use a knife to loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and turn out onto the wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Vanilla Coconut Whip

Prep time

24 hours

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

24 hours 5 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

2 cans full-fat coconut milk, refrigerated for 24 hours or more
a few drops of vanilla Stevia or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Remove coconut milk from the refrigerator. Open cans and carefully scoop out the top layer of coconut cream into a mixing bowl, leaving the clear-ish part of the coconut milk in the can (save this for other uses- smoothies, etc).
Mix on high with the whisk attachment for about 5 minutes or until stiff peaks of cream form. Add your Stevia or vanilla extract to taste. Spread on top of cooled cake as a frosting, or use in any other application that calls for whipped cream.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Natalie — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 18:12:00 +0000

I love posts that have the labels “chocolate” and “vegetables” together. Sometimes it seems my main goal in life is figuring out how to fit chocolate into every meal.

Still working on it.

Chocolate-covered broccoli probably wouldn’t go over well with my crew. Or would it..

Back to reality!

I made this cake last night because

a) we had nothing sweet in the house to consume (????)

b) we have a fridge bursting with garden produce

c) I need chocolate to survive.

I really want to say this cake is healthy, but it would be more accurate to say it is healthier than most cakes. It has lots of ingredients I deem healthy (zucchini, olive oil, greek yogurt, whole wheat flour), but also a few of the usual suspects like sugar and chocolate chips and butter (which I actually think is not so bad if you get it from a good source- we need good fats, people!). If you are feeling like a super-healthy person, I’m sure you could sub out the sugar for another sweetener and switch out anything else you don’t like, but it will probably taste less like cake and more like a chocolate-flavored brick. But, by all means- eat, drink and make chocolate bricks if that’s your thing.

I’m going to be real and tell you the reason I didn’t photograph the full cake is because I cut two giant slices for the hubs and I to eat not more than 10 minutes after it was out of the oven. Hot chocolate cake with smooth chocolate ganache running down the sides is like a big chocolate party in your mouth. For research purposes only (ahem), I tried it at room temperature today- it was still tasty, but I could tell it was losing a little moisture (due to all that healthiness inside). This can surely be remedied with another batch of ganache. Or some ice cream. Or a giant glass of cold, cold milk.

Raise a glass of raw milk and get your forks. Here’s to your health!

(Recipe adapted from Buttered Up.)

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup olive oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
½ cup yogurt (I use greek)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1¼ cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons espresso powder (optional)
2 cups shredded zucchini
½ cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cake pan (I used a 10-inch round springform pan because there’s a lot of batter) with butter and flour or baking spray.
Cream the butter, oil, sugars, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and salt together until well-combined. Beat the eggs in one at a time. Add half of the flour, stir; add the yogurt, stir; and add the rest of the flour, cocoa powder and espresso powder (if using) and stir again. Add the zucchini and chocolate chips and stir to combine. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Meanwhile, place the chocolate into a small bowl. Heat the heavy cream, sugar and water until warm (not boiling) and pour it over the chocolate. Stir to combine. Let sit until thickened.
When you’re ready to serve, you can pour the chocolate sauce over the whole cake or on individual sliced. You can serve hot or at room temperature, but it is best enjoyed in the first day or two of baking.

Chocolate Beet Cake

Natalie — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:37:00 +0000

Recently, I’ve been getting into baking full-size cakes. It seems like there are never enough occasions that call for a big, beautiful cake. After having my cupcake business in Ohio, I am much more inclined to bake cakes than cupcakes now (like the rainbow cake and the strawberry cake).

Since I was experimenting with beets last week (see my sweet beet pancakes), I wanted to try out Joy the Baker‘s beet cake recipe that I’d been eyeing for a while. The recipe is similar to a basic chocolate cake with the addition of grated beets into the batter and the frosting- not too much extra effort to try something new and different.

As the beets were in the oven, I was getting a little nervous- my house was smelling like roasted dirt. But apparently, that’s normal when you’re dealing with beets. Smells were deceiving in this case- the cake certainly does not taste like dirt. Each chocolate-filled bite is strangely light and dense at the same time. You’ll have to bake it to see what I mean.

I served this cake to guests and didn’t reveal the secret ingredient until after. Everyone seemed pleasantly surprised.. or maybe just relieved that it wasn’t something worse than beets.

Chocolate Beet Cake

Prep time

1 hour 30 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

2 hours 15 mins

http://joythebaker.com/2012/01/chocolate-beet-cake-with-beet-cream-cheese-frosting/

Author: Joy the Baker

Serves: 10

Ingredients

For the Cake: 2 medium beets, unpeeled but trimmed of their greens
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
6 ounces (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pans
1 cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pans
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1¼ cups buttermilk
For the Frosting: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces (1 brick) cream cheese, softened
4 to 5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons finely grated beets, mashed with a fork
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or scrapings of one vanilla bean pod
1-2 teaspoons milk, depending on desired consistency
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt

Instructions

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Thoroughly wash beets under running water, and trim their leaves, leaving about ½ inch of stem. Place clean beets in a piece of foil. Drizzle with just a bit of vegetable oil. Seal up foil. Place on a baking sheet in the oven. Roast until beets are tender when pierced with a knife, about 1 hour.
Remove the beets from the oven. Open the foil and allow beets to cool completely. Beets will be easy to peel (just using a paring knife) once completely cooled.
Using a box grater, grate the peeled beets on the finest grating plane. Measure ¾ cup of grated beets for the cake and 2 tablespoons for the frosting. Set aside.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Use butter to grease two 8 or 9-inch round baking pans. Trace a piece of parchment paper so it is the same size as the bottom of the cake pan. Cut it out and place inside the cake pan. Butter the parchment paper. Add a dusting of flour to coat the pan. Set pans aside while you prepare the cake.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars. Beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, for one minute after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Once eggs are incorporated, beat in beets and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture. Beating on low speed , slowly add the buttermilk. Once just incorporated, add the other half of the dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed until milk and dry ingredients are just incorporated. Try not to overmix the batter. Bowl can be removed from the mixer and mixture folded with a spatula to finish incorporating ingredients. Cake batter will be on the thick side… not pourable.
Divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes (for a 9-inch pan) or 30-32 minutes (for an 8-inch pan). Cake is done when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting and assembling the cake.
To make the Frosting: In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese for 30 seconds, until pliable and smooth. Add the butter and beat for another 30 seconds, until well combined. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl as necessary. Beat in the beets. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, milk, lemon juice, and salt. Beat on medium speed until smooth and silky. Refrigerate the frosting for 30 minutes before frosting the cooled cakes.
To assemble the cake, place one layer of cake on a cake stand or cake plate. Top with a generous amount of pink frosting. Spread evenly. Place the other cake on top of the frosting. Top with frosting. Work frosting onto the sides of the cake. You will have extra frosting left over. Refrigerate for an hour before serving (it will make the cake easier to slice). Cake will last, well wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Natalie — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:06:00 +0000

May is all supposed to be all about pies around here, my darlings. I’m starting out with a bit of an unconventional pie post, though, just to keep things exciting for you.. with whoopie pies!

Have you heard about whoopie pies? They kind of had a moment in the foodie world recently, and it seemed like everyone was making them. This was crazy to me! I grew up in Lancaster County, PA, the Amish capital and home of the best whoopie pies around. As a kid, no one I met outside of CenPenn knew what they were. Now they are super popular, and rightly so. They are so good!

The typical flavors for whoopie pies that I remember from home are chocolate and cream, pumpkin with cream cheese, red velvet, and chocolate peanut butter. We’d get them at bake sales or any of the good markets- Central Market in Lancaster City, Saturday’s Market or Root’s. Man.. I’m getting nostalgic/hungry.

The cookies are the cakey type, so if you love cookies or cake or frosting, these are for you. You really can’t go wrong with the red velvet and cream cheese combo, either. There is a little effort involved if you want them to look good visually, but if you don’t care what they look like, the recipe is fairly straight-forward.

I must admit to you that I have some real Amish whoopie pie recipes, but I’m saving them up for later. I liked what I saw on Annie’s Eats, and I think they turned out similar to my hometown type, but they aren’t quite perfect. Guess I’ll just have to do some more experimentation/taste-testing..

What do you think about whoopie pies? Are you on board or already over it?

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/08/red-velvet-whoopie-pies/

Author: Annie’s Eats

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 12

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 oz. red food coloring
1 batch cream cheese frosting, recipe follows

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.
Using something round, trace evenly spaced circles onto pieces of parchment paper sized to fit two cookie sheets. Place the parchment on the cookie sheets so that the side you have drawn on is facing down; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Blend in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, beat in about a third of the dry ingredients, followed by half of the buttermilk, beating each addition just until incorporated. Repeat so that all the buttermilk has been added and then mix in the final third of dry ingredients. Do not overbeat. Blend in the food coloring.
Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip. Pipe the batter onto the parchment paper using the tracings as a guide. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the tops are set, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets at least 10 minutes, until they can be easily transferred to a cooling rack. Repeat with any remaining batter. Allow cookies to cool completely before proceeding.
Transfer the pre-made frosting (you can make while cookies are baking/cooling) to a clean pastry bag fitted with a plain, round tip. Pair the cookies up by shape and size. Flip one cookie of each pair over so that the flat side is facing up.
Pipe frosting onto the flat-sided cookie of each pair, leaving the edges clear. Sandwich the cookies together so the flat sides are facing each other and press gently to help the filling reach the edges. To store, refrigerate in an airtight container.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

2 mins

Total time

7 mins

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 1

Ingredients

8oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
5 tbs softened butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar (or more, if needed)

Instructions

Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth (no lumps!). Add sugar until you reach the desired consistency and sweetness.

Vegan CocoNana Mini Muffins

Natalie — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:49:00 +0000

Even though I’m not living the vegan lifestyle anymore, I’m still finding ways to enjoy vegan recipes in my diet. I saw this recipe this morning on Miss Mary‘s blog and I had to jump right in and make them! They looked delicious and simple, and they were.

The name CocoNana refers to the coconut milk, cocoa and banana in the recipe(the title of the original post was way too long and boring). I made just a few changes to Mary’s recipe- I used white whole wheat flour, added chocolate chips and upped the cinnamon a good bit. I also loved the idea of baking these as minis. They are a perfect small bite for the kids and you can easily pass them off as dessert.

The best thing about this vegan recipe is that you don’t have to use any strange, unfamiliar ingredients. You might have everything in your pantry (or an easy substitute). Thanks, Mary, for the excellent idea!

(adapted from The Food Librarian and Love&Olive Oil)

Vegan CocoNana Mini Muffins

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

adapted from The Food Librarian and Love&Olive Oil. Makes about 32 mini muffins.

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert, Breakfast, Snack

Serves: 32

Ingredients

½ cup ripe banana (about 1 banana)
½ cup coconut milk (feel free to sub another milk if you like, dairy or non-dairy)
⅓ cup canola oil, melted butter, ghee or coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup sugar
1 cup white whole wheat flour (use all-purpose if you don’t have this on hand)
⅓ cup cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line mini muffin tins with mini muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mash the banana. Whisk in coconut milk, canola oil, vanilla and sugar. In a larger bowl, sift in white whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients in the center and mix with a spatula until just combined- don’t overmix! Quickly fold in the chocolate chips. Use a small ice cream scoop/melon baller to fill the mini muffin cups. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on wire racks and serve.