By Mark Robison
Reno Gazette Journal
We loved the first Lickin’ the Beaters cookbook at our house. Although it focuses mostly on low-fat desserts, it contains one of our go-to recipes for knocking the socks off people that is most decidedly NOT low-fat: a chocolate turtle torte with not one but three sticks of vegan margarine in it.
This new cookbook from Siue Moffat through PM Press and Tofu Hound Press focuses on chocolate and candy. Moffat includes lots of tips for making your desserts turn out better and the whole process easier.
For instance:
Heavy-bottom pots are required [to make candy]. If you use cheap aluminum pans I can almost guarantee your candy will burn.
It’s a good idea to soak your pots in hot soapy water immediately after making candy. It saves a cleanup headache afterwards.
Her recipes are generally simple, as you’ll see, and yummy. This is the kind of cookbook you’ll pull out regularly when the holidays come around and you want something to share with friends and family.
Easy Chocolate Truffles
This
first recipe comes from the candy section, which has more involved
recipes requiring thermometers and such, but I like easy ones and this
certainly lives up to its name.
Ingredients
2 cups chocolate chips
2 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons soymilk
1/4 cup ground nuts, fine coconut, cocoa, etc.
Instructions
Melt
the chocolate in a double boiler (a pot on top of a large pot of
simmering water) and add the margarine and soymilk. When cool enough to
handle, scoop out by the heaping teaspoons-full and roll into nuts,
coconut or cocoa.
Note: One of her candy tips is that if you screw up
a recipe, think of what you can do to save the end result, such as
crushing up candy and using the crumbs to roll truffles into.
Triple Chocolate Pudding
This is a fairly standard pudding recipe, except that Moffat boosts the chocolate levels. I generally use cornstarch instead of arrowroot because it’s cheaper and easier to find. I haven’t noticed that it makes a difference.
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa, sifted
1/4 cup arrowroot
pinch of salt
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 cups chocolate soymilk
3 tablespoons margarine
2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
1. In a medium pot mix sugar, cocoa, arrowroot and salt.
2. Chop the chocolate finely.
3. Slowly whisk the soymilk into the pot, making sure there are no lumps
4.
Heat on medium, add chocolate. Stir constantly until chocolate melts
and pudding thickens. Let it boil for about one minute and then take off
heat.
5. Add the margarine and vanilla mixing well.
6. Eat warm
or cold. To prevent “pudding skin,” put a piece of plastic wrap on top
of the pudding and poke a few holes with a toothpick.
Use 1/3 cup arrowroot for a very thick dessert.
