When a classically trained chef/baker/chocolatier invites you to dinner at his place, just say yes. It’s that simple. Nathan Miller hosted a little soiree and I did not leave hungry. There was food for nibbling, lots of wine, beer, brie, bread, cheese and charcuterie. Then Nathan’s roommate made some proscuitto goat cheese flatbread.
Nathan had started a meat sauce with onions, peppers, carrots, and tomatoes that he let simmer for a while before serving us.
Pasta with a chunky sauce that brought my taste buds back to living in Spain with my host mom. She made a sauce like this. Nathan topped our bowls with celery, fresh herbs, spinach, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Homemade goodness.
Now, we all know Nathan is the mastermind baker for The Tasterie Truck and owner/chocolatier of Nathan Miller Chocolate. That means dessert was bound to be good.
He started to make a dry caramel sauce, which apparently is made more quickly than traditional caramel. I’ve never made caramel sauce, so I saddled up next to the chef for a little Q&A while he worked.
There’s definitely butter in caramel sauce.
Grapefruit topped with vanilla ice cream, graham crackers, and caramel sauce. Yes please, and Thank You!
I used to make Moosewood’s Vegan Chocolate Cake quite often before I started my food blog. It was an easy dessert and I did enjoy eating it. Then, something changed in me. I got totally turned off by vegan desserts because so many just substitute some oil (often canola, which I refuse to use) for butter and eggs, and that’s just not the kind of baking I wanted to do. But, recently I was being hounded for dessert and
Chocolove bars were apparently NOT going to do it for the man of the house. After a hard day of skiing, there was no way in hell I was going to bake dessert (especially since I went all out and made pasta from scratch for dinner that night). Once again,
Savory Spice Shop came to the rescue! I have their Mayan Cocoa, which is spiced with chili peppers, cinnamon, and vanilla powder. This was destined to be the best vegan chocolate cake ever.
Moosewood’s recipe is quite simple and takes approximately 5 minutes to prepare. Here’s my twist on their cake:
- 1.5 cups unbleached flour
- 1/3 cup Mayan Cocoa from Savory Spice Shop
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2/3 cup evaporated cane juice (the original recipe calls for 1 cup, but I like to make maple whipped cream as a topping to make up for some of the sugar)
- 1/2 cup walnut oil (go out and buy some!)
- 1 cup chilled brewed coffee (just save some from the morning)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I started making this at home also)
- 2 TB apple cider vinegar
Sift the dry ingredients into your baking dish. Mix the wet together (except for the vinegar). Add the wet to the dry and combine until smooth. Then add the vinegar and stir gently until you see some swirls.
Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.
Cool completely. I made maple whipped cream just to be sure my man’s sweet tooth was satisfied. It was. I also sprinkled my cake with Spiced Vanilla Bean Sugar from Savory Spice Shop. This can definitely be a crowd pleaser, especially with the complex flavors of Mayan Cocoa.
So, have I gone back to making vegan desserts? Not necessarily, but I’m going to keep this one in my arsenal for when I have nothing planned, no time, but a major craving for good chocolate cake. I just need to be sure to never run out of Mayan Cocoa.
This might be my new favorite dessert, and with a Vita-Mix, it takes seconds to make… and even less time to scarf down and enjoy!
I didn’t have a plan for dessert, but had 1 cup cooked brown basmati rice left over from dinner, some homemade peanut butter from dry roasted Valencia peanuts, and Mayan Cocoa powder from
Savory Spice Shop. Turns out those ingredients blend into a fantastic vegan pudding.
Here’s what I did-
I made 1 cup of
rice milk with the leftover rice (which was cooked in water with no added herbs, etc.). Then, into the
Vita-Mix went 1 cup homemade peanut butter, 2 very ripe bananas, 1/2 cup Mayan Cocoa, and 1/4 cup maple syrup.
Blend this on high for just a few seconds, pour into smaller dishes, and chill to allow it to set a little like a pudding. I sprinkled some Spiced Vanilla Bean Sugar on top (which, of course, you’ll find at Savory Spice Shop), and added a few pretzels for crunch. Otherwise, it would be gluten-free. I ate so much of this…
The chile peppers, cinnamon, and vanilla in the Mayan Cocoa go really well with peanuts, and the vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, mace, and cardamom in the Spiced Vanilla Bean Sugar pulled the whole thing together. Looks like I’ll have to keep Mayan Cocoa on stock from now on.
I asked my friend Evan Faber, the illustrious Beverage Director at Boulder’s now-famous
SALT the Bistro (and master-mind behind
The Cocktail Element), for a must-try holiday cocktail recipe. Evan gave me a recipe for one of his favorites, and, I must say- he has good taste. This is definitely a seasonal beverage that I’ll be enjoying throughout the winter, not just over the holidays.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 oz Reposado Tequila
- .5 oz Peppermint Schnapps or Rumple Minze
- a cup of rich hot chocolate
- dash of cayenne
When I first read this recipe I was a little unsure of the tequila-peppermint combination. It didn’t sound like it intuitively went together, and, though I didn’t doubt Evan per se, I didn’t exactly rush out to buy Rumple Minze right away. But, I should have! I could have been enjoying this now for a couple weeks!
I used some Savory Spice Shop hot chocolate, which is a rich, smooth, and chocolately hot chocolate. I’ll need to stock up on cocoa because “Chocolate en Fuego” is officially my new favorite winter-time drink… after Maple Scotch, of course!
Cheers!
Nathan had started a meat sauce with onions, peppers, carrots, and tomatoes that he let simmer for a while before serving us.
Pasta with a chunky sauce that brought my taste buds back to living in Spain with my host mom. She made a sauce like this. Nathan topped our bowls with celery, fresh herbs, spinach, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Homemade goodness.
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