Chocolate Marquise on Meringue

This month was my first month participating in the Daring Bakers challenge. This fun group chooses one blogger to host a monthly challenge. That blogger picks a dessert, announces it, then everyone else makes it and adds their own variations. I like it because it inspires me to be more creative and to try making things I would have never thought to make.

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

A marquise is basically a frozen mousse rolled in cocoa. They also suggested adding a torched meringue and a tequila caramel drizzle. I decided to try the vegan version of the dessert offered. I've been cooking more vegan recently, and honestly, the vegan version looked easier. :-) Ashlae at ladycakes provided the vegan recipes.

I followed her recipes, found here, but added some tequila to the caramel, and cayenne and orange zest to the chocolate.

I loved all of the components that I made (coconut caramel, frozen chocolate pudding, and vegan meringue), but together it was too rich for me. Others who are more into desserts would love it, I'm sure.

I apologize for the awful pictures.  I broke my camera so I had to use the cell phone camera.  It did give me a great excuse to order a new camera.  :-).   It should be here soon, then I'll post lots more recipes!

Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

This morning I woke up and couldn't help lamenting a very sad looking banana on my counter.  It looked all brown and lonely, sad that all its friends had already been eaten. Fortunately for Mr. Banana (ermm he looked masculine, what can I say...), I saw a really intriguing recipe on one of my new favorite blogs for banana chocolate chip cookies and decided that I had to make it. The blog is Cookie and Kate and I've found lots of recipes I can't wait to try there, so check it out. :-) (Cute puppy pics too). 

In my excitement I didn't realize that I was missing a bunch of ingredients (eggs, real butter, brown sugar), but I took it as an opportunity to try to vegan-ize the recipe and it turned out REALLY great.  If you don't have flaxseeds on hand just look at the original recipe.

print recipe

Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

by May-4-2011

A veganized recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Adapted from Cookieandkate.com

Ingredients

• 1C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 1Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2Tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 2Tbsp Vegan Butter (or Butter)
• 1C Raw Sugar
• 1Tsp Molasses
• 1 Banana, mashed
• 1Tbs Ground Flaxseeds
• 3Tbs Warm Water
• 1Tsp Vanilla
• 2C Oats
• 1C Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1. Preheat Oven to 3502. Mix warm water and flaxseeds in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, oats, cinnamon and cayenne in a medium bowl. 4. In a stand mixer (or by hand) cream together butter, sugar and molasses. 5. Add vanilla, mashed banana and flaxseed mixture and beat until combined
6. Gently add dry mixture and mix just until combined. 7. Stir in Chocolate Chips8. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 10 minutes

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 18 cookies

Bananas