• Publisher: PM Press
• Release Date: Dec 8, 2010
• ISBN: 9781604860092

Vegan Wednesday: Lickin' the Beaters 2

Lickin' the Beaters 2: Vegan Chocolate and Candy reviewed by Mark Robison (rgj.com)

This week is a look at the new "Lickin' the Beaters 2" cookbook with two recipes from it: Easy Chocolate Truffles and Triple Chocolate Pudding. Also, there are excerpts from two recent stories on vegan health benefits and comments on previous posts.

Follow-ups to previous episodes

I wanted to give an addendum to last week's Vegan Wednesday. In the part about vegan shoes, I forgot to mention my whole reason for including it. In an interview I heard with shoe designer Elizabeth Olsen, she mentioned that selling the skins of cows accounts for 25 percent of the profits for the carcass, making leather an essential part of sustaining the slaughter industry. Which is just one reason to seek out vegan shoes.

And two weeks ago was a post on some wonderful folks veganizing the Betty Crocker cookbook. I made two of their recipes -- Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad and a 16 bean soup with beer-fried sausage (pictured). Both were fantastic. I used tofu instead of a vegan chicken substitute in the first dish and it was great. As for the sausage in the second one, I make my own using an easy recipe in Isa Chandra Moskowitz's excellent "Vegan Brunch" cookbook. But you could also use the widely available Tofurky sausages (we prefer sun-dried tomato flavor, like original flavor and hate the beer brat flavor) but even better are Field Roast sausages (available at fine natural foods stores).

Vegans and good health

Here are two excerpts from recent stories regarding veganism and health. The first, which apparently is afraid of the word "vegan," comes from a story in today's New York Times by Mark Bittman:

It’s difficult to find a principled nutrition and health expert who doesn’t believe that a largely plant-based diet is the way to promote health and attack chronic diseases, which are now bigger killers, worldwide, than communicable ones. Furthermore, plant-based diets ease environmental stress, including global warming.

Next comes from a story yesterday by Grace Dickinson for Temple News at Temple University:

A September 2010 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed diets rich in animal-based proteins and fats are linked to higher mortality rates. After studying more than 100,000 individuals over the course of 20-to-26 years, researchers found frequent consumption of animal protein is linked to higher mortality rates, including those caused by cardiovascular and cancer-related issues. The study also found individuals whose diets were based off of plant-based fats and proteins had lower mortality rates.

'Lickin' the Beaters 2'

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.

I found the vegan chocolate truffles photo here.