Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Peanut Butter Mousse
1 (14- to 16-ounce) package firm tofu
(2 cups), blanched and drained
1 cup maple syrup
3⁄4 cup smooth peanut butter, at room temperature
3⁄4 cup light natural cane sugar, or more to taste
3⁄4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1⁄2 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Candy Cups
8 ounces nondairy chocolate chips


Tip: Admittedly, this is a time-consuming process, but chocolate cups can be frozen for up to a month in an airtight container, so make them when you have time to play.

Peanut Butter Mousse in Chocolate Candy Cups
Yield: 4 cups mousse

I practically lived on peanut butter cup candies one semester at college. I don’t know why I was so drawn to them, but I do know it wasn’t a good thing. Tofu and organic peanut butter, both healthful foods, are the main players in this more healthful version of the popular treat, but it’s still not okay to eat too many. Of course, if peanut allergies are an issue, you can use another nut butter in its place.
To make the Chocolate Candy Cups, you’ll need paper candy cup liners or small cupcake liners (mini cups) and a clean, small watercolor paint brush, small pastry brush, or spoon. A pastry bag will be needed to fill them with the mousse.

1. To prepare the mousse, crumble the tofu into a food processor and process 1 minute. Add the maple syrup and process 1 minute. Add the peanut butter, sugar, cocoa, vanilla and almond extracts, and salt, and process until the mixture is perfectly smooth and creamy. This can take up to 5 minutes. Stop the processor a few times to clean the sides of the bowl.

2. The mousse is ready to use, but can be refrigerated in a covered container for up to two days. Bring to room temperature when ready to use.

3. To prepare the chocolate cups, fit the paper liners into mini muffin tins or place on a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap. Melt the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Do not overheat. Remove the bowl from the saucepan.

4. Spoon some melted chocolate into each cup. Use the brush to coat the liners as thoroughly as possible. Make sure to coat the inside rim; you want to prevent it from breaking when the paper is peeled off the chocolate.Wipe off any chocolate that drips onto the outside of the rim. Refrigerate or freeze the cups until the chocolate has hardened; this will take 10 to 30 minutes depending upon how cold your freezer is, and how thick a layer of chocolate you have made. Place the bowl of melted chocolate back on the saucepan and keep it warm over barely simmering water.

5. Check the cups for thin spots. Add another layer of chocolate, coating the thin spots more generously. The chocolate doesn’t have to be smooth; the cups will be filled. Chill again until hardened.


6. Slowly and carefully peel the paper off in a spiral motion; don’t pull straight down, or the rim may break. (You may find it easier to peel the paper from the cups after you have filled them. Test one or two and decide which method works better for you.)

7. To assemble the candy cups, spoon or pipe some peanut butter cream into each cup using a pastry bag fitted with a plain or star tip. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve.

Don’t believe the hype: Myths from the meat board

Every once in a while I run into a meat eater that has read these page E13 newspaper articles questioning the value of soybeans in a diet. Ethical eaters: here’s a link you want to save to your favorites. It may be a handy tool to use should you ever get this question from meat eaters: "But I’ve heard tofu is bad for you because____________(insert myth here).

The Safety of Soy

My first response is to tell them that; even if the junk science reports being sold to the media by the Texas Cattlemen Lobbyists, or the "Meat, it’s whats for dinner" board, were true then I would still eat wheat protien, nuts, beans and other vegetable protiens. I would still ensure my diet was cruelty free, varied, healthy, and most importantly I would get the satisfaction of not using my dollars to support an industry that the UN Panel on Climate Control reports is the largest producer of greenhouse gases (Yes, factory farms produce more GGs than all the SUVs on the road).

Examples of myths:

Soya disrupts thyroid function: Busted
Processed soya foods are bad for you:Busted
Soya makes you get man boobs:Busted (hell, I bust this or any of the guys over at Veganbodybuilding.com!

Vanilla Mint Iced Vegan Chocolate Ho-Hos

Ok, so ya’ll know I go into Cardiogenic Shock when Buddhists are given the full court press by either rogue elements within Tibet or Red China Party Loyalists sent to kick puppies and show their strength. 

On one hand, with the Beijing Olympics debut in just a few months and China center stage one has to wonder why a Tienanmen  Event would be ordered so close to the kick off that China has been building up to for nearly a decade.

It is with these concerns rattling around in my grey matter that I have to clear my head with some cathartic vegan baking.  And this attempt was originated by a purely base emotion and one of the lowest at that: Jealousy.  Yea, the Urban Housewife and Bake and Destroy have been posting the greatest looking sweet treats this lonely revolutionary has seen since Barbra Billinglsy burned her bra.  The post punk vegan baking revolution is delicious deviant debauchery in the face of a packaged/processed heat and eat world.  So with that I again removed myself from my masculine element and turned towards the kitchen to prove that I can do anything a woman can do. 

Of course The Urban Housewife, who is currently jet-setting the world, passed on this recipe for Vanilla Mint Iced Vegan Chocolate Ho-Hos and for those of you interested I pass it on to you. 

• 1 and 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1/3 cup natural cocoa
• 1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup hot brewed coffee
• 1 cup light coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons cider or white wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup vegan butter substitute

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.

Sift sugar, flours, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, then whisk to combine.

Combine cocoas and chocolate in a large bowl and cover with hot coffee; whisk until smooth.

Combine coconut milk, vinegar and vanilla in large measuring cup.

Place vegan butter substitute in a medium bowl. Add coconut milk mixture in two additions, whisking until smooth after each.

Add vegan butter-coconut milk mixture to the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine, then add this mixture to dry ingredients and fold gently with rubber spatula until just incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.

Divide batter evenly between cake pans and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, switching position of and rotating pans after 12 minutes. If making cupcakes, bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the pan, start checking for a toothpick inserted in center to come out clean at 16 minutes.
Cool cakes in pans on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.

Mint icing:
1/4 cup (spectrum) shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup soy creamer or soy milk
1 tsp mint extract
1 tsp vanilla extract