Seriously Simple Vegan Chocolate Pies (that you can show off with)

If you have picked up anything from my blog it's that I do love chocolate and baking. So it's a Saturday afternoon and I have some spare time to try out a couple recipes. I was in the middle of making brownies (will write about these too) when I noticed I had a pack of firm tofu in the fridge. I also noticed I had some chocolate and those pastry cases in the press were crying out to be used. The dream of combining all of these together turned out to be something incredible. To think I spent absolute hours cooking vegan silken tortes (vegan cheese cake) when these really just taste as good and take a fraction of the time.

Out came the handy food processer and in went the flour, icing sugar and margarine. After it delivered a solid pastry dough, out came the chocolate and tofu. In those went and out came a seriously silky and creamy chocolate ganache like mouse. All done within less than 10 minutes. The end result was some really impressive looking chocolate pies that didn't take that much effort. All that was missing were some raspberries topped with icing sugar to complete the look. These little pies would be great served individually at a dinner party or something fancy like that!

So if you're impressed, check out this REALLY easy recipe for vegan chocolate pies.

1. Preparing the Vegan Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

This was just enough for 2 small pastry cases but double it up if you're making one large pie.

• 125g/4½oz plain flour
• 55g/2oz icing sugar
• 55g/2oz soya margarine
• A drop of soya milk/water

1. Throw it all into a food processor until combined/Or work up a sweat and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour/sugar until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. Then just bring it all together to form a dough.

2. Wrap it in cling film and place in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

2. Baking the Pastry

I used little pastry dishes to make mine but you can get creative and use something else. Or if you're making one large pie, use that pie dish!

1. Butter your pastry dish.

2. Roll out your pastry until flat. Don't worry if it breaks, I just mush it all into other pieces once in the dish.

3. Place into the pastry dishes.

4. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or just until done.

3. Making the Vegan Chocolate Ganache 

Now you can make the best part, the silkiest, smoothest vegan chocolate ganache. 

• 1 packet of film silken tofu (drained).
• As much chocolate as you want really!

1. Melt the chocolate
2. Pour into a food processor with the silken tofu and blend until smooth and silky.

Once your pasty cases have cooked and cooled, pour the chocolate mixture in and leave to set in a cool area.

Satisfying that Chocolate Craving with the Speediest Chocolate Cupcakes

I live in a house full of women and to satisfy the frequent chocolate cravings we have, there's pretty much always a bar of dark chocolate sitting in the drawer to satisfy and overcome these cravings. Just a square or two and it usually does the job, at least until we move onto the next craving!

And there I was the other night, chocolate craving arrived and of course there was no chocolate to be found. So that combined with me supposed to be starting on some college work, I decided I would bake something chocolately. I call it procrastibaking. I am actually writing this blog right now to avoid working too. 

I came across a simple vegan chocolate cake recipe online with only a handful of ingredients, so I gave it a go. These cupcakes were into the oven in less than 10 minutes and out in less than 20. Even though these happen to be vegan, I recommend that the non vegan baker try these out! There's no beating eggs and butter and sugar together, just mixing a few ingredients in the same bowl. So minimal washing up. So here is how to make the quickest and yummiest cupcakes.

How to Make the Speediest Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 Cups of Flour
• 1 Cup of White Sugar
• 1/4 Cup of Cocoa Powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon of Vinegar (if you have some)
• 1 cup of Water

Step 1: Get a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, salt and add the sugar. Whisk it up a little bit. 

Step 2: Add the water, oil, vanilla and vinegar. 

Step 3: Mix gently with a spoon and fold the mixture together until all combined.

Step 4: Place about a large table spoon or more of the mixture into a pre lined cupcake/muffin tin and pop in the oven for about 20 mins.

Then the hard part, do your washing up! When they're ready, leave until completely cool and either top with icing, chocolate spread or peanut butter like I did. They also taste great by themselves and even better the next day.