Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe

Happy Meatless Monday and decadent dessert day. I love spicy hot chocolate. If ecstasy and  passion could have a taste…this would be it. The heat and the bitter, the slightly sweet.  Then I thought, take the heat and make it cold….like life and passion and lusty things. I give to you the most sensory pleasing ice cream dessert I know.  It begins with the most sinfully easy cookie I have ever made, The Dark Chocolate a l’ Orange. I harmonized the spices with my dreams of the Mayan Riviera to create a new experience.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches

By: S. Duquet

Ingredients:

1/2 C softened vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)

1/3 cup packed brown sugar (I used Florida Crystals)

1/3 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer whisked with 2 Tbsp water

3 tsp vanilla

1 and 1/4 C self-rising flour

3 Tbsp cocoa powder (I used an extra dark)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (I used 1/8 and 1/4 because I like it hot)

1 heaping tsp cinnamon

1 C vegan semi sweet chocolate chips

Non Dairy dark chocolate ice cream of your choice (I used So Delicious Chocolate Velvet)

Make it Happen:

~Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

~Cream the Ener-G, sugars, vegan butter and  vanilla together until creamy.

~Gradually add  the flour, cocoa powder, salt, spices and mix well.

~Add the chocolate chips and combine. They will be difficult to mix but just keep at it.

~Cover and chill the dough for 10 minutes.

~Spoon fairly large balls of  dough onto a cookie sheet then pat down and shape. The cookies will not spread, so you want to make them generously round but not too thick. Mine were about 2 1/2 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick.  Note: If you would like to enjoy them just as cookies, make them a bit smaller to have more to enjoy and share.

~Bake larger cookies for 12-14 minutes. When cookies are done they will have a slightly crusty look and feel on the  top. You may also do the dry toothpick test in the middle of a large cookie but test in-between chocolate chips. Leave on pan for a few minutes, until they can be transferred to a cooling rack.

~If you are stopping at the cookie only stage….simply devour, allowing yourself to be enveloped by this melty, sensory experience.  If you would like to make ice cream sandwiches…take two cookies and put them in the freezer for a few minutes. This will harden them just enough so you can make them into ice cream sandwiches without the cookies melting all over your hands…forcing you to eat them then begin again.  This may or may not have happened to me.  In the name of recipe development I ate the evidence and got it right the second time.

~Take your cookies out of the freezer and top one with a generous amount of your non dairy ice cream of choice. Top with second cookie and  (stare at it weeping with joy) devour. You may also make these before you need them and wrap and freeze. Oh, imagine the possibilities.

Have a delicious day.

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