Vegan Practically

I like desserts and sweets, especially around the holidays. The only thing is that a lot of the old favourites aren’t vegan. That’s why I make my own fun at this time of year, testing out new recipes and bringing back old favourites. This year, I’m trying two new things: coconut laddoos (which are basically sugar and coconut) and vegan chocolate truffles (vegan chocolate chips and coconut milk). And I’m making one crowd favourite from last year: the Domestic Gothess Steamed Maple Syrup Pudding with Maple Custard.

Last night I started with the laddoos, a South Asian sweet. They didn’t turn out right because, despite the 3-ingredient and 3-step simplicity of the recipe, which I read for days, I skipped over the part about making sure the coconut was finely grated.

I thought I was doing so well, having found frozen shredded coconut and measured out the right quantity of sugar and coconut on my kitchen scale. But it clearly wasn’t doing what it was supposed to and it didn’t look anything like the photo in the New York Times recipe. I mean not even remotely. That’s when I looked at the recipe again. That’s when I saw “finely.” Still, you can’t go too far wrong with fresh (well frozen but not the dried kind) coconut and equal parts sugar. Whatever I produced, it tastes really good and has a chewy coconut texture even though it isn’t the prettiest thing you’ll ever see.

In the end, I made some of it into sort of balls, and pressed the rest into a baking pan to set. In the morning I cut them into into little squares, which you see pictured above. Don’t laugh. They taste great!

Onward to the truffles!

The recipe I chose to make, from the Minimalist Baker, is about as simple as it gets. I took a can of full-fat coconut milk, shook it well, and poured it into a microwave safe dish (my trusty Corningware, that I’ve had since grad school). I then heated the milk until it was “very warm but not boiling” (which incidentally took longer than the “about 25 seconds” mentioned in the recipe). When it was at the right warmness, I dumped a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips into it and put the lid back on for five minutes. After five minutes, the chips were melted and I stirred in a bit of vanilla. I put the whole lot into the fridge overnight (the recipe says 2-3 hours but it was late).

The next day I had a dish of beautiful mousse-like chocolate that honestly would have done just as well as a pots de crème style dessert that you could just scoop into ramekins (or eat out of the big dish with a spoon if no one else is around). I followed the instructions and scooped out little balls of the chocolate. But it’s a bit soft to work with. I had thought of giving them in little gift boxes but they need to be refrigerated until right before eating so that won’t work unless I’m giving them where they can go into the fridge.

I tried dusting them with cocoa first. It was hard to get the dusting right and I ended up putting too much on. Then I tried icing sugar (that’s what we call it in Canada — I think elsewhere it might be called powdered sugar). Again I tried dusting. Again it was a challenge to get the gentle dusting instead of too much. I had better success with coconut and crushed almonds.

The one can of coconut milk and one bag of chocolate chips made for a lot of truffles if I went the full distance. I scooped out 26 truffles (about half of the mixture) and then put one estimated serving into a little jar for my dessert one day next week and the remainder into the freezer to take for Christmas. It’s a winning dessert for sure. And it’s good as a truffle if you have patience and can keep them refrigerated until ready to serve.

Finally, the steamed pudding. I grew up with steamed puddings, especially a delight that we called, simply, “syrup pudding.” The maple syrup version from the Domestic Gothess, who specializes in vegan baking and comfort food, is a delicious variation on the syrup pudding my family has known and loved forever. Mine is steaming as I write, and it’ll be coming to Toronto with me for a family gathering this weekend. I’m about to go make the accompanying maple custard.

I have one more great holiday recipe, which are the chocolate coconut cookies from La Dolce Vegan. Can you tell I like chocolate and coconut? To these I add dried cranberries and the result is a chewy and delicious cookie that has people ooo-ing and ah-ing and saying “I can’t believe this is vegan!” Note: I find them quite sweet and have tweaked the amount of sugar to half a cup to make what is to me a more tolerable level of sweetness that is in balance with the other flavours, especially with the addition of the cranberries. I haven’t made them yet this year but there is still time!

Do you have a favourite holiday recipe?

Bon Appétit!