Snowstorm and Valentines Day Appropriate Makes

Good morning snow! I woke up before 6am this morning, scrammed to clean myself up and eat breakfast all to find out only 5 minutes before leaving home that classes are cancelled today. The snowstorm is blasting some 20 cm of snow. It is a miracle and my first snow day ever Before the mental alertness wears off, I will try to make something productive out of my time before taking a nap.

It’s Valentines next week and it is a great excuse to get creative and messy in the kitchen. I usually do not like the hype around this day but who doesn’t like making delicious desserts and having an excuse to eat chocolate.My newest find is the Ritter Sport marzipan chocolate. A few months ago my friend introduced my to marzipan, oh you must try marzipan in chocolate.

The recipes I have been experimenting with for the past few months seem to have a chocolate-intensive- appropriateness for Valentines Day. I followed the original recipes fairly closely, and I will list out the small changes made to each.

1. Raw Chocolate Cream Cake
Adaptions:
-doubled the crust because 1 portion was not enough for the filling as I did not mold them in cookie cutters to make individuals pieces.
-For the crust, 4 squares of baker’s chocolate was used instead of 1/2 cup cocoa powder; and 2 squares of baker’s chocolate for the filling.
-No changes to the chocolate sauce. I probably used a few table spoons of the sauce, so next time I will make 1/3 of the chocolate sauce recipe.

These got great reviews when I brought them to a Christmas party for friends. Not overboard at all, it’s a perfect balance between sweet and chocolate.They taste great anytime in the stages of being defrosted.

2. Black Bean Brownies
Adaptions:
substituted 2 eggs by using 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce plus 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch +1 tbsp water

Great for a snack, breakfast and for making someone smile. Extras ones can be frozen as well.
No one will be able to detect that there are beans in it!
3. Vegan Cranberry Cream Cheese Bars
Adaptions:
-changes to the crust: used almonds instead of walnuts (because cheaper and more on hand), used honey instead of coconut nectar, and a dash of cinnamon because I didn’t have cinnamon sticks
-added juice of 1 lemon (3-4 tbsp) to the Vegan Cream Cheese Recipe

The best part about the recipe:
Making your own “cream cheese”. It does need 24 hours (so do the cashews to soak) to dry but it is worth the wait. There was nothing I could find to hang the cheesecloth on, so this was my set up. The cream cheese turned out wonderful, it was slightly crumbly but still retained the right amount of moisture. It might not taste the most outstanding alone, but it really comes together with the whole recipe.
Before cutting, run knife under hot water. Dab off the water and slice. Duty calls, I must shovel the snow outside before it builds up even more. Happy Friday!