Eggless chocolate pudding pie

This post has been languishing since Christmas 2016, and I think it's time it saw the light of day. 

For Christmas lunch, I made roast chicken for Pete (and Pete alone, as the sole non-vegetarian). The rest of the menu consisted of a large tray of roasted vegetables with lots of roasted garlic, cauliflower cheese, pulao, dal, rmint and cauliflower parathas, rasam, yogurt rice and plain rice. And boondi raita. 

There were three desserts - gulab jamun cheesecake brought by a friend, cranberry and orange pies made by my sister (spectacular with cream) and this pudding pie that I made. With two non-ovo people in the family (my mother doesn't eat eggs, and my older niece is allergic to eggs so ditto), I wanted to make a dessert that everyone could eat. It had to be chocolate flavoured on request from my sister-in-law because she is a chocolate fiend and will eat practically anything if it has chocolate in it. As an added bonus, my niece is almost as crazy about chocolate. The icing on the cake (in a matter of speaking, that is) was that my niece's best friend ... but you know what I was going to say, right? 

So chocolate pudding it was, a non-baked version made with cornflour. To be absolutely honest, I didn't care for it much - I can take or leave chocolate, and I don't really like moussey desserts. It's the texture of mousse that puts me off, mostly. 

Anyway, everybody who mattered liked it, and that's all I wanted. Be warned though, this pudding pie doesn't keep well, even refrigerated. 

(As for me, I had no room for dessert, but I did have cranberry-orange pie for breakfast the next morning.)

Recipe for: Chocolate pudding pie

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie crust, readymade or prepared at home
3 cups whole milk (almond milk if you want it to be vegan)
1/4 cup cornflour
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp chocolate chips (semi-sweet if you have it)
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt

Method:

1. Whisk together the cornflour and one cup of the milk to a smooth mixture in a medium saucepan. Then add the remaining milk and cocoa powder, the sugar and the salt. (Note: The cocoa powder will not combine with the milk until you start to whisk the mixture over heat.)

2. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, whisking occasionally. Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat and keep it to a slow rolling boil, whisking constantly until it thickens, about 5 minutes or so.

3. Take the pan off the heat and add the chocolate chips and vanilla, stirring until the chips have dissolved. Pour the filling into the pie shell and let it cool for about 3 minutes, then place a sheet of non-stick paper over the top to form a skin from forming. After 10 minutes, put the pie in the refrigerator and leave it there for a minimum of 3 hours.

Eggless chocolate orange cake

The orange chocolate cake I’d made previously was so nice that I decided I’d take up a reader’s suggestion (thanks, Shvetha) and try out an eggless version. This time around, I boiled the orange in the microwave for about 10 minutes, in two tranches of 5 minutes each. It could take a couple of minutes more or less, depending on your microwave’s wattage/power, so go easy after the first 5 minutes. Of course, make sure to “drill” the orange through with a skewer, before microwaving it.

I don’t really know first-hand what would happen if you microwaved an orange that was not hole-y (what, did you think I’d pass up the opportunity for a godawful pun?). I don’t think it would explode, at least going by a video I watched on You Tube of three idiotic guys doing exactly that experiment. (I did my research, as you can see.) The orange didn’t explode for them - much to their disappointment - but since I wasn’t sure that my orange would refrain from creating an unhole-y mess in the microwave, it went in sanctified, thereby NOT going kablooey.

Anyway, microwaving the orange is MUCH quicker than cooking it on the hob till it’s soft, and I totally recommend it.

The rest of the ingredients are more or less the same as for the previous cake, sans eggs, of course. I substituted some of the sugar with Splenda, but it's not a "must-do" thing at all.

This cake was actually even better than the eggy version, in my opinion – it tasted gooey and moist while looking quite deceptively fluffy. The cake keeps well for a couple of days under cover. I didn’t make any frosting this time, because I didn’t have any chocolate left, but I added ½ cup mini chocolate chips to the batter to intensify the chocolate experience.

Recipe for: Eggless chocolate orange cake



Ingredients:

2-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
120 gm dark chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup splenda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 large Seville orange
4 tsp vinegar
1 cup milk
2 tsp orange oil extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Method:

1. Pierce the orange with a skewer 3-4 times, then place in a bowl of water and microwave it for 8-10 minutes.





Throw away the water, let the orange cool, then puree it finely. Set aside till required.



2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking sugar and salt.

3. Add the sugar and splenda and mix well.

4. Make a well in the centre, and add the melted dark chocolate, the pureed orange, vinegar and oil.



Stir this well, then add the milk and stir till thoroughly mixed.



5. Add the orange and vanilla extracts and mix them in.



6. Finally, add the chocolate chips and fold them gently into the batter.



7. Pour the batter into a 9” round baking tin



and bake at 180C till the cake tests done – this took about an hour in mine. To be on the safe side, check after 45 minutes.



If desired, split the cake and fill with ganache frosting.

RECIPE: EGGLESS CHOCOLATE ORANGE CAKE

Ingredients:

2-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
120 gm dark chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup splenda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 large Seville orange
4 tsp vinegar
1 cup milk
2 tsp orange oil extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Pierce the orange with a skewer 3-4 times, then place in a bowl of water and microwave it for 8 minutes. Throw away the water, let the orange cool, then puree it. Set aside till required.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking sugar and salt.
3. Add the sugar and splenda and mix well.
4. Make a well in the centre, and add the melted dark chocolate, the pureed orange, vinegar and oil. Stir this well, then add the milk and stir till thoroughly mixed.
5. Add the orange and vanilla extracts and mix them in.
6. Finally, add the chocolate chips and fold them gently into the batter.
7. Pour the batter into a 9” round baking tin and bake at 180C till the cake tests done – this took about an hour in mine. To be on the safe side, check after 45 minutes.
If desired, split the cake and fill with ganache frosting.

Choc chip banana bread

So, sometimes I can be quite slow at picking up on things – like the fact that chocolate chips in banana bread really do work quite well. I guess since I’m not overly crazy about chocolate, I've not bothered to try banana bread recipes that specified chocolate. This time I added the semi-sweet chocolate chips because they were just past their best-by date and any more time on the shelf would have only seen 'em off into the rubbish bin. The choc chips added moistness to the bread (an unexpected plus) – or at least I think they did. The bread might have been moist anyway because the bananas I used were almost at the liquid stage of ripe.



Anyhow - Pete loved the banana bread (he’s not much of a fan of this, most other times), and I found the choc chips in it surprisingly nice too. Who knew that chocolate and bananas would work well together...! (apart from the millions of others who’ve already tried and tested and written about the combination, that is.)

Recipe for: Choc chip banana bread



Ingredients:

2 cups flour (I used 1 cup AP and 1 cup wholewheat)
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 overripe bananas
3/4 cup sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter/margarine, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cups mixed nuts, chopped (I used walnuts, pecans and brazils)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F and lightly grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

3. Mash 2 bananas with a fork in a small bowl. They should be a bit lumpy.



4. In another bowl, whisk the remaining bananas and sugar together till well combined.



5. Add the melted butter/margarine, eggs, and vanilla and beat well.



Stir in the reserved mashed bananas.

6. Add the mashed bananas to the flour and mix till just incorporated.



7. Fold in the nuts and the chocolate chips



then pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin.



Bake for about 45 minutes or so (but start checking after 30 minutes), until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.



8. Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes or so, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.