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 triple chocolate buttermilk cupcakes

Not the snappiest of titles for a post - or a recipe - but on the plus side, there's no room for misunderstanding as to what it is, I guess. Perhaps I should have called it "Eggless triple chocolate butterfree buttermilk vanilla scented cupcakes" and done away with the ingredient list altogether...

Never mind, I'll save that ingredients-as-title idea for another post. Never let a good idea go waste. Recycle, recycle, recycle, isn't that the mantra?

The reason I made these cupcakes was because I stopped Pete from buying cupcakes from the supermarket with the promise that I'd make some at home. (Honestly, the list on the back of the package had E-ngredients rather than ingredients! I'm all for Pete having a long, long life - no-one could pray for that more - but I'd rather he retained his human qualities through all of it rather than become an artificial life form through ingesting manufactured chemicals.)

Anyway, since my mother's a chocolate fiend but not one that devours any chocolate derivations with egg in it, I made the cupcakes eggless. The recipe is more or less from Nic at Baking Bites, with a few changes.



Here's a cupcake before the ganache went on. I took a bite out of it just to see what it was like - and because I'm not terribly fond of icing or frosting. Glad to say that the cupcake was just as delicious in its double-chocolate version as with the final chocolate addition.

Recipe for: Eggless triple choc buttermilk cupcakes



Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups self-rising flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1-1/4 cup buttermilk, room temp
¼ cup oil
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate morsels

For the ganache:

4 ounces (110 gms) dark chocolate, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Bring the cream to a boil in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Take it off the heat and add the butter and chocolate, stirring till it's all melted and thickened and shiny. Place in the fridge for the ganache to get to a spreading consistency, if preferred.

Method for cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with paper cups.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.



3. Pour in the buttermilk, oil, vinegar, vanilla and stir till just combined.



The batter will be quite thick.

4. Put 1 tsp batter in a cup, add about 10 mini morsels,



then cover with another tsp batter. It’s ok if the morsels don’t stay in the centre. Finish up the rest of the batter the same way.



5. Bake for 15 minutes or till done when tested with a thin skewer.





6. Cool, then dip the tops into ganache (or spread the ganache with a small spatula)



and set the cupcakes aside in a cool place till the ganache hardens.