'Chocolate' 'Cheese'cake?

The first carob experiment went well, so I tried another – "chocolate" "cheese"cake. But this recipe had neither chocolate nor cheese in it, and it was easy to make!

Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts – especially New York cheesecake. I love tangy cheesecake with the sour cream layer. So when you suddenly can't eat one of your favorites, you look for a substitute. Enter this carob dessert.

Chocolate substitute? Easy – carob. Cream cheese substitute? It's a little different – tofu. I know that sounds weird, but please bear with me. This dessert is greater than the sum of its parts.

The tofu in this is different from what most people think of when they imagine tofu. The first picture that comes to my mind is the firm tofu strips that come in my hot and sour soup from my favorite Chinese restaurant. 

But how can that be turned into cheesecake? Well, it can't, as far as I can tell. There are different kinds of tofu. There's that firm (or extra-firm) tofu used as a protein replacement in savory dishes, and then there's also silken tofu used to make custards or as part of a smoothie base.

Thanks to the internet, I found this recipe for carob tofu "cheesecake." I made some adjustments to the original recipe because I am not gluten-free and I still eat sugar. 

Without further ado, the recipe!

Carob Tofu "Cheesecake"

Crust

⅓ c. butter/coconut oil, melted (I used half butter, half coconut oil)
[Note: Yes, I do know that butter does have dairy in it. I'm fine with eating that little bit in butter, so I still use it in my recipes. If you can't have any dairy, replace the butter with dairy-free margarine, coconut oil or any other fat of your choice.]

1 ¼ c. graham cracker crumbs

¼ c. sugar

Filling

3 c. tofu

½ c. honey

2 bananas

½ - 1 c. carob powder (use as much or as little as you want to get it to the desired taste!)

1 T lemon juice

1 ½ t vanilla extract

⅓ c. powdered coconut milk (optional, this makes the “cheesecake” filling firmer)

Crush graham crackers in a gallon zip bag into oblivion (until they turn into crumbs). Add sugar and melted butter and coconut oil and squish until combined. Dump mixture out of bag into baking dishes (I used a small 4" springform pan and four custard cups). Tamp down mixture in baking dishes and bake at 300 degrees until golden brown. For me, the custard cups took about seven minutes, and the springform pan ten. Let cool while making the filling. (This crust is vital to the recipe. The dessert would not be worth eating without it.)

Dump tofu, honey, sliced bananas, carob, lemon juice, vanilla and coconut milk powder if using into food processor. Pulse until thoroughly blended, scraping down sides of bowl if needed.

Pour into baking dishes and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Freeze for at least two hours. Pull the desserts out of the freezer a half hour before you want to eat them. Seriously - this is the difference between a carob tofusicle and a carob cheesecake/pudding. 

This is a good option for a dessert – it’s edible, but I wouldn’t want to eat this all the time. It’s definitely not cheesecake (especially since the last cheesecake I had was authentic New York cheesecake, this doesn’t even come close to that). It is a viable dessert option as long as you’re not expecting the same texture and flavor as cheesecake made with cream cheese. I wouldn't liken this to a cheesecake, but it's only the first in a long line of my experiments to perfect a "cheesecake." 

Overall assessment: edible, definitely not cheesecake, not really my cup of tea (or slice of cheesecake), and a good start to find a decent cheesecake replacement. But this is not that cheesecake replacement.

'Spring’ Break and ‘Chocolate’ Chips

I think the seasons got a little confused. I thought I left winter
in Ohio. Apparently not.

When your backyard looks like this over spring break, there’s only one thing to do – stay inside cooking in the kitchen. 

Armed with a laptop, iPhone, pencil, paper and oodles of recipes, I began my cooking extravaganza. I didn’t make a ton of food, but I was able to try out two new recipes, both of them totally chocolate-, dairy-, corn- and tomato-free!

Now, for both of these recipes, tomato didn’t really matter - the original “normal” recipes wouldn’t have tomatoes anyways. Seriously. Who would put tomatoes in either chocolate chips or chocolate cheesecake?

Let’s start on the “chocolate” chips. I could just buy chocolate substitute chips, but they still have milk in them - in the form of nonfat milk powder and whey. So those are out of the picture. 

But, thanks to the internet, I found recipes to make them myself. My mom and I gathered the ingredients last weekend, and I set to making carob chips on Monday. 

Carob comes from the pod of a tree that grows by the Mediterranean Sea. The fiber from the pod is scraped out, dried and ground into powder. Carob powder functions just like cocoa powder, but they have different flavors. Carob also does not contain caffeine, and it is naturally sweeter than cocoa.

Carob Chunks

1 c. carob powder

¼ c. + 1 T sugar

1 c. coconut oil (I used unrefined, cold pressed, organic, extra virgin coconut oil)

½ T espresso powder

1 t vanilla extract

peppermint extract (optional)

Melt coconut oil in small saucepan on stove. Coconut oil has a very low smoke point, so it won’t take long. Remove from heat and whisk in carob powder, sugar, espresso powder and vanilla. The mixture will be a little gritty. (If you want mint carob chips, add your peppermint extract here. I only added the mint to between a third and half of the mixture, so I only used a half teaspoon. Use just a little – you can always add more. Seriously, you don't want your carob chunks tasting like toothpaste.)

Line baking dish with nonstick aluminum foil and pour in carob mixture. Refrigerate until hard, then unmold your carob and chop into chunks.

My carob is still chilling in the fridge, mostly because I need to remelt then remold mine. I didn’t line my dishes with foil, so currenlty it's a little difficult to get my carob out. But hopefully I’ll be baking carob chip cookies later on this week!

Next post: "Chocolate" "Cheese"cake