Vegan Spicy Chocolate Pudding & Iced Chai Tea Latte

This is my Secret Recipe Club post for April. For those of you who don't know the Secret Recipe Club is this great group of bloggers that each month get assigned another food blog from which they must try a recipe and blog about it on reveal day. Anyway it's a lot of fun and this month was no different.

I was assigned the lovely Cooking in Stilettos (Which I have to say is one of my favourite blog names of all time). Aly is super passionate about food and has many awesome looking recipes to try. In fact I couldn't decide this month so I made two recipes from her blog.

I choose two somewhat spicy but cooling recipes both of which turned out great. They were super easy to vegan-ize by just replacing the regular milk with non dairy. Thank Aly for the yummy-ness with your Mexican Chocolate Pudding and Iced Chai Latte.

Vegan Spicy Chocolate Pudding
Via Cooking in Stilettos

1/2 cup organic sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups non dairy milk
2 Tbsp vegan margarine
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions
Whisk together sugar, molasses, cocoa, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt and milk in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking often, then boil, whisking, 1 minute.

Remove from heat and whisk in butter, vanilla and cayenne pepper.

Pour into serving dishes and cover the surface of the pudding with cling film to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until cold, at least 1 1/2 hours. If you want garnish with some grated dark chocolate and orange peel. Enjoy!

Vegan Iced Chai Tea Latte
Via Cooking in Stilettos

1/4 cup of loose tea or 4 tea bags
2 1/2 cups of water
1 tsp. black peppercorns
3 green whole cardamom pods
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
5 whole star anise
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 cups non dairy milk
2 tbsp. turbinado sugar

Directions:
In a mortar and pestle crush the peppercorns and cardamom pods.

Over medium heat, add water to a medium saucepan and add crushed cardamom pods, peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise, and ginger. Bring to a boil for one minute and then add the tea. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in the milk and return to a simmer. Sweeten with sugar to taste and remove from heat.

Cool chai to room temperature. Once it is cool, pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a pitcher. Discard the tea and spices and refrigerate chai.

To serve, fill glasses with ice and pour the chai over the ice.

Vegan Almond Butter Oatmeal Cookies

I have been making a lot of oatmeal cookies especially with almond butter lately. I think I am craving peanut butter cookies but since P hates peanut butter I don't think that would go over so well. These cookies were super tasty and moist but didn't have the almond butter kick I was looking for...the quest continues. 

 Vegan Almond Butter Oatmeal Cookies
From Alien's Day Out
Makes 24 - 26 cookies

1/3 cup natural, smooth roasted almond butter
1 Tbs non dairy butter
2/3 cup organic sugar
1/3 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup chocolate chunks

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the almond butter, non dairy butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until everything is smooth and creamy. 
3. In another bowl, sift together flour, soda and salt. Add the rolled oats.
4. Combine the wet with the dry, and mix until just incorporated. Add chocolate chunks
5. Drop large spoonfuls of cookie dough onto baking sheet and slightly flatten with your fingers.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until set. 
7. Remove sheet from oven and let cool on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cookie rack.

Vegan Peppermint Brownies

Pretty easy vegan brownie recipe I found here on allrecipes.com. I decided to add some peppermint extract - because why not? I really liked the taste of these. Although they fell apart quite easily they were still dense and pretty gooey.

Vegan Peppermint Brownies
Adapted from allrecipes.com

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups organic sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour in water, vegetable oil and peppermint and mix until well blended. Spread evenly into a prepared 9x13 inch baking pan. 

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.