Chocolate Tofu Pie

My friend Marc made an observation yesterday that all of my recipes so far involve chocolate. Let me offer a simple explanation; chocolate is the driving force behind everything I do. Chocolate is my inspiration, chocolate is my mother, my father, my sister and my lover. Without chocolate my world would simply spin off its axis. That being said, here's some more chocolate!!



Ingredients:

12 oz silken tofu
12 oz chocolate chips (1 bag dude)
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pre made graham cracker crust or a bunch of graham crackers and margarine to make your own!

Also: a blender or food processor!




Directions: Pour chocolate chips into a glass bowl and nuke for 2 minutes (1 minute if its summer time and your house is all hot already) OR if you want to be fancy melt them in a double boiler. Personally I always microwave because its faster, there is less clean up, and my food just tastes a little better with a small amount of radiation. Make sure you stir it every 30 seconds or so to prevent burnage.



Drain water from the tofu and cut into chunks for easy blending, I put these in the blender first because they are soft and mush well. Pour the maple syrup and vanilla in there too, don't blend that shit yet! Once the chocolate is done melting, (it may still look chippy, if you have a powerful blender that's okay. If not keep melting, be careful the bowl will be very hot!) scrape the chocolate into the blender with a rubber spatula. Now we are ready to blend! Keep the spatula handy to scrape the sides inbetween blend cycles! This part takes a while so just stick with it.



Once its blended nice and smooth (like buttah) pour it into the graham crust! You can use the rubber scraper for this part too, man are these guys handy! You can smooth the chocolate mixture down with the spatula or just wiggle the crust a little to even it out.




Now comes the horrible part!! You have to wait FOREVER for this pie to be ready. Cover and put it in the fridge and leave it there, I always do overnight at least, (before its even slicable!) but it tastes better and gets firmer and "Mousier" the longer its in there! I believe it reaches its peak as a 2 day old pie. Granted the first time you make this you will want to eat it right away and might be a little dissapointed at first. I'm warning you, just be patient! Patience is a virtue, pie is also a virtue. Patience pie baby.

This is a perfect summertime pie because you don't have to use the oven, it's served cold (it starts getting mushy at room temp) and is great topped with whipped cream! Its so rich and creamy your friends won't be able to tell its tofu!

Enjoy!!

Danny's famous vegan banana chocolate chip cookies!

Not to get an ego or anything, but these cookies are kind of a big deal. I made up the recipe years ago so I could make my friend vegan cookies for her birthday, lets just say she ate so many she got sick. Ever since then these cookies have been a staple at most potlucks and parties I attend. These cookies have gotten me so much praise and esteem, and now world, its your turn.

(this picture is missing a few cookies, I can't even keep them on the plate!)

Ingredients:
2 regular sized bananas (if the bananas seem large use just one!)
1/2 cup margarine (1 stick! I saw this as a question on who wants to be a millionaire once and the lady got it WRONG!!)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz chocolate chips
1/2 cup almond meal (or really any nut meal or just nuts [i like walnuts or sliced almonds] if you don't want to get fancy... if you have some sort of nut vendetta just don't use them and put in a little more flour!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease your cookie sheet.
Cream bananas and marg together (I use a potatoe masher! if the margarine is mixed in cold it's harder to mix completely but your cookies will have delightful flavor pockets. I never bake with melted butter!) Mix in sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract!

In a seperate bowl (I know you won't use a seperate bowl cause you are stubborn like me!) mix flour, salt, nutmeal (optional) and baking powder together and slowly mix them into the butter banana concoction. If it seems too gooey (big bananas) add in a little more flour. We want it to be kind of thick so our cookies don't pancake.



Once thats all mixed together you can add in your chunky stuff like chocolate chips and nuts! stir those in real good and then place heaping tablespoons onto the cookie sheet appropriately spaced. I usually do a 3 x 4 type of deal. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are a light golden (bake magic) color!

Let cool for a few minutes so you don't burn your greedy little mouths. OR... flip some of them puppies right into a bowl and put a scoop (or two) of your favorite ice cream on top. Eat immediately, prepare for your world to explode. (this is not recommended for people who cannot handle extreme amounts of delicious.)

Another suggestion: In the summer I love to freeze the dough before its baked and eat it like, well... cookie dough.

Enjoy!!