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Carob – The Vegetarian Alternative to Chocolate

Chocolate has become the star of any Valentine’s celebration… it’s become a symbol of sweetness and love all around the world. But what would happen if one day you were not able to express your undying love for someone thru chocolate???

I am self-proclaimed chocoholic. And when I had to give up chocolate I thought my world would end… it was a long time ago and had nothing to do with being vegetarian. I had to steer away from chocolate because of its caffeine content. Many people consider chocolate a vegetarian food… which in essence it is. It comes from a nut. However, just like coffee, chocolate contains high levels of caffeine, a stimulant that affects your nervous system and irritates greatly the digestive system.

But then… Carob entered my life. Because a world without something chocolatey… would be like a day without sun. Wouldn’t it?? I will be honest with you, if it doesn’t taste similar or better than the real thing, I won’t eat it. There are good products out there:

Carob Bars

I get these bars every time we travel to NYC. You can get them in many health food stores. Their taste resembles bittersweet dark chocolate because of their slightly bitter aftertaste. They’re the perfect substitute to your favorite bar candy… my mom buys them by the dozen every time we find them.

Carob Chips

I use these carob chips from Chatfield’s in my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and I can’t tell the difference. I also use them the same way you would use chocolate chips in recipes like my Brown Rice Krispies Treats.

Carob Powder

Carob, is also available in both bar and powder form, makes a very delicious caffeine-free alternative to hot chocolate. And because carob is a bit bitter it resembles the bitter bar chocolate used to make hot chocolate from scratch. I have also used it on cake and brownie recipes and it’s amazing.

Check out these recipes using carob in various forms:

Caffeine-Free Hot Carob

Brown Rice Krispies Treats

Cherry and Carob Cookies

Carob Granola

My point being… not need to deprive yourself totally of chocolate-like desserts when there’s carob around… even if you still dream of a piece of Hershey’s Kisses in your lips. I know the feeling…

Tags: carob, chocolate alternative, food, sweet, Valentine's, vegetarian

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Categories desserts, MY EDITORIAL

Pumpkin Cheesecake

29 Nov

Someone over on Facebook was discussing which desserts everyone was making for Thanksgiving… and someone mentioned pumpkin cheesecake. I immediately knew that would be my dessert of choice this year.

Plus… I had pumpkin my Titi Carmín gave me and I wanted to use it all in my Thanksgiving cooking. I used part in my Pumpkin and Spinach Phyllo Pie and the rest of the mashed pumpkin in my Puerto Rican Pumpkin Fritters.

This recipe is an adaptation of 2 recipes I saw on the internet… I mostly followed Martha Stewart’s recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake, but I adapted the recipe to make it vegetarian without using eggs and used fresh pumpkin puree instead of canned pumpkin.

My springform pan is super small – I use a 4 ½” pan – and I use my toaster oven to bake it, I also had to adapt the times given in the original recipes. Because most of you guys probably have regular springform pans and will need to bake this in your regular large ovens, I will give you the original recipe proportions, temperatures and times. If you would like my adapted size, temps and times for using a toaster oven, let me know and I will gladly include too. OK???

EGGLESS PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

10 graham crackers

¼ cup brown sugar

4 tbs butter, melted

4 packs of cream cheese

1 ¼ cups brown sugar

1 tbs cornstarch

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup sour cream

1 tbs cinnamon

A few grates of fresh nutmeg

1 tbs vanilla powder

½ tsp salt

6 tsp egg replacer + 8 tbs water

Preheat oven to 350F degrees, with rack in center.
In a food processor, grind the 10 crackers into a meal. Add sugar and melted butter and process until well combined and resembles wet sand.
Press the cracker mixture firmly into bottom of 9” non-stick spring-form pan. Bake until golden around edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool a bit before adding the filling.
Reduce oven temp to 300F.
For the filling, add all the ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse and process until the ingredients form an homogeneous mix, but stop once it’s all combined. Avoid over-processing.
Place spring-form pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour filling into spring-form, and gently smooth top. Tap pan onto the counter a few times to avoid having bubbles and for the batter to settle well. Transfer to oven. Bake for 45 minutes. Turn off oven; let cheesecake stay in oven 2 hours more (without opening the door at all).
Remove from oven and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours to cool completely. Unmold before serving.

I actually ¼ the ingredients in this recipe and It gave me enough batter and crust to make 2 cheesecakes in my 4 1/2” pan. Because I made in the toaster oven, as I saw no need to turn on a large oven for such a small pan, I had to adjust the cooking times because it does not need as much time in the oven as for a larger pan.

The end result is a delicious, delicious cheesecake. This is certainly a winner in my book… a recipe that will stay in my Thanksgiving and Fall repertoire for years to come.