Valentine’s Day dessert

Y’all!!!

It’s February!! My second favorite month of the year (second only to December=Christmas), which means it’s the time of the year where we ALL get to celebrate my favorite thing in the entire world: love.

That’s right- the mushy, flowery, glittery, pink-red-and-white everything kind. My heart is for celebration and hospitality, and this is the time where we get to take a second, think about the people in our lives we adore, and write their names on Valentines in gold sparkles. It’s the time to bust open the craft kit, pull out that glitter pen, and get to gluing my friends! It’s also time to treat show yourself some love. AND, as I’ll show you this month, with food (my preferred love language) it can look however you choose! Whether it’s vegan, Paleo, Southern/homestyle, or a inspiring list of recipes from the interwebs- you are going to be inspired to get your brownies on.

Let’s also discuss briefly my deep, abiding, let-me-send-you-a-Valentine level of affection for brownies.

Oh brownies. The reasons why I love this dessert could take an entire post, but for your sake’s I’ll keep it short. First, you are made almost entirely of chocolate. More than likely your recipe involves a combination of a few levels of chocolate- a fat (oil, butter, nut butter), cocoa powder (the darker, denser, and higher quality, the better) and a binder of some sort (eggs, flax eggs, bananas, coconut flour), with chocolate chunks either topped or stirred inside. In fact, the simpler, less-ingredient recipes I’ve tried have tended to be my favorites.

And speaking of favorites, this recipe, by Beaming Baker, is one of my favorite vegan brownies. EVER. These dense, chocolate squares have a beautiful balance of texture and richness from the coconut oil and cocoa powder, and a pure level of sweetness from the maple syrup. This recipe also uses flax eggs (Bonzai Aphrodite) and whole wheat flour as the binders, which is super healthy.

Also, y’all- check out her DESSERTS! Oh my gracious, beauties!

So, my loves, my readers, my friends. Enjoy the start to your month of love! I want to hear about all the ways you plan to enjoy it in the comments below:) You can reach me on Facebook and Instagram too.

For me, this week’s love looks like these brownies, a giant glass of cold almond milk, and a lazy Saturday with this book.

Much luv!!

Best Vegan Brownies by Beaming Baker **

This is the best, most fudgey and delicious vegan brownie I’ve EVER tasted!! It’s fantastic, only has a 30 minute bake time, and is pure delight served warm with a cold glass of almond milk.

What You Will Need:

¼ cup natural peanut butter
½ cup organic dark brown sugar or coconut sugar
⅓ cup pure golden maple syrup
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons melted butter flavored coconut oil
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground golden flaxseed + 6 tablespoons water whisked together, set for at least 15 minutes in the fridge)
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
½ cup vegan chocolate chips

What You Will Do:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray an 8×8 dark metal baking pan with olive oil spray.
Prepare your flax eggs by whisking together 2 tablespoons ground golden flaxseed and 6 tablespoons water. Cover, and put back in the fridge to set for at least 15 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together peanut butter, brown sugar, maple syrup and hot, melted coconut oil. Whisk until it resembles caramel (This process is easiest if you do it right when the coconut oil is hot and melted! Otherwise get ready for an arm workout!)
Add cocoa powder in ¼ cup increments, whisking until shiny and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add in vanilla extract and salt. Stir just a few times to gently incorporate.
Add flax eggs, whisking until well incorporated. In thirds, whisk in the flour. As the batter gets harder to whisk, switch to folding with a rubber spatula. Fold until well incorporated and no flour patches remain.
Pour batter into pan, and spread to the sides of the pan. Using a rubber spatula, smooth batter into an even layer. Top with chocolate chips.
Bake for 30 mins, or until a knife inserted in the brownies comes out relatively clean. Cool for 1 hour, or until completely cool. (I put mine in the freezer to speed up the process; I couldn’t wait!) ENJOY!!

**This recipe is by Demeter, I just made a few tweaks:)

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For those of you who may have spent the last week under a rock, or like one or two people I know (#roommates), have been so immersed in the winter Olympics that all you can think about is ice, snowboarders, and whether or not Sochi is actually a resort destination, I offer a friendly reminder: Valentine’s Day is in THREE DAYS!

I absolutely love Valentine’s Day. Mainly because it involves every one of the items on my top five list of favorite things:
1. Hearts 2. Heart logos 3. Glitter 4. Love!! Or as we say, luv 5. Chocolate

Speaking of chocolate, this leads me to my incredible friend and baking inspiration Laura Chancey and her cooking venture, Humble Pie. Laura and her husband Caleb’s love for advancing the city of Birmingham has led them on a very cool journey; not only has Caleb done incredible work for the music scene in B’ham (he founded Greyhaven, a creative community, and a brilliant music venue called Sound and Page), both Laura and Caleb have a passion for serving the Southern people they love. And in Laura’s eyes, what better way than to extend that love through pies to Birmingham.

Laura rolling out and perfecting her pie crust

Laura’s grandmother MawMaw Betty taught her the art of pies, and she spent many sweet afternoons in the kitchen baking with her. Betty instilled in Laura a love of cooking, but once she passed, so did the secret touch to her pie dough. Desperate to relive memories of her, Laura and her brother began baking, and soon realized that they could incorporate their own creative bent on recipes outside of the apple and pecan versions their family loved so much. Laura also discovered the brilliantly inventive Four and Twenty Blackbirds, and as Laura says their use of “unexpected flavors like cardamon, and ginger, and lime.”

Laura's favorite, salted caramel pie filling — Laura’s favorite, salted caramel pie filling

Which brings us to Laura’s delightfully creative and flavor-filled chocolate chili pie. In Laura’s words, “chocolate pie dough is a marvel,” and I would agree. This treat is at once bittersweet, dense with a chocolate mousse-like consistency and flaky crust, along with a lingering aroma of chili and spice on your tongue. And if your Valentine’s plans involve shelter from frigid weather (I want my Southern winter back!), this is the perfect bit of heat to keep you inside and satisfied.

So gather those you love, glitter some Valentines, and order* or make a spicy chocolate chili pie. Because just like Laura’s passion, loving people through food is always creative, tasty, and an adventure.

A Wedge of Chocolate Chili Pie — The cutest wedge of chocolate pie ever

Spicy Chocolate Sweetie-Pie (Laura pulled inspiration from the Four and Twenty Blackbirds version, but tweaked it to be her own).

Chocolate Pie Dough

What You Will Need

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter
1/2 cup ice plus 1/2 cup water to make super cold ice water

What You Will Do

1. Whisk the first 4 ingredients together, then with a pastry knife cut the butter into the flour mix until it resembles small pebbles.

2. Add ice water a tablespoon at a time, using a wooden spoon to incorporate it in.

3. When the mixture starts to resemble dough, form a ball with your hands and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or if you’re impatient, like me, freeze for at least 30 minutes.)

Note: When you’re ready to begin making the pie, roll the dough out first, put it into the baking dish, poke the bottom with a fork about 10-15 times, and then stick the dish in the freezer until your filling is ready.

Chocolate Chili Filling

What You Will Need

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 large eggs
Juice of half a lime

What You Will Do

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In a saucepan, heat the cream and milk until almost boiling. Meanwhile mix chocolate, salt, cardamom, ginger, and cayenne in a bowl.

3. Pour hot cream over the chocolate mixture and let it rest for a minute or two. Stir to combine.

4. In a small measuring cup, whisk the eggs. Temper the eggs by adding a bit of the hot chocolate a spoonful at a time. When the temperature of the eggs has risen, mix into the chocolate mixture.

5. Add the lime juice and stir to combine.

6. Pour the mixture into a prepared Chocolate Pie Dough through a sieve.

7. Bake for 35 minutes, making sure to turn the pie dish 180 degrees once the pie has been baking about 20 minutes.

**Though Laura hopes that a brick-and-mortar store are not far off, you can reach her for a pie through Instagram. Her other current faves are salted caramel and lemon chess pie.

Tag: Valentine’s Day dessert

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Spicy Chocolate Sweetie-Pie