Avocado Pie Teaser, Immersion Blender Talk Again; Cherry Smoothie

The avocado pie was not only perfect for Cinco de Mayo, but also ended up as the perfect birthday cake for Leslie!

I will share the recipe, but I want to talk about immersion blenders again, and I think it'll make this post too long if I try to cover both. The immersion blender talk is relevant to the avocado pie recipe, as I made the pie mostly using the immersion blender in order to ensure it could be made without a Vita-mix.


As much as I love my Vita-mix and wouldn't be without it, I also wouldn't be without an immersion blender. I love its lightness, convenience and easy cleanup. Over two years ago, back before I had a Vita-mix, I wrote a post including some tips for how to make goodies using an immersion blender, and I still agree with what I said then. However, the search for the right machine continues. At the time I wrote that post, I had a Kitchenaid handblender. But when my third one in three years bit the dust last December, I knew it was time to look elsewhere. 


My luck didn't quite turn around when I bought the Juiceman handblender. My hopes were up because it had 550W, so was more powerful, but when it arrived, the design turned out to be a bit flimsy, and the blade was too small to be really effective.

After a month or two, a more serious problem surfaced. The "on" button tended to stick in the "on" position, which was very scary, and the power level would surge without warning. An hour or so on the phone, and I was promised a refund (which I'm still waiting for).


Meanwhile, I went back and read lots of reviews both on Amazon and everywhere else I could find, and ended up ordering the MiTutto Miallegro, also 550W. This was so well reviewed, and I was excited.

Turns out, it's built on a very similar design to the Juiceman blender, which means the Juiceman attachments fit it, so I have some spare parts. But it's much better made. The "on" button is sealed so nothing could stick in there to make it stick in the "on" position (in case that was the problem). The motor sounds better, and seems more effective. 

I love being able to blend a thick smoothie right in the cup!

This was a Cherry-Spirulina smoothie:

1/3 cup unsweetened almond breeze

1/2 cup snow/ice

6 frozen cherries

3g spirulina

1t xanthan gum

stevia

erythritol

pinch vanilla powder

1t coconut butter

The blender coped with the ice just fine, crushed it right up. It's cold here, so the coconut butter was solid, and there ended up being little niblets of coconut butter throughout the smoothie. I actually loved that! I often sprinkle a few cacao nibs into smoothies like this for texture, and I didn't have to do that. My suspicion is that part of the reason why the Vita-mix homogenizes the unmelted coconut butter so thoroughly even in the presence of ice is because it heats everything up more, and it may be better, from the oxidation perspective, not to have stuff heated up. 

I haven't yet tried blending greens with it, but will report in when I have.

Bottom line: it's not the same as a Vita-mix, but as I said in my old post, I think it's better than a cheap upright blender, and it's a wonderful tool. Still early days with this model--I really hope it lasts longer than its predecessors.

Do you have an immersion blender that you like?

Tomorrow, the avocado pie!

Carob Chocolate Recipe and Follow-Through

A few people asked for more details on how I made the carob chocolate that was a main ingredient in the wonderful mint-carob chocolate truffles I just posted about, and I realized that I hadn't really posted a very specific recipe before. I'm so willing to please...

...I actually made up a batch today just to be sure that I would share the best possible recipe. There have been times when I've brainstormed a lot about how to make the best carob-based or "white" chocolate with no cacao powder, but I've been off that tack lately. Nice to resurrect it again: I'm grateful for the encouragement!

Today's post was originally going to be about the party for our wedding anniversary yesterday, but that party got postponed because of the spectacular snowstorm (or series of snowstorms) we're in the midst of. Yesterday morning, all our windows were snowed up, like being in a cave, and I had to dig (not shovel) my way to the outhouse!

 So, a good time to take a work break and make some carob chocolate. I really admire the concept of follow-through.

What I ended up making was a cacao butter-carob chocolate with a little mesquite, which gives it a milk chocolate-like flair. For the earlier batch (with which I made the truffles), I'd more or less followed Sweet Gratitude's "chocolate" recipe but substituting carob and mesquite for the cacao powder, so there was some maple syrup and some xylitol (my sub for their rapadura) in the mix.

This time, I got to thinking: you know, carob and mesquite are both really sweet! They don't need much sweetener. I remember Bitt, chocolatier extraordinaire, saying that she didn't love stevia in chocolate, but it occurred to me that a little stevia, with its hint of bitterness, would be just the right sweetening note in here.

The other challenge was emulsification, especially since carob and mesquite are much lower in fat than cacao powder. A little sunflower lecithin was just right for this.

I strongly recommend you sift in the carob. It's a little extra work, but it makes such a difference to the texture. You can mix it all together by hand, but if you have an immersion blender, whizzing it a few times right at the end will help with the final consistency. My kitchen is so cold that the whole thing firmed up right when I was at this stage, so I had to wait a few hours until the heat came on again, and then had it melt in front of the heater to play with some more.

OK already, what's the recipe? Get to the point, girl!
Here 'tis:
Carob Chocolate--vegan, gluten free, (mostly) raw (depending on your carob), low sugar, soy free
1 cup melted cacao butter
1/4 teaspoon stevia
1/8 teaspoon good salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder (really best to use dry vanilla here as opposed to liquid extract)
1 teaspoon sunflower lecithin
3-4 drops Medicine Flower dark chocolate flavor extract (optional)
1 3/4 cups carob powder
1/4 cup mesquite powder

Stir the stevia, salt, vanilla, chocolate flavor extract (if using) and lecithin into the melted cacao butter and mix well.
Gradually sift in the carob and mesquite, a little at a time, stirring regularly.
When you've added all the carob and mesquite, pulse with an immersion blender to combine fully (I guess you could also do this in a food processor).

That's it! I was intending this as a very basic recipe, to which various things could be added, and I'm back to brainstorming all kinds of possibilities for add-ins that would make it more chocolatey or just 'better.' But I also wanted to see how it would stand alone with nothing added.

So, when I got it melted again, I poured a little of it into one of my bar molds and set it in the fridge.

 It popped right out! Beautiful sheen and, as you can see from the picture at the top of the post, it breaks cleanly and holds its texture well.

I could see using this as a coating for truffles... adding mint extract and nut milk to make truffles like last time... mixing in goji berries and figs for a lovely chewy crunch... and all kinds of other uses. Luckily, there's lots more left to play with. I'm curious to see whether it needs tempering like regular chocolate--time will tell.

What would you use it for?

Speaking of follow-through, a few posts ago I had "wet ingredients" from the zucchini ginger cake mixed with carrots and chia seeds in the dehydrator. Here's how they turned out:

Thin, crispy, crunchier than anything with chia normally gets in the dehydrator, sweet but not too sweet, carrot-tasting. Delicious.

 Back to work I go--thanks for reading, and I really hope you enjoy both this and the mint truffles that depend on it.