Chocolate Avocado Mousse Pie

I finally made this interesting recipe from Lillian’s Test Kitchen.  It uses avocados instead of dairy for the chocolate mousse.  Weird, right?  Well, Lillian said this was one of her favorite recipes, so I trusted her judgement and went for it and made it for my friend’s birthday dessert.  Oh, so this recipe is vegan, so I have officially baked my first vegan dessert and guess what, I didn’t miss any of the dairy or eggs.

This is an incredible easy recipe- the food processor does most of the work.  I must mention that I used half almond meal (ground almonds in my coffee bean grinder) and half coconut flour for the crust.  Don’t know why, just wanted to experiment.  It was tasty, but the crust ended up like a graham cracker crumbly crust instead of a crisp, flaky crust.  Maybe all almond flour would have been different. The strawberries were key.  They added the perfect burst of juiciness to a somewhat sticky mouthful.  Lastly, I used half Hershey’s dark cocoa powder and half Equal Exchange regular cocoa powder.  It was a delicious combo. 

The full recipe is here.

I was in charge of planning a co-worker’s birthday celebration Monday.  Work birthdays are always the same: squeeze people into small office, half-heartedly sing Happy Birthday, eat cake.  I hadn’t done a work birthday since going gluten-free.  This posed a predicament.  Do I make something gluten-free and serve it to everyone or buy something glutenous (i.e. cake from Whole Foods) and miss out?

I actually tried to do both.  Sunday night I tried out a recipe from the Whole Foods website that my roommate, Stephanie, found because it didn’t have xanthan gum in it.  She really hates xanthan gum.  Whole Foods calls these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I think they are more like a hybrid of cookie and brownie bites.  Still delicious.  So delicious in fact, that all but 4 disappeared Sunday night to my boyfriend and his friend.  Scratch birthday plan #1; I ended up buying cupcakes from Whole Foods anyways on Monday. 

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BabyCakes, 248 Broome Street, New York, NY 10010

If you live the gluten free lifestyle, you know BabyCakes.  They are a kosher, vegan bakery that doesn’t only bake gluten-free, but casein-free, (mostly) sugar-free, egg-free, and soy-free.  Wow.  And they’ve just opened up a bakery in Los Angeles!

I’ve been to BabyCakes twice now; once for breakfast and once for an afternoon snack.  For my birthday this year, my friend Sarah took me to babycakes for breakfast.  I had the banana chocolate chip bread, which contains sugar (unrefined), but follows otherwise all the above dietary restrictions.  The bread came in a hearty slice which I had trouble finishing, but did eventually.  It was moist, sweet, and really showcased the banana-chocolate flavor combination.  It most definitely lived up to my expectations. 

I returned two weekends ago with my friend Molly who was visiting from St. Louis.  Molly was my roommate in college and I have wonderful memories of coming back to the room and finding freshly baked coconut cupcakes- BabyCakes seemed like the perfect place to take her for an afternoon treat.  Of course we had to try the cupcakes.  We shared a red velvet and chocolate cupcake and I picked up a cinnamon raisin and chocolate chip cookie for later.  Unlike the banana chocolate chip bread, you could tell that these cupcakes were different from a regular baked good, but not in a bad way.  Molly remarked that the red velvet frosting tasted like the smell of cake scented items.  We both agreed that the chocolate cupcake was better than the red velvet because it was moister and the frosting was richer.  The cookies were sampled later that day and were eaten so fast, I don’t have much of a review, just that they were delicious. 

Both times I’ve visited BabyCakes, I’ve eaten there.  BabyCakes only has one counter and a small table in the front.  Seating isn’t all that comfortable but at the counter you have a great view of the bakers adorned in their adorable matching fifties inspired outfits and aprons. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread = $3.65 slice, $30/loaf

Cookies = $1.50, $22.95/lb

Red Velvet Gluten-Free Cupcake = $4.25

Chocolate Gluten-Free Cupcake = $3.95, $43.45/dozen

If you can’t get to NYC easily to enjoy these delectable treats, they ship!