Culinary Experiments: Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake

This coming Tuesday (we don't have class on Monday, Memorial Day) will be the Cuisines of the Pacific Northwest--Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. One of the recipes was the "Flourless Chocolate Cake". As the name implies, it contains no flour, with egg whites as the only leavening agent.
Those with Celiac Disease or wheat allergy would be rejoicing over this recipe. However, with half-a-pound of chocolate, butter, 6 eggs, and half a cup of sugar, this cake is anything but healthy. And definitely not vegan. Which made me wonder: What if someone is vegan and allergic to wheat or gluten? Most, if not all, Flourless Chocolate Cake recipes call for butter and/or eggs (usually both). Vegan Chocolate Cake recipes contain (obviously) no eggs or butter, but require flour.
So this is what I came up with...Substitute butter with avocado, eggs with mashed potatoes!

*Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake (Reduced fat, Reduced Cholesterol!)*

Makes three 8-oz servings

Ingredients:

4 oz semisweet chocolate (or vegan chocolate), chopped
2 oz ripe avocado
6 oz mashed potatoes
1 T cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-processed)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 T soy milk

Ingredients--just some chocolate, a potato, and creamy avocado...

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter three 8-oz ramekins; set aside.

Make the mashed potatoes first. Peel and cube the potato to equal 6 oz. Place the potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover, then bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, while keeping the potatoes in the same pot, cook some more on medium heat to evaporate excess water. Mash with potato masher or fork until fluffy. Add the chopped chocolate into the hot mashed potatoes. Stir until melted.

Mmmmm....Chocolate Mashed Potatoes...

Add the cocoa powder, brown sugar, peeled and pitted avocado, and vanilla extract to the chocolate-potato mixture. Use a stick blender to puree the entire thing until smooth.

You can do one of two things here: You can add the 6 T soymilk to the mixture, spoon the batter into the ramekins, then bake in a hot-water bath until puffed, about 40 minutes. Or, you can add the soymilk to a desired consistency and eat/slurp/drink as is. This can be consumed like a pudding or a smoothie.

If you chose the bake option, once out of the oven, let the cakes cool before unmolding and inverting onto a plate. It can be served warm, but definitely tastes better chilled overnight in the fridge. Serve with vegan cream or chocolate syrup.

It had a pretty intense chocolate flavor...with the aftertaste of avocado, which surprisingly resembled tofu. But it definitely had that "vegan chocolate dessert" taste. Rich, yet somehow healthy.

I mentioned earlier about not baking the batter and eating it like a pudding or a smoothie. There already are a lot of vegan chocolate pudding and smoothie recipes out there, but most pudding recipes (again) contain flour, and...tofu.

Now that doesn't seem like a bad thing. Tofu is indeed a health food, loaded with proteins, calcium, and low in fat. But again...what if someone is vegan and allergic to soy?

Also, a friend of mine has had breast cancer, and she's not allowed to have any soy, since soy contains estrogen, which can cause the breast cancer to become worse.

The recipe is still a work in progress, but it's a good start.