If I know something, it is that so many of us own a slow cooker. And a lot of times it doesn’t the love it should. I use my blender daily, my food processor almost every day. But the slow cooker? Maybe once a month. Which is a shame. Mostly because I never have enough ideas. If I was making roasts and loins, I’d have a bajillion ideas out there. Slow cooker books for plant based/vegan are coming, and they are something to grab and then slowly read, enjoying the variety.
I was sent a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Slow Cooking
It has over 240 recipes, that are mostly unprocessed foods, with plenty of recipes for making home versions of faux meats (which if I am going to eat, I’d rather I made at home!). Having said all that, I am sure you all know what section I ended up in.
Yeah, desserts. I can’t help it. I have actually found I like making stuff in my slow cooker that is sweet. It’s fun too! And um. who can pass up gooey chocolate sauce with an indulgent peanut butter cake? I know I don’t want to! This cake was ummmm…beyond awesome. Kirk piped up and said we need to make it again, and add a pinch of cayenne next time. Hmmm, sounds good to me!
PS: Check out author Beverly Bennett’s website, The Vegan Chef, for her story and more ideas.
Peanut Butter Cup Pudding Cake (Page 245-246)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk (or favorite non-dairy milk)
- ½ cup natural peanut butter, chunky or smooth
- 2 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil (or coconut oil)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup dry-roasted peanuts (or favorite seed/nut)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1½ cups boiling water
Directions:
Lightly oil a medium slow cooker’s ceramic crock insert, preheat the slow cooker to high.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 1/3 cup of the sugar, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, peanut butter, oil and vanilla.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and whisk well. Stir in peanuts, and transfer batter to slow cooker.
In a small bowl, combine cocoa powder and remaining 1/3 cup sugar, and brown sugar. Sprinkle cocoa-sugar mixture over batter evenly.
Carefully pour boiling water over. Do NOT stir.
Cover and cook on high for 2 to 2½ hours, or on low for 4 to 5 hours, until a toothpick inserted in center of pudding cake comes out clean. (Mine took 2 hours)
Uncover and allow pudding cake to cool for 10 minutes or longer. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Or you can chill and reheat later in the microwave)
Notes: let the crock cool down, then soak in warm water to get any fried bits off easily.
~Sarah
FTC Disclaimer: We received a review copy of this book for potential review.
I love cooking savory dishes in the slow cooker which I then package and freeze for easy go to dinners. However, I always forget to make sweets in the slow cooker!
I think sweets are the only reason I keep my slpw cooker around 😉
We used to use them all the time but not so much anymore. It was so nice to spend 5-10 minutes in the morning to through everything together, go to work, and come home to a mostly complete meal. Just finish up with some steamed green veggies and dinner was done. But that was back when most of our meals were meat/potato based. Now we are mostly vegetarian. You don’t think of the slow cooker as being vegetarian/vegan friendly unless you are cooking beans. I would love to get back to using our slow cooker(s).
Yep, that was one of my issues as well!
Oh my gosh! Beverly Lynn Bennett was one of my first introductions to vegan eating. Literally over a decade ago she answered a bunch of questions I had about veganism and health. I wasn’t ready to make the switch back then, but she was so helpful and lovely. Definitely entering! And not only because of that incredible cake!
That is neat to know!
She is one cool lady!
I haven’t made very good use of my slow cooker since going vegan, and I want to get back to it, especially since it’s winter and it would be great to have something in the cooker for dinner while I do my weekly batch cooking!
This was delicious! I have an automatic slow cooker (Breville Risotto+), and on low, it needed longer than 5 hours. This makes fabulous leftovers that reheat nicely in the microwave. I love that it’s not too sweet, and has a few different textures. A great, easy dessert!
I wonder if you lined the slow cooker with parchment paper if it would make the clean up easier! Just a thought…and I think I’ll substitute apple sauce for the oil and see how it turns out. Has anyone else substituted for the oil in the recipe?
Ooh, I haven’t tried the parchment paper idea. I will have to play around with that 🙂
As for the oil, I’d bet applesauce would work just fine! So would baby prunes or date paste.