http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080505/sc_livescience/howtofightglobalwarmingatdinner

When the Bush’s administrations EPA funds a study that says eating beef and dairy is bad for the environment, you know it’s pretty bad. I wish they had looked into the poultry and fish farming in more depth, but this is a step in the right direction.

This year, Kelly and I had a FSM themed holiday, and so our holiday meal was made up of Italian food. For this year’s dessert, I chose tiramasu. The last time I had tiramasu I wasn’t a vegan, so it was a challenge to find a good recipe. After doing some research I found a good one at the Insomniac Chef blog. After looking at the recipe, I felt I could make it without any issues. Here is the recipe from his site:

Sponge Cake:
(Based on recipe I found online by Candace Naomi Sakuda)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 1/3 cups water

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth and free of lumps. Pour batter into a greased 9 inch pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool complete and then slice it into lady finger shaped strips. Put the strips on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 18 minutes.

“Mascarpone”
8 oz Soy Cream Cheese (I used toffuti’s vegan cream cheese)
1/4 cup soy sour cream (I used toffuti’s vegan sour cream)
1/4 cup vegan cream (you can try silk coffee creamer but I used Alpro Soya Heavy Cream which you can buy here)
2 tablespoons Amaretto
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon agar (this is a vegan gelatine, I found some at a Korean grocery near my house but if you do not have that kind of thing near you you may have to buy some online)

Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small sauce pan and then dissolve the agar into it and allow it to cool to room temperature. Combine the cream/agar mix with all the other ingredients above and beat well. Put the mix in the fridge to set for several hours.

Coffee/Liquor Dip
1 cup expresso
3 tablespoons amaretto
3 tablespoons sugar

Combine these ingredients and put in the fridge to cool.

Topping
1 high quality dark chocolate bar, grated (store in the refrigerator)

To assemble the dessert dip the “lady fingers” you made into the coffee dip and lay them in a large deep dish. Pour the “mascarpone” over top of the cake. Sprinkel the “mascarpone” with the grated chocolate and then chill the entire dish in the refrigerator for an hour or until you are ready to serve.

I did make two small changes. First, I was unable to find sour cream that was vegan in time, so I instead used soy vanilla yogurt, and a little extra cream cheese. Also, I didn’t have the exact sized baking pan required, so I used a round 9 inch pan instead. I think both these changes would be immaterial to the overall product.

The result, in my opinion, was great. It tasted pretty good. The fake dessert cheese reminded me of real mascarpone cheese, and the chocolate bar I picked added another level of expresso taste that really gave it some kick. Kelly didn’t like it as much as I did; she preferred the frozen browni trifle I had made before. However, even she had to admit it came out pretty good. I would do this recipe again, maybe next year as well. So if you’re tiramasu fan and a vegan, I highly suggest this recipe.

References:
http://insomniacchef.blogspot.com/2007/04/vegan-tiramisu.html

The website doesn’t provide any nutritional information, but then again, if you’re interested in eating a bacon chocolate bar, you’re probably not that concerned with health. Due to the use of meat and the utterly unhealthy combination of bacon and chocolate, this bar isn’t getting the Hell Food thumbs up. My god, just eat an apple!

I hope you all enjoy the new look and format, and I look forward to a really busy 2008!