A few years ago I worked as a receptionist at a fine stringed instruments dealer. It was a very interesting cultural experience, because we sold extremely expensive violins, violas and cellos to people with a good deal of money. It was, and has been so far, my only true exposure to this slice of the music industry. It was also a very interesting and enjoyable foray into fine chocolates, desserts and other culinary delights. This was prior to my swearing off of cheese, milk and other dairy items, so I’ll confess that I had quite a few non-vegan experiences (and one non-vegetarian one, which I didn’t realize until later – um yeah, imitation crab is still real fish, FYI).
Whenever it was someone’s birthday, or a staff person was leaving for greener pastures, or because we all needed a good morale booster someone would pop over to Soutine, a lovely little bakery on the Upper West Side, and grab, more often than not, a flourless chocolate cake. It was spectacular. (If you are not a vegan or a part-time one at least, and if you are ever in NYC, you must have a dessert from Soutine. Otherwise, you definitely must have a dessert from Babycakes, which has many wonderful vegan and gluten-free desserts. It’s located in the Chinatown/Little Italy region of Manhattan.)
So when I saw what this month’s Daring Bakers challenge was, I thought back to the days of endless classical music and to those moments filled with dessert, wine and workplace camaraderie. Then after wondering how on earth I was supposed to veganize something that relies mostly on eggs, I encountered a technically vegan flourless chocolate cake from a fellow Daring Baker and vegan, Hannah of BitterSweet. I had to try her recipe, Daring Bakers challenge or no solely because of the fact that the base of the recipe is black-eyed peas. Using legumes in place of flour seemed most unusual, but intriguing to me, and I ventured ahead.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake
This recipe comes from Hannah of BitterSweet
- 2 cups black-eyed peas, cooked
- 1 12-ounce package extra-firm silken tofu
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder (note that I left this out)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
If you are cooking the black-eyed peas yourself, you can soak the peas overnight, then give them a good rinse before cooking them for a couple of hours (only cook in plain water – do not add salt!). At that point, check them to make sure that they are fully cooked.
Once they are done, give them a good rinse.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan or a 9-inch springform pan.
Toss both the black-eyed peas and the tofu into your food processor or blender, and let it run until the mixture is completely smooth.
Give it a good long time to work, since it would be rather unpleasant to find any whole beans in your cake.
Add in the sugar and coffee powder, and pulse to combine.
Separately, melt the chocolate and stir well until smooth before adding into the blender or food processor.
Once you’ve added the chocolate to the blender or food processor, let it run for a minute until fully incorporated. Unfortunately I was finding it difficult to get it well blended in a blender, so I had to switch to our food processor.
Scrape down the sides to make sure you aren’t missing anything, and give it another minute to process. Finally, add the cocoa, coffee powder, baking powder, soda, and salt, and pulse to combine.
Pour and then spread the mixture into your prepared pan, leveling off the top with your spatula as best you can.
Bake for 60 – 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Let it cool completely in the pan before serving.
I was surprised, but you can’t taste the peas. You’d think you would be able to, but if you think about it, you can’t really taste flour in regular cakes or desserts. You’re tasting a whole host of ingredients that harmonize together to offer up a sweet sensation. I will say, though, that this tasted best on the first day, and after that it did become a little dry. It also needed some sort of vegan vanilla ice cream or coconut sorbet, but I didn’t have any on hand (it’s so expensive these days!). Still, we can’t help but help ourselves when we have chocolate dessert sitting around, waiting to be eaten. This is why this cake is now just a memory. ;)
I’m now very inspired to find other dessert recipes that utilize beans as a base. We’ve noticed lately that flour has gone up in price significantly, yet dry beans still remain pretty cheap. Therefore it seems that it is probably less expensive, and potentially more healthy to use beans in place of flour. (I can’t imagine it being a 1:1 ratio, however.) Anyone know of any good recipes?
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Should also add that if you don’t want to go to the time and trouble of cooking the black-eyed peas a 15 oz. can of canned black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed, will give you the same amount of beans, and they’re already cooked
I love to bake vegan. I have made this amazing cake 3 times, all for birthday cakes. It is simple, elegant and tastes incredible. Huge hit (even for those meat eaters!)
My cake is in the oven in a loaf pan and I can’t wait to taste it! I’m a personal chef and I’m making this for one of my clients who is gluten-free and wanted a flourless chocolate cake. Can I freeze this? She needs it for Christmas but I have to make it for her about a week in advance. Please let me know!
Hi there! I have not frozen this cake so I do not know how this holds up. Unfortunately, if you try it, it will have to be an experiment! Good luck!
This cake freezes well! I froze it, defrosted it and tried it and the texture is still perfect. Thanks so much for a wonderful vegan recipe :)
Oh great! Thanks for reporting back! :)
yr cake looks good. Can i use cottage cheee instead of tofu
I have not used cottage cheese as I made this vegan (without dairy/eggs). It seems that it would work, but my recommendation would be to search on a search engine like Google to see if there are flourless chocolate cakes that have been made with cottage cheese.
My niece who is vegan made this cake over the week end and it was absolutely Dee~Lisch!
I loved it. Super moist and tasy!
She sent me the link to your blog and now I’m going to try it for myself.
~Deborah
I’d like to make this vegan and soy free… so what’s the purpose of the tofu? just creaminess? think I could use thick coconut milk? I’m also going to try the fruit instead of sugar too :-) but love beans as the base. Thanks!
You probably can get away with using coconut milk. The recipe isn’t original to me, so I am not entirely sure of the intention of adding tofu. You’re probably right, though!
My cake is in the oven as I type (while my 4 year old is licking the spoon without a complaint over the hint of black eyes peas flavor that will presumably fade upon cooking).
I didn’t see that you used “silken tofu;” I only saw the words “extra firm” so put a package of that in. I don’t know if it’s possible to get extra firm silken tofu — is it? Anyway, mine was quite thick (I substituted my recipe with 3 TBSP of soy milk and 1 TBSP agave).
Did you use silken tofu… extra firm… or silken extra firm?
Thanks for a great recipe, by the way! I literally woke up this morning with the idea to make a bean chocolate cake (!) This was the only recipe I could find.
Also, I’m so glad I stumbled upon your website. Really great stuff here.
Thank you!
Hi Natalie – I hope that this turned out well for you! Regarding the silken tofu, there is such a thing as extra firm silken! I usually purchase Mori-Nu, which is typically not in the refrigerated section (although I think some stores do carry it there with their other refrigerated tofus – it just doesn’t need to be refrigerated because of the packaging).
I am going to make this for my mom’s B-day on Friday, she requested a flourless chocolate cake and I am vegan so I want to give this a try! I was wondering though, is it two cups of dried black eyed peas that have been cooked, or is it two cups of cooked black eyed peas?
These are two cups of cooked black eyed peas. Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks! It looks delicious!
This looks sooooooooo delicious!!! I definitely need to give this a try! :)
Ok so I added fruit puree, which was mostly strawberries instead of sugar and it was sweet enough. I also added a chocolate frosting made from avocados. Everyone loved it!!
I want to hear about this avocado chocolate frosting! How????
so I’m trying to make tand I wanted to omit the sugar and add either fruit puree, apple sauce or agave nectar instead of sugar. When replacing sugar its been suggested to take out 3-5 tblspn of the liquid in the recipe, but how can I do that with this recipe. Any suggestions?
Hi, may I suggest adding a bit of cornstarch or arrowroot powder? I think egg replacement is 1 tablespoon to 3 tablespoons of water. Basically this would “soak up” the excess liquid. I have done this a few times and it works very well.
I made this cake today and it is delicious; very rich and chocolatey! The texture is fudgy and yet light….sort of like a cross between fudgy brownies and cheesecake. I definitely recommend this recipe!
I made this and found it very interesting…. It tasted like chocolate but it had a certain texture and was a little wet in the middle, I plan on making this again, adding a little oil and cooking just a smidge longer to see if I can improve the texture. I definitely find the whole concept of peas as a base intrigueing, so I will continue to play with this recipe until I get it right!
Looks amazing! Do you know the health facts for this cake or the estimated ammount of calories?
Unfortunately I don’t Alice. Sorry! I should probably start adding that information in my posts. :)
hey everyone! has anyone else tried making this recipe? i am so sad, i tried to make it twice today and both times failed miserably. while baking it puffed up like a souffle and overflowed onto the floor of my oven and then shrank back down to a super thin layer. i also had to bake it for a long time, and it was still very sticky. the toothpick never even came out clean. it also stuck to the pan. but, it tasted good. has anyone else had any of the same issues as me? or does anyone have any suggestions for me? thanks!
Thanks for this great cake recipe. It tastes wonderful
As a child during the depression, my Grandma raised me way back in the hills of West Virginia.
She would make some of the most fantastic “punkin” pies you’ve ever tasted, but rarely were they made of pumpkin in the late winter time. She would use…carrots, squash, pinto beans, sweet potatoes, yams, to name a few. Back then, as now, you used what you had on hand and were glad to get it.
With the addition of cream from our own cow, eggs from our own chickens, and lots of good
tasting spices and sugar, no other taste could be noticed. If it looked like Pumpkin, tasted like Pumpkin, smelled like Pumpkin and Grandma said to eat the Punkin Pie, then that was what it was and we ate it and were glad to get it.
Violet Byrd Stribling
Looks delicious! Imagine it with some strawberries and a glaze of some sort…
I noticed there’s no oil in the list of ingredients. Perhaps adding a 1/4 cup organic cooking oil would give this cake some moisture.
Great idea– I’ve been making lentil protein brownies for a few months now and love them… if I ever decide to make another flourless cake, I will have to give yours a try.
Okay, I’ll be honest, I once had vegan chocolate pudding made out of navy beans, and all I could think the whole time was “ew, beans.” But this cake, it looks amazing. I’d try it again.
This looks wonderful and I shall be making it.
There is a vegan black bean brownie recipe on my blog and Have Cake Will Travel recently made some delicious chickpea blondies that I have now made twice!
I love this. Great way to get your black eyed peas in on New Years, too, I bet! :D
Your photos look incredible! And I am so in love with Babycakes – I would walk down to Chinatown all the time just to reward my exercise with some of her chocolate chip banana bread. Mmmmm.
Your cake looks perfectly fudgy and decadent..great job!
I can’t wait to try the recipe :)
Your cake looks wonderful! I bet there are quickbread recipes that might work well with beans in place of flour. And there’s socca, chickpea crepes, but they use chickpea flour not whole chickpeas.
I’ve seen brownie recipes that contain black beans – I bet you could make a vegan version!
Your cake looks delicious and wonderfully moist! An interesting recipe… Great job!
Cheers,
Rosa
You know…this almost look BETTER than the regular ones. Great job!!!!
Looks delicious–beautiful photos! :)