Chocolate PB Fix...Now!

It's Sunday night, and it's time for dessert. Of course, my cupboards are dessert-bare, but that won't stop me from planning what I will make next time I go home to bake with my mom.

Check out these amazing Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows on PPK. Here's the recipe. Here's the pic:

Source: thePPK.com

The recipe has been published in Vegan Cookies by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Sitting here in my pajamas with only a spoonful of peanut butter left on my fridge and little motivation to move, I'll settle for a chocolate Odwalla bar dipped in the good stuff. Not the same, but still quite delish!

More Than a Name at Soy Cafe

I strolled into Soy Cafe with a friend a few weekends ago (well, actually, I had read about it, googled it, and tracked it down...I guess it was more of a mission than a stroll!), and I am so glad that we did.

This adorable cafe on N. 2nd in NoLibs offers vegan desserts, sandwiches and smoothies. Despite the name, I do think that they serve non-vegan snacks, but I of course I heard that the vegan stuff is the best....

We shared a pot of tea and a mint-oreo-chocolate brownie and a plain old chocolate brownie as well as a toastie with sliced bananas and almonds on top. Vegan desserts=B. The desserts at Last Drop at 13th and Pine are better. I haven't tried the smoothies here, though, and I hear they are the best! Let me know if you try one...

Coffee + Cupcakes

Sweet Freedom, Philly's vegan bakery at Broad and South, is now coming into its own. It's starting to feel like a full-on cafe, with coffee (local La Colombe of course), tea and free wireless. Come spring there will be outdoor seating, too.

Now isn't that sweet.

Gianna's Grille: Don't EVER get your hopes up with this one

I went to Gianna's Grille today at 6th and South to get a big, fat piece of cake and soft serve soy ice cream today, and what a HUGE, MAJOR disappointment! No soy ice cream (machine is broken?) and no cake...why no cake? Apparently the owners were too lazy to bake today. What a shame, I will never go back to that dirty, greasy place.

No longer will I waste my time on these silly bakeries. Why not just bake myself? Much more reliable and less expensive. First one I'll be trying is from a recipe from a blog called the Baking Bird. I can't wait to make this chocolate peanut butter cake.

Next on the list are two recipes from Post Punk Kitchen: rich chocolate cake and fudge frosting.

Mission: Vegan Dessert

How annoying is it to go out with your friends for ice cream, gelato, etc. etc.? Well, I for one am sick of it! Never a non-dairy dessert to be found from your average seller of sweets. For as long as I have been vegan I have wondered why ice cream parlours don't offer at least one non-dairy option beyond your boring, flavorless sorbet. What about the rich desserts? Why can't we eat them, too?

My favorite dessert after dark chocolate covered pretzels and maybe my mom's tofu pumpkin pie is vegan ice cream. I like it all: soy-based, rice-based, coconut-milk based. As long as it is not a fruit flavor, I'm all about it. Well, now our vegan dreams (or potentially just mine) have been answered! A purely vegan ice cream store. In my vegan eats reading I came across a review of Stogo, a non-dairy organic ice cream shop in the East Village. (Of course New York City has everything a vegan could want to eat--on the East Coast at least--and that includes ice cream.) Flavors include chocolate, chocolate chip cookie, toasted almond joy, oatmeal raisin cookie, and of course some fruit flavors for those of you who are not all about decadent, sweet 'n savory tastes like me. I envision a delicious bowl of chocolate, chocolate chip cookie and peanut butter fudge with some kind of vegan chocolate topping to polish it off. So delish!

When not in NYC and without any soy-based ice cream outside of the pint variety to be found (except I have heard Gianna's down near South Street has vegan soft serve, though I've yet to try it), I'm a pretty big fan of Turtle Mountain's Purely Decadent Peanut Butter Zig Zag.

If you are as big a fan as I am of the choco-peanut butter combo, then you might want to try out this recipe for chocolate peanut butter pie.

In my laziness, though, I usually just head over to Last Drop Cafe at 13th and Pine and pick up a peanut butter cup brownie made by Vegan Treats. The actual bakery is in Bethlehem, PA but thank goodness they sell their decadent cakes, doughnuts, brownies and cookies throughout Philly.

Stogo, here I come. But please, when will you come to Philly?