mocha Archives - A Calculated Whisk

Grain-free Chocolate Cake with Mocha Buttercream

October 28, 2016 By Becky 8 Comments

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This grain-free chocolate cake with mocha buttercream is super decadent and perfect for the coffee-drinking chocolate lover in your life.

It’s Friday, and I brought cake! Grain-free chocolate cake with mocha buttercream, to be exact. It’s my favorite paleo chocolate cake base (from the Black Forest Cake recipe in Paleo Planet) with a classic, very non-paleo mocha buttercream frosting. The cake layers are rich and tender, and the mocha buttercream hits you mainly with chocolate, but has just enough of a coffee kick sneaking up from behind to keep things interesting. The chocolate-covered coffee beans on top provide a welcome crunch and yet another layer of chocolate and coffee flavor.

I made this cake a couple of weekends ago for my future mother-in-law’s birthday. She grew up in Brazil, which grows a huge portion of the world’s coffee and cacao, and is a big fan of both. This cake was a hit with her and with the rest of the family. It’s so rich that we got a full 20 slices out of it.

Cardamom Coffee Fudgesicles

July 25, 2016 By Becky 19 Comments

These cardamom coffee fudgesicles are like the perfect iced mocha in creamy popsicle form. The cardamom gives them a uniquely enticing flavor.

I finally got a popsicle mold! I’ve been trying to avoid single-use kitchen gadgets, but I just couldn’t help myself. Since getting the mold about a month ago, I think I’ve made these cardamom coffee fudgesicles five times. I had to make sure the recipe made just the right number of popsicles and had just the right amount of cardamom. Also, they kept getting eaten before I could get them photographed!

By the way, photographing popsicles in the summer is not easy! I didn’t plan ahead, so we didn’t have any ice made to set up a cold plate like this. I decided I’d just go for it and be super quick, but the pops were melting even faster than I expected.

I freaked out a little because I didn’t want to lose all five of the ones I was snapping pictures of, so I stuck four of them back in the freezer and left one out to photograph.

Mocha Cream Paleo Truffles

May 10, 2016 By Becky 20 Comments

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Mocha cream paleo truffles are an ideal no-bake dessert for the warmer months. And since they’re vegan, too, more of your friends can enjoy them!

I’ve been sick for the past few days and haven’t been able to stomach much other than these paleo truffles. I think it’s because I’ve been eating them frozen and they’re made with such wholesome ingredients–no dairy or anything like that to throw a wrench into things. My appetite has been really low and I haven’t even craved my morning coffee like I usually do, but a couple of these chilled truffles gives me a little bit of the caffeine boost I’d otherwise be missing out on.

These are also fabulous when you’re feeling great. In fact, the mocha cream filling is so good on its own that I didn’t even dip the first batch into chocolate. I dreamed up this filling a couple of weeks ago and it tasted even better than I’d hoped. Basically it’s cashews whirred to creamy perfection with some coffee (both brewed coffee and finely ground espresso powder), cocoa (I absolutely love this fair-trade, Dutch-processed cocoa and use it in all my recipes), maple syrup for sweetness, and a little bit of salt and vanilla because all desserts need those two flavor-boosters. Sometimes cashew-based desserts taste too much like cashews to me but these don’t at all–the flavor is pure mocha.

Maple syrup pairs especially well with mocha. The dark undertones of its sweetness blend in with the coffee and chocolate so you don’t detect the maple flavor; you just wonder what other mysterious taste is in there that deepens and complements the mocha taste so well (see also this no-churn mocha ice cream made with homemade maple-sweetened condensed milk).

Anyway, after I made the first batch of this filling and scooped it into balls, I stuck it into the freezer to firm up so I could dip the truffles into melted chocolate later. That was on a Sunday afternoon and things got so busy with preparing for the work week that I didn’t get to it, so I thought I’d do it some evening that week after work. I told Ben he could try one or two of the naked truffles to see how he liked the filling, but not to eat them all because I was going to coat them in chocolate later.

No-Churn Mocha Ice Cream

August 16, 2015 By Becky 6 Comments

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No-Churn Mocha Ice Cream (sweetened with maple syrup) | acalculatedwhisk.com

So, have you made Nigella Lawson’s no-churn coffee ice cream? It’s ridiculously easy and delicious, and when I discovered how simple it was to make really good ice cream with just a mixer, I was tempted to get rid of my ice cream machine!

To make the no-churn ice cream, you beat heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and flavorings until it’s nice and thick, then freeze the ice cream. That’s all there is to it! The only thing is that I’m not a big fan of cooking with sweetened condensed milk–there’s so much refined sugar in it, and I try to avoid that whenever I can.

So I decided to try making my own sweetened condensed milk using maple syrup, with some guidance from this recipe from Gluten-Free on a Shoestring. The homemade sweetened condensed milk takes a while to make, but your house will smell amazing. You do have to watch it pretty closely but don’t have to stir it constantly, so it’s a good time to do some cleaning or other tasks around the kitchen. I got a lot of dishes done while I was making it! (Anything that gets me to do more dishes is good, and pretty rare.)

The results are so much more delicious than canned sweetened condensed milk! The maple flavor adds a caramel note to the ice cream that goes perfectly with the chocolate and coffee. In addition to working beautifully in this ice cream, the maple-sweetened condensed milk is amazing in hot or iced coffee.

Mocha Ricotta Pie with Strawberries

May 1, 2015 By Becky 14 Comments

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Mocha Ricotta Pie with Strawberries (Gluten free, Grain free) | acalculatedwhisk.com

This mocha ricotta pie is one of my absolute favorite desserts. It’s in my top three of all time, right up there with almond butter thumbprints and salted caramel brownies.

What makes it so fabulous is the trifecta of a lightly sweetened, crunchy shortbread crust, a rich and creamy ricotta filling with chocolate, coffee, and a hint of lemon (yes, lemon!), and a topping of juicy strawberries. It reminds me of the amazing Southern-style chocolate pie I always used to eat at the now-defunct Marimont Cafeteria in Austin, Texas, but with a mature Italian twist and bright berries to lighten things up.

Really good dark chocolate and high quality, full-fat ricotta are important for this pie. (Good coffee won’t hurt either, but I love my Café Bustelo.) I was so excited about having a tub of Narragansett Creamery ricotta in my fridge that I proceeded to completely forget I’d bought it to make zucchini lasagna, and dumped all of it into the filling for this pie.

Mocha Pistachio Ice Cream (Dairy Free, Coconut Free)

July 9, 2014 By Becky 4 Comments

Sadly, it turns out that I’m allergic to coconut.

This is especially devastating because coconut is the miracle food source of the paleo world. Coconut milk, sugar, flour, oil, and butter are all delicious, and do an impressive job of standing in for their non-paleo counterparts.

I can’t help but wonder if my sudden increase in coconut intake during my January Whole30 was what caused my allergy to surface. But, no matter the cause, I won’t be partaking in any coconut anytime soon. Eating raw coconut makes me feel awful, and my doctor told me not to eat cooked coconut either unless I first sit through a challenge test in his office. The test would consist of me bringing in some food with cooked coconut in it, eating it one bite at a time, and seeing if I go into anaphylactic shock or anything. I told him no thanks for now.

Mocha Mexicano & A Giveaway (Paleo, Gluten-free, Vegan)

November 3, 2013 By Becky 64 Comments

This mocha mexicano is full of warm spices, and packs a subtle punch thanks to a little cayenne pepper. It’s inspired by ingredients from Rodelle Vanilla and Taza‘s Fire Puncher chocolate.

This summer, my vegan & paleo strawberry ice cream was a runner-up in Rodelle Vanilla‘s Great American Ice Cream Contest, and the prize was a basket of Rodelle Baking Goodies. I asked the wonderful folks at Rodelle if they would include a few extra goodies for you all, and they said yes! I picked up a couple of other treats over at Taza Chocolate yesterday, and am beyond excited to bring you a vanilla and chocolate giveaway.

Prize basket

One winner will receive a prize basket including:

Two whole Madagascar Vanilla Beans from Rodelle
A 6-ounce bottle of Rodelle Pure Madagascar Vanilla Extract
A 2-ounce bottle of Rodelle Organic Chocolate Extract
A 2-ounce bottle of Rodelle Anise Extract
Two discs of Taza Chocolate’s Organic Fire Puncher 70% Dark Chocolate Mexicano (2.7 ounces)
A bag of Taza’s Organic 55% Dark Chocolate Covered Cacao Nibs (2 ounces)
A recipe card for Molten Spiced Chocolate cake and a Direct Trade pamphlet from Taza

Grain-free Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream

September 9, 2013 By Becky 9 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Grain-free Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream (Gluten free, Nut free) | acalculatedwhisk.com

Treat yourself to small batch of paleo-friendly, grain-free vanilla bean cupcakes with mocha buttercream! They’re made with coconut flour, so they’re also nut free.

I’ve really been craving a classic vanilla cupcake recently, and wanted to try my hand at making grain-free vanilla bean cupcakes. To me, vanilla beans are the epitome of classic elegance in dessert flavor form. I ordered half a pound of vanilla beans online months ago, used half of them to make a bunch of little bottles of homemade vanilla extract (find out how to do that yourself here!), and still have a bunch left. I highly recommend ordering beans online in bulk, since it’s much more economical and they’re likely to be much fresher than overpriced grocery store beans.

These cupcakes are light and fluffy, because they’re made with coconut flour instead of almond flour. Of all the paleo & gluten-free treats I’ve made, these may be the closest in taste and texture to their gluten-laden cousins. I highly recommend them! They’re also perfect for people with nut allergies or for bringing to birthday celebrations in nut-free classrooms. This recipe makes a very small batch (good for people like me with no restraint), but can easily be doubled.

Mocha Marinated Steak with Peach Salsa and Cauliflower Mash

August 5, 2013 By Becky 17 Comments

If you haven’t stopped by since last month’s chocolate party, you’ll notice that things have changed some since the days of double malt ice cream sandwiches. A Calculated Whisk is going paleo! I’m doing a Whole30, and the blog is doing it with me. So for the rest of August, you’ll find more healthy recipes with fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat, and seafood, but no grains, sugar, sweeteners, legumes, soy, milk, or processed food. Desserts (at least paleo ones, which can still be impressively delicious!) will return in the fall.

Mocha Almond Flourless Brownies

June 8, 2013 By Becky 4 Comments

Yesterday I got some almond flour and blue cornmeal in the mail from Bob’s Red Mill. I was super excited to try some chocolate baked goods with the almond flour. Did you know it’s just ground-up almonds? Amazing. Full of heart-healthy fats and protein instead of the empty carbs in flour.

I decided to try these flourless brownies, adapted from this recipe on Om Nom Ally. They are really good! The coffee and almond flavors are subtle, but add an extra richness to the chocolate flavor. The brownies are really fudgy and moist, which makes them very satisfying. Just one is enough (until the craving strikes again an hour later…).

These brownies are not overly sweet. I actually added extra sugar, because the original recipe only called for 2 tablespoons and I didn’t want a bitter brownie. I think my version came out great, but I would have dusted them with some powdered sugar if I hadn’t been out.

Ingredients (makes 9-12 brownies):

1 cup almond flour (finely ground almonds)
1/2 cup cocoa, plus extra for dusting
1-3 teaspoons finely ground coffee, to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted, plus extra for greasing the pan
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease an 8 x 8 baking dish and powder the bottom and sides with cocoa.

In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, cocoa, coffee, salt, and baking powder.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and extracts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and cut into squares.