Happy 2023 everyone!

As predicted, I spent the last day of the year at home, comforting a frenetic spaniel-mix as fireworks erupted at midnight (she eventually settled on the storage drawers under my bed as her hiding place). I also prepped bagels for a Jan 1st brunch, and watched Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (highly recommended). And now: the first blog post of the year.

In the spirit New Year’s resolutions, I am challenging myself in the kitchen by…having Pancakes & Biscotti go vegan. For the whole month of January. This, for a couple of reasons:

1.) Vegan January is a thing! A little googling taught me that it was originally designed to inspire more people to go vegan, but I have quite a few friends and colleagues who also follow it to kick start their health in the New Year, eliminating meat, fish, dairy, and eggs, and upping their fruit, vegetables, legumes, and pulses.

2. ) After nearly nine years of blogging, I feel like my posts could use a bit of a shake-up. My recipes rely unabashedly on butter, eggs, cheese, and cream, not to mention the sneaky addition of pancetta or guanciale. Cooking and baking without those ingredients will force me out of my comfort zone and find different ways to cook and bake.

To be clear: I am not interested in recipes that use strange, potentially difficult to find but vegan-friendly ingredients (think nutritional yeast, flaxseed, or aquafaba). I will share recipes that are naturally vegan, not ones that need to be revamped with odd substitutes swapped in. In otherwords: there will be no vegan-friendly carbonara, omelets, or chicken cutlets. I’ll be sharing recipes that simply rely on ingredients that are not dairy, eggs, meat, or fish. Sound good?

So! First challenge: a vegan dessert. As most sweets in my rep are American, they’re made with not only eggs, but lots (and lots) of butter. Butter adds fat (and thus richness) to everything from cakes to cookies, and ensures that pastry and biscuits are flaky, among other things. Eggs act as the all-essential binder, holding all your ingredients together. Pretty important, right?

As I was brainstorming vegan-friendly desserts, I realized that I didn’t need to look far. Deb Perelman’s spectacular Chocolate Olive Oil Cake — baked a few weeks prior! — fit the bill perfectly. The recipe formula itself is based on the so-called Wacky Cake, a dessert that became popular in 1930s/40s America, during the Depression and WWII. The cake is devoid of ingredients that were scarce or rationed when times were tough; vegetable oil is used instead of butter, water instead of milk, and a binding baking soda/vinegar mix for the eggs. In her updated version, Deb uses olive oil instead of neutral vegtable oil, which gives the cake a slightly fruity, more nuanced flavor. Similarly, coffee — a natural complement to chocolate — is swapped in for the water, giving the cake more depth and complexity. The glaze on the top is reminiscent of ganache but made with bittersweet chocolate and olive oil, not classic cream.

The result? A chic, luxurious cake that is sticky, gooey, and deeply chocolate-y, one that does not at all taste less than a traditional dairy-rich cake, effortlessly holding its own. The sprinkle of sea salt over the fudgey glaze renders the cake moreish and addictive, not to mention festive and sparkly. Best of all, this is a one-bowl, whisk-only, no-frills kind of cake that takes just a few minutes to throw together. My twin (who has a discerning sweet tooth) has declared it one of her favorite desserts that I’ve ever baked, and it disappeared at an alarming rate when I made it to photograph for this post. Also: blame it on the lack of dairy, but I’ve found that this is a sort of cake that you can eat a sizeable wedge of and not feel so weighed down. Vegan baking for the win.

A couple of notes: Deb says to use a 9-inch cake pan for this recipe; I found it to be slightly too small. I would recommend using a sturdy, deeper 9-inch pan (i.e not the flimsy disposable aluminum ones) or a 10-inch pan. I myself used a 10-inch springform pan here with great results. In addition, try not to move the cake during baking or open or shut the oven — I made this mistake when making this cake recently, and it causes the center to collapse. I would guess that this cake would also work nicely in a bundt pan or a 9 inch rectangular pan. Don’t skip the sea salt, if you can help it - it really makes the chocolate pop. According to Deb, the cake keeps at room temperature for 2 to 3 days and up to a week in the fridge. Mine has never lasted long enough to confirm.

Looking for other vegan recipes? Click here.
Looking for other cake recipes? Click here.

CHOCOLATE OLIVE OIL CAKE

Serves 8. Recipe from the one and only www.smittenkitchen.com

Ingredients for the cake:
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour (00 flour for those of you in Italy)
3/4 cup (60 grams) unsweetened cocoa, any variety, sifted if lumpy
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
3/4 cup (145 grams) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (120 ml) olive oil
1 1/2 cups (355 ml) water or coffee
1 tablespoon (15 ml) cider vinegar or white vinegar
3/4 cup (135 grams) mini chocolate chips (my addition - optional)

Ingredients for the glaze:
3/4 cup (135 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons (10 grams) cocoa powder
3 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil
A pinch or two of flaky sea salt

Directions:
Make the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of round cake pan or springform pan (see notes*!) with a fitted round of parchment paper and coat the bottoms and sides with nonstick cooking spray or butter.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and granulated sugar in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Add brown sugar and olive oil, and whisk to combine. Add water and vinegar and whisk until smooth. Stir in the mini chocolate chips, if using.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top is springy and a tester inserted in the center comes out with just a few sticky crumbs (but not wet or loose batter). Let the cake cool completely.

Make the glaze: Combine chocolate, cocoa powder, and olive oil in a medium bowl and microwave to melt, in 15 to 30 second increments, stirring between each until just melted. Whisk until smooth. If you don’t have a microwave, feel free to also do this in a small pan over the stove. Pour the glaze over the completely cooled cake and use spatula to gently nudge it down the sides. Sprinkle with salt, slice, and dig in.