When those late-night sugar cravings strike, we all look for easy desserts. Try these five vegan chocolate recipes for indulgence that’s both quick and healthy!

Who says vegan cuisine can’t be decadent, creamy, rich, dense, and full of sweet, sweet chocolate? When searching for easy desserts, you’ll often find chocolate recipes that include not-so-good ingredients such as cream, butter, milk, eggs, white flour and white sugar.

But don’t despair! We’ve assembled some of our favorite healthy and quick vegan chocolate recipes for easy desserts that will give the post-dinner bite a whole new profile.

1. Vegan Chocolate Coconut Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1 can coconut milk, chilled in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours
• 1 tablespoon coconut palm sugar (agave or maple syrup work as well)
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Dash of sea salt
• Fresh mint leaf for garnish

Directions: Spoon out the thicker portion of the chilled coconut milk from the can and into a mixing bowl. You can use a BPA-free brand, such as Native Forest or Aroy-D. Omit any liquid. Add in the remainder of the ingredients and fold until evenly combined. Serve with a light dust of cocoa powder and a fresh mint leaf. Serves one.

2. Basic Vegan Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• Dash of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1/3 cup +1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup vegan milk (almond, rice, soy)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup canola oil (or coconut oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the dry ingredients (but only 1/2 cup of the chopped walnuts) in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and stir until evenly combined. The mixture will be thick and fudge-like. Spread into an un-greased, 8×8 glass pan, top with the remaining 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. To check if it’s ready, push down on the center with your index finger. If you sense resistance, it’s done.

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoon coconut flakes
• 1 heaping teaspoon cocoa powder
• Berries for garnish

Directions: Peel and chop the banana and place into a zip-lock bag. Let sit in the freezer for at least 2 hours or until frozen. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth and fluffy. Serve with a garnish of berries, coconut flakes, and cocoa powder. Serves one.

5. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Serves 15-20

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2-3/4 cup carob chips
• 1 cup turbinado (or white sugar)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup water

Directions: Mix the dry ingredients with the carob chips. Add the oil, vanilla and water and then mix until evenly combined. Roll into tablespoon-sized balls and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes.

The post Craving Easy Desserts? Try These 5 Vegan Chocolate Recipes appeared first on EcoSalon.

Nothing satisfies a sweet tooth quite like chocolate does.

However, the dessert snack gets such a bad rap considering its milk and sugar content — to say nothing of its addictive nature! The good news is that you can enjoy chocolate, and all its nutritional glory, by stripping it down to the essentials and replacing certain ingredients with healthier alternatives. Munch into this raw chocolate recipe, which takes under five minutes to prepare. Enjoy!

Let’s take a look at a popular chocolate bar – Hershey’s Milk Chocolate – and consider exactly what we get ourselves into every time we peel the wrapper. A 1.55-ounce (43-gram) Hershey’s bar contains 210 calories, 13 grams of fat–8 of which are saturated–26 grams of carbohydrates, 24 grams of sugar, and only 1 gram of dietary fiber. The ingredients are simple but unforgiving – sugar, milk, lactose, milk fat, emulsifiers and artificial flavors.

With more than half of the calories derived from fat and only 1 gram of dietary fiber, Hershey’s milk chocolate bar is devoid of nutrition and is simply a dessert to be enjoyed purely for its taste, but with an air of restricted indulgence. With milk and sugar as the base of its ingredients list, the bar ultimately promises peaked blood sugar levels and a dessert that is hard to digest.

Chocolate in its raw state is actually a “superfood” boasting amazing nutritional benefits, including high levels of antioxidants and the ability to reduce heart disease. However, over-processing and the addition of sugar and milk often outweigh what it has to offer.  The following recipe takes out the milk and the sugar and replaces them with wholesome goodness of vegan, raw ingredients.

The chocolate industry is no angel either in terms of labor laws, so there is something to be said for taking your new-found chocolate-making skills to the kitchen. Luckily, this recipe only take minutes and offers room for improvisation. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw cocoa powder
• ¾ cup coconut oil
• ¾ cup agave nectar or maple syrup
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• Dash of sea salt
• Dash of cayenne (optional)

Directions

If the coconut oil is hardened, place its container in a bowl filled shallow with warm water. Once melted, mix the coconut oil with all the other ingredients in a blender and pour the chocolate into molds (ice cube trays work if you don’t have molds). Store at room temperature, or in the refrigerator to speed up the process, until the molds have hardened. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Chocolate Reviews

The post Healthy Indulgence: Vegan, Raw Chocolate Recipe (in Less than 5 Minutes!) appeared first on EcoSalon.