Dining With Friends: More Recession-Proof Gifts—Mignardises

By Dustin Garrett Rhodes

Each Friday through the holidays, Friends of Animals will share an all-vegan recipe or two to help make your holiday season taste better. Or, maybe we’ll help inspire some new ideas. In any case, all the recipes appear in Priscilla Feral’s and Lee Hall’s cookbook, Dining With Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine.

The cookbook is available for purchase at the Friends of Animals website (www.friendsofanimals.org) and from www.amazon.com. Best of all, proceeds go towards helping Friends of Animals end animal exploitation. Priscilla Feral’s new cookbook, The Best of Vegan Cooking, will be available soon for pre-order, and available for purchase in January 2009.

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This recipe, developed by Cat Cora, currently appears in Linda Long’s excellent Great Chefs Cook Vegan. It will be reprinted in Priscilla Feral’s forthcoming collection of recipes, The Best of Vegan Cooking.

According to Wikipedia, mignardises are “the tiny, bite-sized desserts that follow a meal at high-end restaurants.” But no one needs to spend a fortune to make or eat them. Mignardises resemble truffles, and although this recipe is less involved than the common truffle, it makes for an equally delicious and surprising treat. As gifts, the mignardises can be beautifully packaged (tins, small boxes, tissue paper, etc.) to make gorgeous, tasty and economical gifts.

Mignardises

Makes approximately 80 pieces (depending on size)

1 cup raw cashew butter
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon vanilla seeds scraped from vanilla bean
1 tablespoon nama shoyu
Variety of coatings such as coconut, sesame seeds, crushed pumpkin seeds, cayenne pepper, or chopped dried fruit (cranberries, goji berries, cherries, etc.)

Preparation:

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and process until smooth and thick. Pour into shallow container and cover and refrigerate for four hours. Using a melon baller, scrape truffle base into small balls. Fill or roll chocolate truffles with spices, seeds, nuts or dried fruits of your choice. Shape as desired (rounds, pear shaped, nougat or cylinders).