#263: Chef AJ Wants You to Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!
Chef AJ wants you to experience life’s “sweet indulgences”
Rip welcomes the incredible Chef AJ, a beloved figure in the plant-based community, known for her generous spirit and culinary expertise.
Her new cookbook, "Sweet Indulgence," comes out on August 27th, and they dive into her journey, the inspiration behind the book, and the creative process that culminated in over 150 healthy dessert recipes.
Chef AJ also demonstrates a live recipe for her famous Frozen Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake, a delightful treat that is both indulgent and guilt-free.
They discuss the health benefits of her recipes, emphasizing the importance of using whole foods and natural sweeteners like dates instead of refined sugars. Chef AJ highlights her philosophy of making desserts accessible and tempting for everyone, regardless of their dietary preferences. She shares anecdotes from her past, including her early experiences in the culinary world and her successful transition to a whole food, plant-based lifestyle.
Throughout the episode, Chef AJ's passion for cooking shines as she explains her methods, including the use of more flavorful and healthful ingredients, and the significance of recipe structure. They also touch on memorable moments at Plantstock and the supportive network within the plant-based movement.
Whether you're a seasoned cook or a beginner, Chef AJ's approachable recipes aim to inspire joy and connection through the simple act of sharing dessert.
Episode Highlights
0:00 Plantstock Celebration Weekend Recap
3:00 Welcoming Chef AJ
5:40 Remembering Dr. John McDougall
8:45 Chef AJ's New Book Announcement
11:40 The Importance of Healthy Desserts
18:14 AJ's Early Culinary Inspirations
22:49 The Philosophy of Whole Food Desserts
32:38 Making the Frozen Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake
41:27 Layers of Deliciousness
54:49 Celebrating with Friends
58:49 Q&A on other Unique Recipes in Sweet Indulgence
1:15:14 Pre-Order and Bonuses Announcement
Pre-Order by August 27th, 2024 to receive the Bonus Videos
Episode Resources
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Full Transcription via AI Transcription Service
[0:00] As most of you know, we just wrapped up our 13th annual Plantstock Celebration Weekend Event, and I want to sincerely thank everyone who either came in person and joined us on the mountain, and those who tuned in from home. If you'd like to take advantage of our next in-person experience, come join me and the PLANTSTRONG team in beautiful Sedona, Arizona, This October, from the 8th to the 13th, we've got 12 spots available and enjoy an immersive and an interactive retreat amongst the red rocks of Arizona. We'll do all the cooking. You get to come relax, meet new friends, get answers to all your burning questions, enjoy some yoga, take daily hikes, enjoy endless buffets of plant-strong meals, be entertained and educated with our world-class presentations, or challenge me at pickleball. And all the while, you'll be fully supported by our incredible PLANTSTRONG team. Register at liveplantstrong.com or send us an email with all your questions at hello at plantstrong.com. I'm Rip Besselston, and you're listening to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast.
[1:22] All right, PLANTSTRONG people, I am going to dive right into today's episode because today's guest, the incomparable Chef Abby J., better known as AJ, really needs no introduction.
[1:39] She is such a light in the plant-based community. She is so generous with her time and her talents. Her new book, called Sweet Indulgence, comes out on August 27th, and today we are going to roll around and get caught up on her life, discuss the new book, and she is going to give us an extra special treat, drumroll, a live demonstration of one of the recipes in her book, the frozen peanut butter chocolate cheesecake, and she clearly knows the way right to my heart. This interview was recorded as part of our recent 13th annual Plantstock Weekend Celebration, where we had over 10 different plant-strong chefs that tore it up. Now, I would strongly encourage you to consider pre-ordering Chef AJ's new book, because when you do, you'll receive a lot of bonuses, including videos of AJ making every dessert in the book. That's over 150 videos. Just go to chefaj.com to make sure you don't miss out. Okay, here to grace us for the second time on the PLANTSTRONG Podcast, Chef.
Welcoming Chef AJ
[2:55] Music.
[3:00] Hey everybody! AJ, it is so fantastic to see you. Welcome to Plant-Stock 2024. This is also going to be one of the PLANTSTRONG podcasts.
[3:14] And what are you doing in your kitchen holding up a, it looks like a copy of a weird kind of wonderful book. Is this the same one I'm holding up? It's not weird at all. This is my brand new cookbook that comes out on Tuesday, August 27th. It's called Sweet Indulgence with many, many, over 150 guilt-free recipes sweetened naturally with fruit. But because it's you, Rip, I am going to make the recipe that you ate at my house. I've never given this out before, the frozen peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. It's so famous that it actually made the back cover. In addition to having superstars like you enjoy it, I used to make this for an actress when I lived in L.A. Named Heather Graham that you might remember from the Austin Power movies. These and she loved it and it's absolutely delicious all the recipes are vegan of course whole food plant-based without sugar oil well actually refined sugar we do use the fruit the whole fruit nothing but the fruit or salt and they are delicious so aj um can you put the book down for a second because i want to see your outfit like so just for you rip i had a custom-made tie-dyed chef coat with the glitzy little chef AJ here. Is that in honor of Plant-Stock 2024?
[4:32] You know, Plant-Stock, wood stock, you know, tie-dye, I figured would go well. So AJ, you're like, it's funny because I wanted to see how many times I've had you to be part of either the podcast or Plant-Stock. And so I kind of in the search engine on my podcast I put Chef AJ and literally I realized you came on, Episode 143 for everybody that's listening. And we talked about the secrets of ultimate weight loss. One of your most successful books. And I want to talk about how you have lost, what, 60, 70 pounds and kept it off for 10 plus years. It was incredible.
[5:18] Thank you. But then what I realized is I kept going down. And I kid you not, there must have been 50 different episodes of the PLANTSTRONG podcast where different people mentioned Chef AJ.
Remembering Dr. John McDougall
[5:31] So your name is ubiquitous in the whole food plant-based movement in the arena. And I think you're aware of it, but, you know, it's just when I think back to when I first met you at one of Jeff Nelson's veg source, you know, events, and you quickly became one of my um you know biggest cheerleaders and this is before i'd written the engine to diet or anything like that and and how you you were like just waiting to break in and you know get in there and you were so persistent you just never gave up and now i look at what you've done with all your books you're live with aj show the fact that i pull you up on my podcast and everybody mentions you it's really phenomenal i mean way to be girl thank you that's really that's really lovely thank you for sharing that yeah absolutely absolutely you know before we dive into this.
[6:34] Wonderful recipe that you're going to create for us and anything else i do want to talk for a sec about somebody that you and i uh had a great affinity for who recently passed away and that's Dr. John McDougall, who, you know, who we both just, you know, we're doing our best to carry his torch, but, um, uh.
[6:55] Like, didn't you have him on your show like every other week or something like that? The first Monday of every month for over four years was Monday with the McDougals. So, gosh, that would be over 50 episodes of Dr. John McDougal's brilliance. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just I mean, I just can't believe that he's he's gone. It's so hard to believe.
[7:19] No one can. What a shock. yeah yeah i mean is there a lesson to be learned in this is i guess it's just that life is fragile and you know just do the best you can i mean he literally was that he was the giant that we were you know standing on his shoulders all of us well i think one of the things people don't understand is the plant-based diet does make you bulletproof against certain diseases but it doesn't make you bulletproof against death because even vegans die and even healthy vegans die. And I think people don't realize that how long we live is largely determined by our genetics, but how well we live is often determined by our diet and lifestyle. And that's why it's so important to eat this way and to live this way. And I mean, I'm happy that if he had to die, he died the way He did, you know, without a long lingering disease. And he went to sleep one night and didn't wake up, which is what I wish for everyone, actually. Yeah. Yeah. So let's, let's dive into this, this new exciting book that has captured every one of my 32 sweet tooths. So why this book and why now? Well, why?
[8:37] That's a great question because really the book was scheduled to, if the book had come out when it was originally thought of, It had a different
Chef AJ's New Book Announcement
[8:45] name, A Date with Dessert, which would have been right after Unprocessed. So it would have been 2012.
[8:50] It would have been a completely different book because at the time, like you say, I weighed 60 pounds more than I weighed now. What was happening is as I was starting to lose weight, I realized I couldn't include some of these desserts or as many desserts if I wanted to stay slender. So I kind of put desserts aside, even though that is my true passion. I was an executive vegan pastry chef at a Los Angeles restaurant for years. And so I kind of forgot about it. Most of the recipes were written, by the way. And then people just kept pestering me for this book. And I realized that most people, Rip, aren't going to completely desert dessert. And even people that follow strict, very strict diets, occasionally maybe either go off plan intentionally or unintentionally. And I wanted to have the healthiest desserts that I could give people. And what I love about this book is, and I'm hoping it's a crossover book, and it is for vegans. But I'm hoping that because it'll be in bookstores, people will see that you don't have to be vegan to enjoy vegan desserts, you know, and not everybody's going to be vegan. And you might not be able to give, you know, a veggie burger to a hardcore carnivore. But if you give them this cheesecake, they're not going to eat it and say, you know, this is good. But, you know, where's the dairy? Where's the egg? Where's the milk? They're not going to know. And I remember a long time ago, I was on a television show called Cupcake Wars. And I didn't want to do it because I had to use some ingredients in some of the recipes I wasn't comfortable with, like a little bit of oil and a little bit of.
[10:16] You know, maple syrup. And I remember consulting with Dr. Barnard and he said, look, you know, desserts are a great way to draw people in. He actually wrote the foreword to my book. He said, draw them in with dessert and then hit them over the head with the kale. So in the book, for people that are kosher, they can use these recipes, people that are gluten-free, whether they're vegan or not. And what is really neat about this book, and if I had written it, you know, 12 years ago, it would have just been all the high fat, high calorie density desserts, even though they didn't have refined sugar, oil, and salt. But because my palate adjusted and my weight became less, I was able to create even more desserts that are very low calorie density that would be suitable for people on different programs. And what I think is brilliant about this book that my designer, Janine Elder of Potato Wisdom did, is every single recipe is rated on sweetness and fat content. So there's this amazing grid that will tell you if the recipe is subtly sweet, like I think it's slightly sweet, subtly sweet, or superbly sweet, low fat, high fat, or medium fat. So people can pick and choose based on their individual preferences. Exactly. And she has like a little strawberry. I thought that was just really cool. So people will know, you know, what they're getting into. But even so, a lot of people want to have the ability to make special occasion desserts for holidays, for birthdays, or, you know, not everybody has has a weight problem too.
The Importance of Healthy Desserts
[11:39] So there's going to be something for everybody in this book. There's even raw dessert recipes.
[11:44] There's recipes with chocolate, without chocolate. So I'm very proud of this book and the team that helped me create it. Oh, you should be. I mean, it's absolutely, it's so, not only is it beautiful, but it's so well thought out, laid out.
[11:58] And I can't believe like 150 different recipes. And I'm like, there's no way. And then I looked at the table of contents and then I realized, I mean... This is so brilliant. And you've laid it out alphabetically as far as the, you know, bake, chill, crunch, dip, freeze, fry, iron, lick, nuke, pop, sip, spoon, speed, sprinkle, squeeze. I mean, can you say all those right together? And that was the designer's idea. And I love it, too. You know, there's dehydrated recipes and like you said, there's one hundred and fifty six. And so, I mean, I think it'd be worth it just to get the cupcake recipe on the cover. Well, and speaking of, and you mentioned how Dr. Neil Barnard wrote the forward and, and, and, and the story that he writes about is how, you know, he was in a hurry. He had to go somewhere. So you made him this special cupcake and he took it on his limousine ride to the airport or whatever it was. And it was this cupcake that's on the cover of the book, right? Right.
[12:59] Absolutely. It's just coincidental, but I'm so happy. And that's the cupcake I made on Cupcake Wars, too. Yeah. Yeah. And did you say that the woman who came up with the idea to do these, you know, the different chart charting, I guess, for, you know, indulging the scale. Thank you. The scales. Did you say that her company is called Potato Wisdom? Potato Wisdom. Yes, she wrote a wonderful book. Her name is Janine Elder, big fan of Dr. McDougall's and eating starch and eating potatoes. She's a wonderful graphic designer. Oh, my gosh. Wow. I love the name of her company. That's wonderful. Yeah. And I noticed, too, that your dedication to this book is in memory of Hans Diehl, another great plant-based force that we lost, what, over a year ago, I think it was? Yeah.
[13:51] Yeah. Yeah. And that's why it was it was a double whammy. First, Dr. Deal and then Dr. McDougal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very, very, very brutal. The the introduction. So after the forward by Neil Barnard, you have this great introduction by Michael Gorin, this Ph.D. That's the author of Sugar Proof. But I mean, how did you find this guy? Was he a regular on live with AJ?
[14:22] So, you know, I for many years I hosted the real truth about weight loss summit. You were a speaker one of the years and he was recommended by somebody. He's a lovely man and he's actually considered a childhood pediatric obesity specialist. And so, you know, we became friendly and I asked him if he would write something about it, because in his book he uses things like bananas, like dates, you know. And I think people need to realize that sugar, whether you're vegan or not, is pretty deleterious to your health. It's not a health food. It's a hurt food and that people need to not be afraid of fruit. So I thought he did a great job writing the introduction. Well, he did. And then the fact like how we talked about how these children, all their organs are still developing. You know, our brains, our microbiome, obviously, you know, we got our teeth, the liver, all these things. And so and so much of what we're feeding these children as all these organs are being developed is so highly processed with all these sugars that can have like lasting effects that go all the way into their adulthood. So, and if you get the book, read the intro by Michael Gorin, it's, it's really wonderful. Yeah. And you know what, the thing is when, you know.
[15:43] When children eat so much sugar from a young age, or even if the mother was having a lot of sugar when the child was in utero, it just sets them up just to have an extraordinarily high desire and expectation for sweet. And that's why they're not going to eat kale, you know? No. And you don't have any stevia or monk fruit either in this book, do you? No, or low hand or coconut sugar or coconut sap or barley malt or molasses or honey, which isn't even vegan or maple syrup or agave. It's I try to use all whole fruits when possible, like dates or bananas.
[16:19] But it's very easy to make dates into a paste simply by blending dates with a liquid in a food processor. I am comfortable using date syrup. And the reason is, is it's not in every recipe is even though it's a concentrated sweetener and has calories, I can make date syrup in my kitchen. And in my first edition of my book on process, there was a recipe. The thing is, is it takes a while because you have to boil and reduce. It takes like 45 minutes. It takes less time to go to Walmart and buy organic date syrup, which is available now. So that is why I'm comfortable using it because it's, it still is a whole food. Nothing has been taken out. You know, who can make maple syrup in their own kitchen or agave or honey or any of that? So I am comfortable using date syrup. And I try not to use it in large amounts in most recipes. This is an extremely rich recipe that we're making today so that it will have a lot of date syrup. A lot of the recipes, some of them don't even have dates. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
[17:18] I think one of the things that, and I'm going back to Michael Gorin and where he talked about how like stevia and monk fruit, which, you know, I know are very popular, how they basically they're naturally occurring, but they have more than 100 times the sweetness of ordinary, like table sugar and how they're not inert inside our bodies. And so it's just.
[17:47] You know, I love your whole philosophy, AJ. You just use the whole fruit. Wait, the fruit, the whole fruit, nothing but the fruit, right? And I want to just say about stevia, it's one thing if you have a stevia plant growing and take that green leaf. But the people that are using stevia are using the highly processed powders or liquid, which I know you're friends with Dr. Will B. All the gastroenterologists we've ever talked to said stevia is terrible for our gut microbiome.
AJ's Early Culinary Inspirations
[18:12] And the thing is, is it perpetuates the desire for more sweet. Because like you said, stevia is thousands of times sweeter than any kind of sugar. Yeah. So I want to, I want to, before we dive into your, your book and some recipes, and I keep forgetting that you're supposed to make something for us as well. Yeah, whenever you're ready.
[18:32] But, but I, I, I loved reading about your, your childhood and your fascination with being, you know a chef and desserts um can you tell us what was the first recipe that you ever made uh as far as like a dessert recipe i oh do you know what i know i know i know the answer i know the answer i know it too so i hope you could be going one of two ways because if you're talking about with the easy bake oven that would have been that where you just mix the water and bake.
[19:07] Yeah, I know what you're going for. My, my oldest brother, this was his favorite recipe. It was from the Betty Crocker girls and boys cookbook, which is like a relic now. And it was called tinglings. And these are so delicious. You basically have two ingredients. You have semi sweet chocolate chips, and you have Wheaties and you and I did my first demonstration in school, we used to have to do these things for Mr. Smith's class, Mr. Ivan Smith, they were called how to do it presentations, you literally just melt your chocolate chips. You pour in the Wheaties, mix it up and you make these clusters and you chill them on wax paper. They are so delicious. And you could probably find healthy Wheaties today and healthy chocolate chips and still make them. I'm so glad you mentioned Mr. Smith's class and the and the how to do it project, because I laughed my ass off when I read that in your book. And you're like, you know, everybody else was like, you know, how to build a rocket. it. And, you know, how to, you know, how does the government work? And you're like, how to make fudge.
[20:11] I just always just love, you know, desserts bring people together. Desserts make people happy. And it's just, there's just, we need more, we need more sweet in the world. We do, we do, we do. And well, what I love too, is that You're just so authentically AJ, right? Going back to when you were basically like in the womb. I mean, you even say like, you know, you had a sweet tooth before you even had a tooth.
[20:39] Exactly. I mean, and I think it's because my mom made like so much chocolate when she was pregnant with me. M&Ms with peanuts were like her favorite food. So, you know, I kind of coming out the gate, I was sort of already a little sugar addict, if you will. Oh, yeah. And then I want to keep going down this path for a little bit longer because it shows, how, how true to this path you've been like you. And I can't, I don't know what age, but you like devoured 27 volumes of time, life's anthology of cookbooks. Like I, I lived with an aunt who was Swiss and her mother, they were from Geneva, had a five-star cordon bleu restaurant in Switzerland. And they had all these books. And just like other people will read novels or comics. I always love to read cookbooks. And I remember my very first formal dinner party at the age of 11, I even sent out real handwritten invitations. I was using these time-life cookbooks. I wasn't vegan then. So I, I, there was meat there, but I remember there was something with leeks or braised leeks. And I made a souffle au Grand Marnier and something with, with an app. I don't know. It was pretty elaborate for an 11 year old. Let me tell you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, if you were to go back to your stomping ground and if you were to go to Stan's Donuts, what donut would you buy?
[22:03] That is so funny that you would say this today, because I literally just got back from Las Vegas and I had my picture taken with the statue of Elvis and it would be. I saw the post. Yeah. So, so they had a donut. Oh God, Stan's donuts. They had a donut there that was inside was peanut butter and banana. And then, you know, obviously it was deep fried and then had this coating of like chocolate fudge on it with chocolate chips. It would definitely be the Elvis. I think my favorite thing in the whole wide world is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with bananas on it. That's just still my favorite thing. It really is.
The Philosophy of Whole Food Desserts
[22:46] Although this dessert that you're going to making is right up there. You like to say, AJ, that life is uncertained, eat dessert first. I said that for a long time, but now I would say because life is uncertain, eat vegetables first.
[23:08] That's adorable. Let me ask you this. What is it about real whole food desserts that, and I think it's one of the reasons why you've written this book, that allow you, for the most part to moderate your consumption? Oh, that's a great question. And I think the reason is because a lot of people say, well, I, you know, I can't lose these desserts and lose weight. And that's true. If you eat peanut butter, chocolate cheesecake all day, every day, you're not probably going to lose weight, but people have to understand. And not everybody understands food addiction or sugar addiction. If you were having the diet that I had up until July 6th, 2003, when I gave up sugar for, you know, for the final time, I was having Coke Slurpees for breakfast at the age of 43, 27 ounce Coke Slurpees with eight pumps of vanilla syrup, 48 ounce Big Gulp Dr. Peppers regular from 7-Eleven for lunch and all kinds of candies, cakes, cookies, pies, and ice cream that were vegan, but full of sugar. I did not go from that diet to eating vegetables for breakfast. I had a transition period. And to me, dates are the transition. They're like methadone. And yes, they still have calories. They're about 1300 calories per pound.
[24:21] Sugar is still more calorically dense at 1,800 calories per pound. What dates have is they are a whole food, which means unlike sugar, dates have fiber, water, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants, micronutrients. There's none of that in processed sugar.
[24:37] And so because they have fiber and water, you get some satiety. You get fullness for it. Just the same thing with nuts. Nuts are 3,200 calories per pound as opposed to oil, which is 4,000 calories per pound. But again, there are whole foods who they have fiber. So while if I was eating, I used to love white cupcakes with white frosting and sprinkles from Ralph's, I could eat the entire six pack. But when I would make date nut desserts, I could maybe eat a normal serving like one or two or maybe three truffles because they were actual food. And so for me, this was a this was a way to get off sugar. And eventually I didn't require as much sweetness. And, you know, now, you know, my favorite dessert is happens to be the one that I made last year on Plantstock was with a simple strawberry pie, which is basically fruit and oats, which you could eat for breakfast. Yeah. And for those that don't know, AJ has become a regular at Plantstock. This is your third year in a row. I think you're next to Anne and Anne and Jane. There's nobody else that's been invited back this much. Well, thank you. I'd love to come in person sometime. I'm traveling again. We'll make that happen. Let's make that happen. Before you dive in, and again, I've got so many questions for you on this book, but I look at the book and I look through the photos. Let me show everybody this. Can you see that? Those are hockey pucks. That's in honor of your dad.
[26:05] Well, I know you said they were going to be called Essies, and then you changed it at the last second. I can't remember why. And we said that wasn't a good name. And we. But my question to you is this.
[26:15] I don't know if I've ever seen photography as stellar as this. I mean, where did you find Hannah Kaminsky? Hannah Kaminsky, I think like at the age of 18 or 19, had her first book. I think it was called My Sweet Vegan. She is the most extraordinary photographer.
[26:33] She's an ethical vegan. She's an amazing food stylist. And I can't say enough about her because any comments I get about this book, it goes to Hannah because without her beautiful photos, it just wouldn't be that book. She is extraordinary. Yeah. And I can't believe the number of these photos. One photo with every recipe, because, you know, that's what people said in my previous books. It's expensive to have color photos for every recipe. So some of my books had no photos. Some had like 10 or 12 photos. And that's why it's taken a while to get this book done so that we could serve the reader with what they asked for, a photo with every single recipe. Yeah. Yeah. Can I say something? Is it okay? Well, if people, not only is there a photo with every recipe, but if people buy the book, you know, the week it comes out or before, because as you know, as a New York times bestseller yourself, it's really important to have pre-sales or those first five days, because after five days, the sales count, but not towards New York times bestseller. Anyone who buys that book, if they save their receipt, we'll have a dedicated email. We will send them a video of every single recipe so they can actually see how it's made. What?
[27:48] That's incredible that you went to those lengths. I can't. That's worth over a thousand dollars. Every, every recipe is filmed. Did you, so did you make, I mean, okay, obviously, Obviously, Hannah photographed every one of these. Did you make these? You had a sous chef as well, right? That was super helpful. So she actually, because she's a vegan and a vegan chef and a food stylist, she actually made all the recipes. What? She made these? Yeah. Well, that took a lot of work off your plate. But still, it took her a long time. It took all of us a long time. You know, it took six months to film 156 recipes. Oh, my gosh. I can't even imagine. Yeah. But that's only for pre-sales. If, you know, once the book is out, you're never going to get that bonus again. Wow. Wow. Okay.
[28:42] So I've got a bunch of questions for you, but I think we should get started. Now, if you're okay, I can ask you while you're making the recipe. Absolutely. Absolutely. So what is the Plantstock recipe that you're making for everyone? I'm going to be making the double layer frozen peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. Uh-huh. Okay. You had me at double layer. Yeah.
[29:07] Nice. All right. How do we start? All right. So the first thing we need is peanut butter. Now you can certainly buy peanut butter at the store. I like to make my own and you can make your own too, because it's really easy if you have a machine. I'll be using the NutriMilk machine, but if you have a high powered blender, if you have a champion juicer, if you have a food processor, you can make your own. It actually is cheaper and it tastes better. Even though you can find peanut butter in the store, that's just peanuts, even without salt, it has that thick, gross layer of oil on top. And if you don't stir it in, it's usually so hard to get out of the jar. And while many stores have that little machine that you can make it your own right there, it often contains salt. So I just make my own simply by taking a bag of unsalted roasted peanuts, putting it in one of the machines that will make it in this case, I'm using the nutra milk. But again, this also works. I've done this in the champion juicer. I've done it in the Vitamix. I've done it in any food processor. And I am just going to go for two minutes. It's called the butter setting. Yep. And in two minutes, we're going to have wonderful. Let me I just show you, maybe you can see this better now. I just put it on two minutes and I am going to start.
[30:24] Four, three, two, one. So that was two minutes. But as I was looking at the timer, it actually was ready in about one minute. And what I love about when you make your own peanut butter is that it stays creamy, even in the refrigerator. That doesn't happen when you use the other machines. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to take out one cup of this. And look how creamy this is. Look at this. And it will stay like that in the fridge. It doesn't get hard. And so if you're somebody like my husband that eats a couple of peanut butter sandwiches every day for lunch, this really is a more delicious and cost-effective way to do it. And, again, there's a variety of machines that will make it. But it really is, if taste is important to you, it just tastes so much better than store-bought. And then you don't have all the packaging of the jars or the glasses. And there's no salt. There's no sugar. There's no oil. And, of course, you could make other nut butters too. So if somebody watching had a peanut allergy or was avoiding peanuts, you can make this exact recipe using almonds and almond butter. So now I've got my peanut butter here. But the next thing I want to do is I want to make the crust.
[31:41] Because you can't go from a wet food processor to a dry food processor without having to clean it in the middle. So the crust is very, very easy to make. And AJ, tell me, because I think I read when I was looking at all the equipment that you recommended that people maybe think about, you had a blow dryer in there. I'm like, a blow dryer? Why would somebody want a blow dryer? And why would you want a blow dryer? dryer. I commend you because you actually read my book. So thank you. And the reason is my sous chef, Rebecca Martinez came up with this. A lot of times we're doing cooking demonstrations and we've just made something. We've washed the food processor. Now there's a couple of drops of water in it. Well, if I try to grind my peanuts in there, guess what? It doesn't, it doesn't do what it needs to do. It becomes a pesto. And so if you're in a hurry, just take your blow dryer and get those last drops of water out. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. I interrupted you. Go ahead. No,
Making the Frozen Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake
[32:36] that's okay. That was actually very clever. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my roasted but unsalted peanuts in the food processor and I'm just, I'm going to pulse these so that they become chopped.
[32:58] Like double peanuts. Right. So what I'm going to do is I need to take a half a cup out and I'm going to reserve this to sprinkle it over the top at the end. I still have enough in here for the crust. So I'm just going to save these. And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to let the food processor run a little bit longer. I don't want to keep running it so that it becomes a peanut butter. I just want it to be like a flour-like consistency.
[33:28] Perfect. Yeah, because if you keep running it, you will have peanut butter like I just made. Now I'm going to take my beautiful pitted dates. I tend to use the Deglet Nord dates because they're more cost effective. And I have found that the best prices are at Costco organic and they come pitted because if you're using a lot of dates, it's kind of a pain to have to keep pitting them. If you're eating dates for pleasure, the medjool date obviously is much more delicious or the bari date. But for these recipes, I really feel the deglet nor because they're drier. They're not as sticky would be perfect. So now I'm going to let the food processor run until it starts to slow down. Okay the fact that it did that could mean that we have a pit which is the worst or we have a very very dry date so let's sometimes they're really really hard and so you have to take it out because it won't process so let's try again.
[34:54] Thank you for watching.
[35:10] When it starts to slow down, you can check it. Now, my Breville, which is a really wonderful food processor, you don't have to have a Breville, but I always recommend people get the biggest and best they could afford of any type of equipment. That was 45 seconds. If you have maybe an older or less powerful one, it could take longer. So then what I do is I test it by just taking a little clump in my hand and seeing if I can squeeze it together into a ball, which I can. This is actually a recipe. These would be peanut bites, and these are just delicious as they are. You can pop them in your mouth or make brownies. If I can break it in half like this and it doesn't fall apart, that's called the break point. It's ready. So now what I'm going to do is just pour it into my springform pan, and I'll talk a little bit about what a springform pan is. Now, if you process this too long, you know, even though nuts are a whole natural food, they still have about 90% of their calories from fat, and the oil will start coming out. And it will make it kind of a funky texture. So I would air under processing rather than over processing. For cheesecakes, I love springform pans because what you can do is you can take this off in the ring off and they're easy to cut. This happens to be a silicone one with a glass bottom. But you can get these for even $7 at the restaurant supply stores. You can get metal ones. But it's just for a nice presentation.
[36:31] And so all I'm doing is pressing it down. So this is my crust. AJ, what was the culprit? Was it a hard date or was it an action?
[36:41] There wasn't a pit, but what stopped the blade was the date was so hard. And that will happen occasionally, but you'll know that because your food processor.
[36:50] Process. So these date nut crusts or seed nut crusts or date crusts are so easy to make. You know, regular pie crusts are oil and butter or Crisco and sugar and flour. So I just made a beautiful crust in basically a minute. So that's my crust. So that's just peanuts and dates. If you didn't want to use peanuts, you could use, could you use- Almonds. I would recommend almonds. Okay. All right. What about walnuts? You ever done walnuts? I have not done walnuts. Walnuts are a good nut, but they kind of have a strong flavor for dessert. So, I mean, I would tell people to try it. I actually, when I used to work in the restaurant, this was the best-selling dessert. And so I have made it for special orders with almond. So I haven't tried it with walnut butter. That doesn't mean it won't be good. I just haven't tried it. Or with pecan. So, but, yeah. So what I'm doing is I'm just wiping the food processor out to get it ready for the next layer. Yeah. Hey, tell me, I think I read about you having migraines. What was the culprit? Was it chocolate or was it soy that you're?
[37:57] It turned out that I'm allergic to soy, but it was chocolate. So the last time I really had chocolate was it was November 7th, 2010 at my Healthy Taste of L.A. conference. And I finally went to a good immunologist that explained that some people have trouble with foods that are high in histamine like chocolate. And after giving up chocolate, I never had another migraine. Luckily, these desserts were written prior. Oh, my gosh. How often were you getting migraines? I mean, were you eating chocolate? Every time I ate chocolate, and I was eating chocolate a lot. So, yeah. Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. Hey, I read something else in the book that I just thought it just made me giggle. And, you know, I know you've done a lot of coaching with a lot of people. And you mentioned how sometime what can cause for, you know, people going astray or continuing to gain weight when they don't want to is something that you call snacks. accident. Yes.
[38:59] Yes. Not, not an accident, but a snack accident. A snack accident. We all have had them. So don't feel bad about it. That's right. That's right.
[39:07] All right. So I'm going to make two, actually three more layers. And so I like to do the peanut crust layer on the bottom, followed by chocolate, followed by peanut butter, followed by chocolate. But if I make the chocolate layer first, then I'm going to have to clean out my food processor and I don't want to have to do that. So I'm going to make the peanut butter layer first, put it aside, and then I can use the same food processor. Now, ideally, we would kind of chill this or freeze this in between layers, but we're not going to do that today. I think it will still work out. So the peanut layer or the peanut butter layer, which is going to be the third layer, if you're going from the bottom up, is very easy. We're going to start with a box of tofu. I like to get the extra firm if you can find it. And you want to make sure you get the aseptic tofu in these packages. The water-packed tofu is delicious for stir fries and savory recipes, but for desserts, you need the silken tofu. Where I live, this is available in every regular supermarket, not just the natural food stores, but you can also get it online. So I'm using one box, and this is the Morinu silken tofu, and then we're going to use one container of cream cheese. Now, before Miyoko Shinner came out with this lovely brand, I would just make my own from cashews, but it's just, my time is worth just as much to me. So I just buy this. This is a very clean brand. Yes, there is a little salt, but there is no oil. So I'm using one container of Miyoko's cream cheese.
[40:33] And then we're going to add.
[40:37] The peanut butter that you just saw me made. Let me ask you this. As a dessert chef, how important do you feel it is to kind of get all the measurements just about 100% correct? So if it's a raw dessert, you have more flexibility. But if it's a cooked dessert, meaning if it's a baked dessert, you kind of have to follow the recipe. Because cooking or raw food dessert making is an art, but baking is a science. So you can't you can't just say, well, you know, I'm going to put in a tablespoon of baking soda instead of a teaspoon. So you do, I believe, have to follow a recipe. And I think that in general, it's a great idea that anytime somebody makes somebody else's recipe, I mean, unless they're truly allergic, that the first time they do follow it, you know, because then you know what the person had in mind,
Layers of Deliciousness
[41:25] then go off the grid and make it your own. That's that is my recommendation. recommendation so this recipe that is going to be the one of the layers is a recipe in its own this is the peanut butter mousse so if you didn't want to go to the trouble of making the whole cheesecake just what i'm showing you now and it's easy to remember because it's one one one one one cup date syrup one cup peanut butter one tub of cream cheese one cup tofu we're just going to put that in and that is going to make the peanut butter mousse layer so we're just going to process this and this will take just very quick.
[42:05] That basically took about 20 seconds. And so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to place it in this bowl and then I'm going to do the chocolate layer. This is probably my husband's favorite dessert, the peanut butter mousse. And so we make this into a parfait and the recipe is in the book. It's called peanut butter paradise parfait. And so we layer it with with streusel crumbs or chocolate crumbs, bananas. And I bring that to the potluck that I attend once a month here in Northern California. And instead of plating individual parfaits, which are beautiful, but labor intensive, I do it in a trifle bowl. Yes, you do say that on page 250 is the peanut butter mousse and you say it's Charles' absolute favorite. Charles, are you there? Can you attest that this is your favorite? Yes, I'm here. It is my favorite. it he'll eat it even if he's full like he's not he's not really an overeater or that excited by food but if there is this in the house he will love to have this and it's really good actually i mean i i don't eat it regularly but obviously i tasted it and i'm like hey i see why you like it it's really really good and you know not everybody can have chocolate or wants to have chocolate so you know it's still dairy-free and delicious so you can see.
[43:27] Ideally this would be chilled and it would get a little bit thicker but we're going to get as much of it out as we can and then we're going to create the chocolate layer next, aj what what is the what is the difference between a mousse and a pudding i believe that the mousse is thicker and more luxurious and more decadent puddings in general when they're cooked usually i remember from home economics in 1971 we cooked them with cornstarch so i think puddings are less rich and they're less thick. I could be wrong, but that's what I think. Yeah, makes sense. So now we're going to create the chocolate layer. And like I said, it's okay that I didn't wash it out because you're not going to really pick up the peanut butter that's left in here. If you wanted to wash it out, you can, but I'm not going to do that. And so it's very similar. We're going to take our one box. I believe it's 12.2 ounces of extra firm tofu, one can, not one can, one carton. And again, if you don't want to use Miyoko's cream cheese, this is a cashew-based one. If somebody had a cashew allergy, there are so many other ones. Kite Hill. I mean, there's Tofutti. Just read your labels and see what ingredients you're comfortable using. Or make your own. It is very easy to make overnight cashew cream cheese. Many recipes online, which is basically cashews and water. So we have that. And now we're going to add our cocoa powder.
[44:53] I like to use a dark one. And, you know, Hershey's is fine, but what I recommend is Hershey's Dark because it's just much more luxurious. So now what we have to do is melt our chocolate. So let me get my burner.
[45:09] You guys know where everything is. You know, we do this a lot. I teach for McDougal. I teach for UC Davis Medical School and Kaiser. So we kind of had a get with the game. All right. So now I'm going to melt the chocolate. So what chocolate, you may ask? Well, the choice is yours. Since I prefer to keep the book 100% sugar-free, I like to use one of the brands that is just a hundred percent cacao. And both of these brands are available at Walmart as is the date syrup that I used. I can't see, I can't see what brands those are, the bars. What are they? Okay. So one is called Baker's chocolate and unsweetened. And this has been around ever since I was a kid. That's what kind of my mom used. And then one is Ghirardelli's and they're both 100% cacao, no other ingredients and they come in 10 ounces. Now we do have chocolate chips now that are date sweetened available online and at stores like sprouts and whole foods or a hundred percent chocolate chips available at some stores, but I've always used this and it's perfect because the 10 ounce bar, I need 10 ounces. So I recommend people use a double boiler, but remember I was a a pastry chef for years and I can do this without burning it. So what I have is my date syrup. Let me get another spatula to keep it a little clean.
[46:37] I don't recommend melting chocolate in the microwave because it can burn and once chocolate burns, you can't recover from that. You'll have to start over. The double boiler is just basically a pot of boiling water with the chocolate on top And you always want to melt your chocolate on low heat. So we're just going to melt this chocolate with the date syrup. Now, if you don't, I mean, if you eat sugar, you know, you can just use regular vegan non-dairy chocolate chips. But again, there's so many choices available now that you don't have to. But realize that if you do use chocolate chips that are sweetened, this is going to be sweeter. And this recipe is sweet enough with this. So it shouldn't take very long for the chocolate to melt.
[47:21] And we're just going to see, you know, you never want to walk away from melting chocolate or toasting nuts, things that could be in one second not ready and then in one second ready because you just have to be mindful. Things like pressure cooking I love because you can actually walk away and come back hours later and it's done. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, you know, one of the things, AJ, that I love about your book is the stories, how every recipe has a story. Behind it and i find some of the factoids to be just absolutely remarkable so well you know why i did that rip because you told me as a friend a long time ago because you were endorsed this book and you endorsed my first book and you pulled me aside and said hey recipes are great but there's no stories and i took that note and i appreciate it and we made sure we did that look at how quickly this is all oh my gosh it's it's going to be ready in just seconds i'm going to turn down. Look at that. So be very careful when you're melting chocolate. You don't want to burn it. It doesn't taste good. It won't, it won't process.
[48:26] Oh, but boy, the smell of chocolate, really, there's nothing like it. And chocolate and peanut butter, if you ask me, are really a match made in heaven. You know, I mean, I would imagine that Reese's peanut butter cups or Snickers, those kinds of combinations are probably some of the most popular candies in the world. There we go. So I'm going to turn it off. It's ready. And then I'm going to very carefully, very carefully pour this melted chocolate in the food processor. Oh, man. Look at that. Oh, baby. Get every last bit.
[49:04] OK, put that here. And now I'm going to do what I did with the first layer and process this. And this would be a great moose as well.
[49:18] Music.
[49:30] One of the biggest tips i can give is if you have everything out in front of you it's called the mise en place it's so much easier to make any recipe i mean look at that look at the thickness the richness this is the this is a mousse a pudding wouldn't do this rip but a mousse will stay on the spoon so now what i'm going to do is i'm going to take this filling number one and place it on top. Now, if you did it the other way, the world wouldn't come to an end, peanut butter first, but it just looks better this way because then you go light, dark, light, dark. So now I'm gonna take this and I'm going to place it on top of my crust. Wow. And again, ideally we'd wanna freeze this for a little bit so it'd be nice and firm before the peanut butter layer, but we're just not going to do that because I know you don't have hours and hours of time. But I think it will still work. And this smells absolutely amazing.
[50:27] So we're just going to spread it out. I'm going to show you a little trick that I learned from my sister-in-law, Lauren, how to get your blade clean. Because a lot of times people will make things in a food processor like mousses, like hummus, and there's so much left on the blade. But I'm going to show you a trick that you're going to get at least another half a cup of filling if you do this. And it's based on the principle of centrifugal force. So a lot of people would stop here because they don't wanna work that hard. So they'll put it, if you put it back on the base, place your top on just for a quick pulse.
[51:06] What will happen is your blade is completely clean now. Almost every drop of the filling has come off the blade. What a great trick. Yep. And then look how much more was in there that a lot of people would just throw out. And I've seen people make hummus in my hands-on classes, and it's like, what the heck? Do you know how much you just wasted? Like a whole serving. So we'll get every last bit out.
[51:35] Yeah this is this is pretty next level if you ask me okay so now, what we're going to do is i'm going to take a tool that i love called the offset spatula just to make it prettier i mean because if i use one like this it's a little harder because this is bevel i can get a nice nice spreading of it and we're gonna just make this nice and even.
[52:05] Springform pans come in many different shapes and sizes. Hopefully I picked one big enough for the next two levels, but if not, we'll make it work.
Final Touches on the Cheesecake
[52:13] That's my motto. It's not what you can make, it's what you can fix. So I have it nicely spread evenly right now. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to add my peanut butter layer. First, I'm just going to clean this up a little bit on the side so that we can have the nice distinct layers when we do it. And now let's put the peanut butter on top carefully. Yeah. Oh, wow. So that's the homemade peanut butter right there. Is that is that the one cup? No, this is all the mousse. This is the peanut butter mousse that we made. Now, this is the only thing that I'm a little bit worried about in a demonstration like this. Is the melted chocolate layer going to take without this being frozen? I don't know. But we're going to do our best to make it work because what we have is the top layer, the topping, which is melted chocolate and peanuts. I've never done it, you know, in real time like this, this recipe. So we are going to find out together. But first, I do want to just rinse my offset spatula.
[53:27] AJ, AJ, what in the world are you going to do with this after you've made it? Okay, great question. As luck would have it, we have a huge plant-based community up here in Northern California. We get together for potlucks at least twice a month. And it's actually a good friend's birthday coming up. And so it's going to go in the freezer, and we're going to enjoy it next week for her birthday. So see, I'm smoothing it out really nicely. And guess what? We have got one more layer. So this is the topping. This thing weighs a ton. And that's like when you were asking me earlier, you don't need to eat the whole thing to feel satisfied because you're going to feel full because it is so rich. So now I'm going to basically do what I did before. I'm going to melt some topping. Yeah. So what I'm going to do is take, I've got my dish. AJ, speaking of birthdays, guess whose birthday it is today. Um, I bet her name starts with an A. Oh, you got it. You got it. Yes. I'm going to call her. That's right. That's when you said July 18th is a special day. So I have my unsweetened chocolate.
Celebrating with Friends
[54:50] And I have a little bit of non-dairy milk. A great brand is Plant Stock, now available at Whole Foods. PlantStrong. PlantStrong. PlantStrong. Sorry, Plant Strong. I was looking at your thing. Plantstrong. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love the one that has, I love the walnut one. That's my favorite. Yeah, yeah. That's one of our blends that's lightly sweetened with. With date. With whole fruit. Nothing but the fruit. Yeah, the dates. The pulverized dates. Yes, that's my favorite. Chef AJ stamp of approval. Okay, so like I said, in a perfect world, I would have frozen this. This top would be solid. And then the hot chocolate would go on the frozen thing and it would spread perfectly. I've never done it without doing this. So if it doesn't work, it's still going to be delicious. It may just not be quite as beautiful if you did it that way. So once again, I'm carefully melting the chocolate. But if you melt the chocolate without a double boiler like I'm doing, there has to be some liquid like a little bit of non-dairy milk or some date syrup. So this is melting really fast. I'm going to turn it down. It smells wonderful. And keep stirring it. Come on. All right. Want to make it nice and smooth. I'm going to turn the heat off now. Add my little bit of date syrup. Thank you. Mix it in.
[56:19] I mean, can you think, can you imagine for five years, this is all I did all day was make these. That was my job. No, I really, I really can't. Um, wow. Wow. And did you ever, did you ever get sick of making these desserts? You know, I never got, I never got sick of making them cause I feel it's fun and people had so much joy from it, but I really did get sick of like Like some, I mean, I don't taste, I don't have to taste my recipes now, but in the restaurant, sometimes I did. And when I would come home from work, it would just be like, I would put a piece of like dolts in my mouth. It was like, just to get the sweet taste out. You know what I mean? Like I actually was like, oh my God, no more sweet. All right. So again, I can't promise you I've never done it this way without it being pre-frozen, but I'm going to do my best and just pour it over the top. Oh yeah. I think it'll work like a charm. Yeah. And then what we're going to do is with our offset spatula.
[57:24] What's nice about when you when you have it a little bit frozen, it's just it just makes it. I think it is going to work, though. So spread it over the top, cover up all that peanut butter. I'm not going to be able to take the ring off. I can send you a photo. But if I do it because it's not ready and then we're going to take our chopped peanuts. And sprinkle it over the top oh this is beautiful i i don't think i've made this, really for years look at this there's another version of this without the chocolate layer and it has the chocolate topping and it's called the taste like a frozen snicker bar pie and that's our mutual friend dr matt letterman's when we both lived in la he would order that for me all the time so aj this is this is the same thing you're making right look at look at my screen.
[58:11] Yeah i'm making the one on the back cover yeah that is exactly what i'm making and so now i just have to place it in the freezer you want to place it level because otherwise your dessert would go like this or this and i'm telling you you can i mean you will wow people regardless of what dietary style they eat this is really this is i consider this one of the most show-stopping desserts you can make. Well, listen, I wish we had, you know, taste TV, but we don't. But wow. Incredible. Incredible. So are you do you have time for me to ask you some more questions about the book?
Questions and Answers with Chef AJ
[58:49] Absolutely. I just need to wash my hand. Yeah. Yeah. You go for it. Would you mind if I place the dessert in the freezer, though, while we do this? No, go for it. So AJ, that was a masterful creation.
[59:06] Tell me, for somebody that doesn't make a lot of desserts that are that kind of multi-stepped, should I be overwhelmed or should I just dive in and do it?
[59:21] Well, that's the beauty. If they buy my book, they'll get the recipe video too. And they can watch the video over and over. That might not, if you've never made a dessert, that might not be the first one to start with. You know what I mean? But it's not that difficult because basically I'm taking ingredients and putting them in the food processor. I would say the most difficult thing about this recipe is the melting of the chocolate. Because if you've never done that, there's a learning curve. But other than that, it's, I mean, think about it. If you make hummus by taking beans and garlic and lemon juice in there. So I took, you know, cream cheese, tofu and cocoa powder. It's the same principle. So I think except for the melting of the chocolate, I don't think it's a very difficult dessert. Yeah. Okay. Wonderful. I want to, I want to talk about some of your recipes because again, I went through and I read the story on every one of them and I, and I just find it to be fascinating. So I'm going to start with this outrageous brownie, right? Because you talk about on how the first brownie basically appeared in the 1898 Sears Roebuck catalog, right? As a confection, or is that right? Yeah, as a confection. I mean, in Chicago, right? That's where I'm from. Which is where you're from. So you and the brownie hail from Chicago.
[1:00:37] Absolutely. So anyway, I just want to give people an example of how much fun there is. Then the fruitcake. Tell people, like, where does the fruitcake originate from? Oh, my God. That was one of the queens, one of the queens of England. I can't remember her name, but it was like a lot of people think fruitcake is a doorstop, you know, but it actually can be really delicious. Well, yeah. And here you have it goes back to Roman times, right? I mean, it's like, give me a break.
[1:01:06] The Cinnabons, you have such a fantastic fun facts about the Cinnabon and about how it, I mean, do you know off the top of your head, the nutritionist panel? So I looked it up online because I just traveled yesterday at an airport, and the wafting of the Cinnabon through the airport is just so enticing. One Cinnabon can have almost 1,100 calories, and I think it was something like 56 grams of fat or something like that. I have it right here, 51 grams of fat, 20 of them saturated, 75 grams of sugar, and 1,270 milligrams of sodium. Unbelievable. Unlike your buns, right? My buns. I have none of that. Yeah.
[1:01:48] You know, I really think that people can replicate their favorites using whole foods. Yeah. I love that recipe. That's an easy one to make. Yeah. Yeah. Now, On page 85, you have this pumpkin pie. You say you're not typically a huge fan of pumpkin pie, but you say you love this one. Everybody, look at this. Look at this. I mean, holy Toledo. I think what I like about it is it doesn't have the traditional crust, which is, you know, crusts are just not that delicious often. You know, they're not very sweet. And this kind of has a self-baked in crust. So I do enjoy that one. Yeah. And on page 91, you have this banana strawberry chocolate mousse tart. OK, can everybody see that? You say you go ahead. Go ahead. That is a raw food dessert. So we I do have friends that are 100 percent raw. They can eat that dessert. It's not only unbaked or uncooked, but it is 100 percent raw. And you say in the story it's made from a secret ingredient that you won't have to sacrifice flavor either. What's the secret ingredient? I'm glad you brought that up because that secret ingredient is avocado. And so if somebody was allergic to soy but wanted to make the recipe I just demonstrated, substitute avocado for the tofu. Great. On page 97, you have this butterscotch pie. Okay. Can everybody see that?
[1:03:16] Do you know who John Tanner is?
[1:03:20] John Tanner. Absolutely. Yeah. So John Tanner has a food delivery service, and he actually sells that recipe, not as a pie, but as a pudding. Okay. So what do you use for the butterscotch flavoring in this? So the sweet potatoes, the orange ones, which are not my favorite to eat as food, in desserts are incredible. And when you combine it with a little bit of pure vanilla bean powder, and my sweetener in that one is bananas. There's no dates. It just tastes like snack pack pudding. The recipe was from Mairead Reddy, from Reddy or Not. She's a vegan graphic designer in Ohio. And it's just, it tastes like butterscotch pudding. It's amazing. Got it. On page 109, you have this lemon meringue pie.
[1:04:05] Do you know the history of the lemon meringue pie? I found it to be like really fascinating. I don't remember. I should have read my book before coming on the show. No, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, I am, I'm hitting you fast and I'm hitting you hard. But I'll let you know. First created by Elizabeth Goodfellow, a 19th century pasty shop owner who ran America's first culinary school from Philadelphia. I mean, I just like I'm eating this stuff up. I really am. So on page 123, 123, you have the mind blowing kale chips. Yeah, I had to have, you know, just like you guys, you know, I had to have one kale recipe. And it's incredible that you can make kale chips with chocolate. I never would have thought that. That's why I was so amazed. And you said- It's kind of like the Timberlings, but instead of Wheaties, I used chocolate. Yeah, and because you always sign off everything love and kale, you're like, I had to get some kale, a little kale love in there.
[1:05:10] Okay, 137, AJ, I am putting you to the test here. Chef AJ's Frango Mint Pie. Look at that.
[1:05:20] That if I was going to pick a chocolate recipe in the book that is my favorite, it would be that one. And I'm sure you know, Dr. Terry Mason from Fox Overnight. Oh, yeah. So I got to serve him that pie because being from Chicago, there was a store called Marshall Fields that made the best mint chocolate in the world. It was known as the Frango Mint and was the most delicious combination of mint and chocolate that would melt in your mouth. And in their dining room, they had a frango mint pie. When I was little, my mom would take me on the weekends. We would get it. And it was like a frozen ice cream chocolate mint pie. And there's actually two recipes that are somewhat like it. There's a raw version and this version. For people that do love mint and chocolate, which I actually like better than chocolate and peanut butter, that recipe is a delight. It's delicious. On page 145, you have these nutty, nutty buddies. And I want you to know, we made these as a family two nights ago. I posted it on my Instagram channel. Oh, my goodness. The frozen bananas with the chocolate and then the sprinkled peanuts. It was incredible and so easy. At Disneyland, they make frozen bananas like that. But, you know, it's got like the coating has like hydrogenated oil and palm oil. Yeah, the Nutty Buddies are so much fun for you. And there's recipes in here that are easy enough to get the kids involved, like the Nutty Buddies, like the caramel apples. Yep.
[1:06:47] Goodman's peanut chews. I love the last recipe added. Okay. So when I went to the University of Pennsylvania, I became vegan like the first week, September 1st, 1977. And there was a candy that was vegan and it's still vegan today. Day, at least the dark chocolate version called Goldenberg's peanut chews, but they're not super healthy. I'm sure they have corn syrup and all that kind of stuff. And so I created a healthy version. Those are very popular. The Goodman peanut chews. I almost made those on the show instead because it's still the wonderful combination of peanut and chocolate. And you know, what's interesting is you make it in an eight inch or nine inch square silicone pan. I can get 64 bites out of that. You'd think because it's so rich that when I go to the potlucks, A little square is enough. So imagine one recipe you can get 64 chews out of. Yeah, yeah. You have a whole Sip It section. You started out with showing people how to make different milks from a Cinnabon milk to a pistachio, pina colada, almond milk. Look at these guys. And my question to you on this one is you spell milk M-Y-L-K. How did you come up with that? Because I didn't want to be sued by anybody. You know, I hear all these stories that you're not allowed to call plant versions the same as real. So I figured it was safer to just make my own spelling up. Well, I think it's actually ingenious. Thank you.
[1:08:12] Page 231. I want to direct people, including myself, to this. You have a cauliflower rice pudding. So how did you in the world come up with a cauliflower rice? So again, this is not a rich and decadent dessert. This is very low calorie density. I love that photo. That might be my favorite photo in the book. And actually, that was my idea. Hannah executed it, but I said, I want a photo like that. I love that photo. photo so I was making my rice pudding which again is not one of the sweetest desserts in the book and and again there's ways to make things sweeter so for example in the apple pie rice pudding if you use just plant milk it's going to be less sweet than if you use a little plant milk and a little unsweetened apple juice and so I was making it and I was out of rice and I had already done the rest of the recipe and I thought what about rice cauliflower and it actually worked rip can I show you my one of my very favorite photos in the book and it's just it's this one it's in the It's right before the introduction. I don't know why this one catches my eye, but this is just one of my very favorite photos in the whole book of the three desserts together. That's definitely really good. Yeah. Thank you. Look at that.
[1:09:26] Again, I just can't say enough how gorgeous it is. Like this on page 241, the decadent chocolate mousse, which is probably my favorite thing in the world is a chocolate mousse. But look at that. And that recipe is a must-make recipe every year that I go to Rancho La Puerta in the hands-on cooking classes. And so that's similar to the mousse we made here, but there's no cream cheese in it. And it's a very, very easy recipe to make.
Exploring Unique Recipes in the Book
[1:09:51] What is the youngest student that you've ever had attend one of your classes? Seven years old. I think he's eight now, and he'll turn nine this year. And I teach dessert master classes, and he is the most adorable kid. His name is Luca. and he was holding up signs in the class. I love you, Chef AJ. And I hope to meet him one day. I met his father. And if he can make the strawberry chocolate cheesecake, you guys can make the dessert that I made today.
[1:10:20] You made a sweet potato mousse with caramelized apples on page 252. Let me show, let me try and backtrack to the photo here. And you won the contest. right it was an iron chef it was at a healthy taste of sacramento mary mcdougall andrew spudfid taylor and i can't remember who was a linda middlesworth, and i i love iron chefs you used to have them at your at your events because you can really create recipes on the fly and really create a lot of the recipes in here were created in iron chef competitions yeah yeah um so let me ask you this because in i think in in your process book you talked about how i think in the acknowledgments that the only thing that you loved more than potatoes, were Charles and maybe, I don't know if you had Bailey yet, but in this book, you say, the only thing that you love more than dessert is Charles and, and, and then you're, uh, and then Bailey, right? It has to come first.
[1:11:29] I actually wrote to Charles and Bailey. I love you more than sweet potatoes. That's right. That's exactly what it was. How is Bailey doing? I know Bailey had had some issues recently, some health scares. Yeah, she I think she's doing good. I'll bring her over to see you if you like. She is great. You have dogs, right, Rip? Yes. Yes. They're the best. They're they're they're they're family members. Let me go get her for you. Great. And she does not eat any of the desserts in the book.
[1:12:02] So she doesn't care for dessert she does love sweet potatoes but not dessert yeah i just love her so much and what's what's bailey's remind me what's her history well she was adopted at four years old at shelter hope in ventura california she was the oldest dog there at the time i was actually going i hate to say this my dog sparky had passed two weeks earlier and we were going to pick up a puppy that was like seven weeks old named Darby. And as I was walking into the shelter, John Pierre called me, he goes, what are you doing? I said, I'm going to adopt a puppy. He goes, I don't want you to do that. I want you to get the oldest dog there. And at four years old, she was the oldest dog there. And it turned out she was the best dog there too. So you can thank John Pierre for your whole life. You know, that john pierre is such a great human being wow and what a what a great suggestion he gave you there yep yeah people people overlook the older dogs and they're amazing you know she came house broken so it was great no puppy training no teething she's just a perfect dog oh hi bailey.
[1:13:15] Yeah aj this this has been this has been stupendous oh thank you i just love you so much your whole family you're like the first you know like you're like really the esselsons are like the first family of of kale well that means a lot coming from you so huge congratulations on this incredible work of, of, of art, sweet indulgence. You're, is this your third or fourth book, AJ? Help me out. I think it's my fourth. Yeah. Yeah. Own your health secret. It's, you know, I would say it's my fourth and four is my lucky number too. Yeah. Well, this is going to be such a huge hit. Is it coming out? Is it hardback paperbacks? We, we, you know, the bookstore said that heart, this is what we were told that cookbooks sell better in hardback. And, you know, it was much more expensive to do it this way, but that's what they said. And so we're taking a chance. Well, it's going to be well worth it. I can send you a real one now if you want, because the one you have, some of the recipes are incorrect because it was the advanced reader copy. But if you'd like a real copy now, I'm happy to send it to you. Sign me up. Okay. Put them on the list. All right. AJ, Charles, Bailey hugs and kisses love and kale to you guys can you give me a Plantstrong virtual fist bump on the way out.
[1:14:43] Don't drop Bailey ready boom boom where's Charles fist I don't see Charles fist okay here we go.
[1:14:54] There he is. Boom. All right. See you guys. See you around the kale patch.
[1:15:06] Thank you, Chef AJ. I loved that conversation and that demonstration. Okay.
Pre-Order and Bonuses Announcement
[1:15:14] ChefAJ.com is where you want to go to pre-order the new book between now and its release date of August 27th. And that way you ensure that you're going to get all the bonuses, including those 150 videos. I'll be sure to put a link in the show notes to make sure that it's an absolute breeze for you. And here's to each and every one of you experiencing your own sweet indulgences in life.
Closing Thoughts and Farewell
[1:15:41] Be sure to keep it tasty, keep it sweet, and always, always keep it PLANTSTRONG. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week. The PLANTSTRONG Podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, and Ami Mackey. If you like what you hear, do us a favor and share the show with your friends and loved ones. You can always leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And while you're there, make sure to hit that follow button so that you never miss an episode. As always, this and every episode is dedicated to my parents, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. And Anne Crile Esselstyn. Thanks so much for listening.
