With each visit to our store, discover delightful items from over 35 countries throughout Asia, Africa and Central and South America, including handcrafted ceramics, jewelry, home décor, musical instruments, baskets and much more.

Here are the winning recipes from our 2009 Choctoberfest Fair Trade Chocolate Bake-Off

First Place – Maggie Jezreel
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

For the filling:
1 12 oz. package silken/soft tofu
½ c. peanut butter
2 T. soy milk
½ c. Fair Trade powdered sugar
7½ oz. Divine Fair Trade dark chocolate
 
Melt chocolate in double boiler.
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
Pour into baked crust and chill for several hours.

There are two different options for the crust:
 
Graham cracker crust
1½ c. graham cracker crumbs
¼ c. sugar
6 T. margarine, melted
 
Combine and press into pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
 
Cookie crust – this was the crust used in the winning recipe
2 c. walnuts
3 T. canola oil
1 c. light brown sugar
½ c. water
2 t. vanilla extract
1½ c. oat flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
¼ t. ground cinnamon
2 c. rolled oats
3 3.5 oz. bars Fair Trade vegan chocolate, chopped, or 12 oz. Fair Trade vegan chocolate chips
 
Blend walnuts in food processor 30 seconds, or until ground into a fine meal. Add oil and blend 2-3 minutes more, until it is the consistency of natural peanut butter. Transfer to bowl.
Whisk together brown sugar and ½ cup water in saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour brown sugar mixture over walnut butter, add vanilla extract and stir until no lumps remain.
Whisk together oat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Stir oat flour mixture into walnut mixture. Cool dough for 10 minutes.
Fold oats and then chocolate into dough.
Take half of the dough and press it into a pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned.
This cookie recipe is adapted from a recipe from Vegetarian Times called The Heart-Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World. Follow this link for the original recipe:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/
 
 
Second Place – Dawn Dones
Fall Fudge: Divine White Chocolate and Pumpkin
 
1 c. evaporated milk
1/3 c. Silk soy creamer
5 c. sugar
2 c. pumpkin
2 t. cinnamon
4 T. butter
14 oz. marshmallow cream
5 bars Divine Fair Trade white chocolate, chopped into bits
2 t. vanilla extract
 
Bring evaporated milk, creamer and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat.
Add pumpkin and cinnamon to the mixture.
Once these return to a boil, add butter and marshmallow cream.
Once the ingredients are well blended, let it boil for 16 minutes only stirring rarely. Frequent stirring will make the fudge gritty.
Transfer fudge into a clean pot and add white chocolate and vanilla. Stir this until your arm hurts and the chocolate has melted and then pour into a lined 9 x 13 inch pan. The fudge is ready to be eaten when it has reached room temperature.

Third Place – Dee Allen
Mocha Chocolate Dee-Lights
 
Bottom layer:
4 c. milk
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 T. Fair Trade unsweetened cocoa
1 T. instant espresso powder
1/8 t. salt
8 oz. Fair Trade bittersweet chocolate, broken up
1 T. vanilla
 
Whisk milk, sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, espresso powder and salt in a large saucepan until blended.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often with whisk, making sure to reach all edges of the pan. Boil about 1-3 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, stir in chocolate and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
Pour into 12 3-4 oz. cups or wine or martini glasses. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to firm up in fridge at least one hour or overnight.
 
Top layer:
3 T. brown sugar
1 T. coffee-flavored liqueur or strong coffee
½ t. instant espresso powder
½ t. vanilla
1 8 oz. bar cream cheese
 
In a small bowl, stir together all ingredients but the cream cheese to dissolve powder. Then add cream cheese and beat until smooth.
Divide among cups previously filled with chocolate/mocha mixture, or you can put it into a small Ziploc bag, cut off one corner and pipe it into the cups more decoratively, if you like.
Cover with plastic wrap and allow to chill another hour.
Before serving, top with whipped cream and dust with cocoa powder or shaved dark chocolate and ENJOY!

Just Creations provides marketing assistance to low-income craftspeople in the developing world. The sale of these products helps to provide a fair wage for the artisans and enables them to pay for food, education, health care, and housing.

Unlike a typical retail store, Just Creations is a not-for-profit organization governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. An Executive Director manages shop operations along with a small team of paid employees. However, you may notice that most of the staffing and support work for Just Creations is accomplished by more than 30 volunteers.

  As a member of the Fair Trade Federation, Just Creations is committed to promoting the social and  economic progress of people in the developing regions of the world, including Asia, Africa, and Latin  America. Just Creations purchases exclusively from Fair Trade Organizations such as Ten Thousand Villages, SERRV, and Equal Exchange. These groups work directly with artisans and farmers to ensure that Fair Trade principles are practiced.

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