Chocolate Ganache Vegan Frosting (reduced sugar, gluten-free, dairy-free)

Chocolate Ganache Vegan Frosting (reduced sugar, gluten-free, dairy-free)
Say hello to a decadent fudgy frosting beyond your wildest dreams AND with half the sugar of any traditional frosting recipe.
AND…with the addition of a wholesome ingredient that helps you sleep better, maintain healthy blood pressure, improve kidney health, support your heart and is strong in B-vitamins often missing in a traditional diet.
We all love frosting right? But who hasn’t cringed when they pour the traditional 3-plus cups of powdered sugar into the bowl. Even vegan powdered sugar is missing bone char, yes, but it is still terrible nutritionally for us to eat.
Still, balance, we can’t give up all our frostings right?
But we can reduce that sugar and still make a dreamy fudgy frosting that honestly is so delicious I would think I’d find it on gourmet dessert cake in a fine restaurant. I think that might be because it is not overly sweet and has such a deep chocolate flavor.

Healthy Mystery Ingredient to Reduce Sugar

Anyway, the mystery replacement ingredient? Arrowroot!
Arrowroot powder is an alternative flour derived from a tropical tuber called the arrowroot plant. It is used, as is corn starch, as a thickening agent. But unlike most thickening agents which are merely fillers, arrowroot contributes several B vitamins, minerals and useful zinc, a nutrient often found short in western diets.
It’s used often these days in gluten-free and paleo diet, and here it is a useful replacement for half the powdered sugar in this recipe. Yes, I said half.
An added plus to reducing the sugar in this recipe is the texture adds a shine to frosting so your piping results have more pizazz!
I frosted these cupcakes with a french tip, and didn’t stop with just the top, haha.
Oh no, I first turned the tip around and dug out a center hole of each cupcake and pumped the frosting into the center as well just prior to frosting.
You can use any cupcake recipe of course. I used my black chocolate cupcake recipe here.

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Chocolate Ganache Vegan Frosting (reduced sugar, gluten-free, dairy-free)

2 to 2 1/2 cups

Author Dee Dine

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups vegan powdered sugar vegan means no bone-char
• 1 1/2 cups arrowroot
• 1/2 cup vegan butter
• 4-8 tbsp plant milk or amount needed to achieve desired texture
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips (I also love quality chocolate by HU, Valrhona, Pascha, and Eating Evolved)

Instructions

Make Chocolate Frosting

1. To mix up the chocolate frosting, melt the butter in a waterbath or microwave at 60 seconds combined with the chocolate - don't let water touch the chocolate if you use a water bath.
2. Put the sugar and arrowroot in a large mixing bowl - add the butter, chocolate, vanilla and 2 tbsp of milk. Blend until creamy, adding more milk to reach a frosting texture. I used chocolate chips that are 85% cacao; if you want a sweeter chocolate, use 70%.
3. Cover frosting bowl with a soaking-wet paper towel while you work with frosting. I advise you frost as fast as possible while the frosting is shiny; it hardens faster with the arrowroot.

4. If you want to put a creamy center in a few of your cupcakes, dig out the center core of each cupcake with the other side of the piping tip - it pops the core right out! Then pump icing inside so the cupcakes have a filling.
   

5. I piped the icing rosettes on top with a piping bag and French tip, 4B. I hope you love my reduced sugar icing!