Morning Glory
It’s no secret that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I have to admit though, I’m quite the creature of habit. Nearly every morning it’s sourdough toast with earth balance and nutritional yeast. And of course that first glorious cup of coffee.
I’m trying to shake things up a bit. I’m not proposing I give it up, I love it too much, but rather have a bit more variation in my breakfast menu. Recently there have been bowls of oatmeal, English Muffins with peanut butter and bananas. I need more ideas though. Something that can be made in around 10 minutes or so, but enough fuel to make it to lunchtime. (more…)
Peanut Butter Cream Pie
I’m super excited that my recipe for this wonderful Peanut Butter Cream Pie was featured on PETA’s Vegetarian Living Blog. I’m so happy to be able to share with so many people who are looking to know more about veganism.
I’m reproducing the recipe here for posterity, and of course to not leave out my dear readers who definitely need to know how to make this super sweet pie.
This peanut butter cream pie is a lovely balance of a flaky crust, a sweet peanut-butter filling, and a fluffy coconut-cream topping.
It takes a bit of advanced preparation but nothing more than putting a few cans of coconut milk in the fridge the night before. You’ll want to make sure that you use the full-fat coconut milk, as this is what makes the dense coconut cream topping. It’s my favorite. In fact, you can use it as a topping on just about any cake, ice cream, or pie. Trust me when I say that you’ll want to.
Let’s start with the crust, shall we? This is a versatile crust that you can use for any sort of pie, either savory or sweet.
Vegan Pastry Crust
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup nondairy butter
2-3 Tbsp. ice water
- Mix the flour and the salt together. Cut together the flour mixture with the nondairy butter using a fork, two knives, or a pastry cutter. Combine until the mixture resembles crumbs. Slowly incorporate the ice water until the dough just starts to hold together when pressed between your fingers.
- Shape the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Lightly dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll out the pie crust until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick. Roll from the center out so that it’s even.
- Drape the dough over your rolling pin and transfer to a pie dish. Press the dough into the corners and trim off any excess hanging over the dish. Using a fork, poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust to prevent air bubbles.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.
- Set aside to cool. Make sure it cools completely before you assemble the pie.
Next, we’ll put together the filling. It is essentially two layers, but we start with the coconut cream, as it is the base for the whole thing. Ideally, it should be made in a stand mixer, if you have one, as this allows the cream to become extra fluffy. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can still make it with an electric hand mixer; just be sure to at least double the beating time. You want to incorporate as much air as possible into the mix. Also, I recommend using a metal bowl if possible.
As for the peanut butter, choose whichever type you like best. I like a creamy pie, so I go with creamy peanut butter. If you like crunchy, though, I bet that would be great. Just be sure to skim off any excess oil at the top of your jar. You can always add it back into your peanut butter jar later or use it for cooking up some stir-fry. If you use an unsalted peanut butter, add an additional 1/4 teaspoonful of salt to the mixture if you like.
OK, now let’s get to that pie-making!
Pie Filling
3 cans coconut milk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter
- The night before you are planning to make this pie, place the coconut milk in the fridge.
- Open the cans of coconut milk, skim off the thick cream at the top of each jar, and put into the bowl of your stand mixer. (I’m sure there is a great use for the clear liquid at the bottom, although I haven’t figured one out yet.)
- Beat on high until the mixture is fluffy and thick.
- Add in 1 cup of the powdered sugar and mix until all the sugar is incorporated, scraping down the sides as necessary. Beat until fully combined. Add the vanilla extract and beat for 3 to 5 more minutes.
- Set about 2/3 of the mixture aside in a cool place. This will be the topping.
- Add 1/2 cup of the peanut butter to the mixer and beat until fluffy. Add the remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar and beat until combined. Finally, beat in the last 1/2 cup of peanut butter until creamy.
- Spread the peanut butter mixture over the bottom of your cooled pie crust. Gently spoon the remaining whipped coconut cream onto the peanut butter layer. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Enjoy!
pie oh my
So I made some pie. Two in fact. Two pies. In one day. For no occasion. There is possibly something wrong with me.
I’m also going to give away an apron. It’s really cute. You could win it.
Back to the pies though. One is a caramel peanut butter pie inspired entirely by this caramel pudding. The other, is a raspberry rhubarb pie kind of sort of from the lovely Babycakes cookbook.
I started the caramel peanut butter pie with a cookie crust. This is probably the easiest crust you’ll ever make. All you have to do is mix 2 cups of cookie crumbs (that’s about 18 sandwich cookies) with 5 Tbsp of melted Earth Balance. Press this mixture into a greased 9″ pie pan. Put the whole thing in the fridge. Ok, done with that part.
Next is the peanut butter. Also, easy as hell. Using an electric mixer, beat together 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract until all combined. Then press this into the prepared cookie crust. It should cover just the bottom.
So that bit is a breeze. Tell yourself making the caramel pudding will be as well. It will be! Just be patient. When you literally have to watch sugar boil for ten minutes, just imagine the wonderful pie you will have at the end and don’t even think about stirring. Or you can scrub your oven top. That’s what I did.
Anyway, yes, just be patient, it will all come together even if it takes awhile. Even if it seems like it’s going wrong. Just be careful not to stab* or burn yourself with the caramelized sugar. But seriously, you’ll be fine.
As I mentioned, the caramel pudding recipe can be found here written out for you by the lovely Joy the Baker. To make it vegan, I just subbed the 4 cups of whole milk with 3 cups of mimicreme mixed with 1 cup soy milk. Then, after letting the pudding cool slightly, pour into the pie crust that has been hanging out in the fridge. Let cool completely in the fridge for a few hours (just enough time to make another pie) and you’ll have one decadent and amazing caramel peanut butter pie.
See? Looks tasty and oh it is. You may want to put some whipped topping on here, but that’s really your call. Really, this pie is damn good.
But don’t forget, there is another pie too. I decided to finally try my hand at an almost gluten free and sugar free recipe from Babycakes. Ok so it’s not exactly the most complicated of low gluten experiments, but it’s a start…next time I’ll go full gluten free, just wait.
So the crust is a spelt crust, remember I said it wasn’t entirely gluten free. Now let’s not kid around here, this is some damn good crust. I may have eaten a few pieces before putting it into the oven. I could possibly use this crust always. Possibly.
This is the part where I tell you that I didn’t exactly follow the rest of the recipe for the pie. Mainly because where in the hell do you get dried rhubarb? Is this a common ingredient? Who knows. I used frozen. I should have defrosted it. I didn’t. I also used raspberries instead of strawberries. Whatever.
Also, when I got to part where you have to roll out the crust, I discovered my rolling pin had gone missing. (Hey mom, did I leave my rolling pin at your house?) That made it a bit difficult to do everything. So my crust was not rolled out as thin as it should have been and other things. It still tasted good.
Despite me making some pretty major pie recipe sins this still tasted lovely. I ended up cooking it for about 10 minutes more though, and it was a bit, um, soupy. Like I said, should have thawed the rhubarb. Seriously though, I think I’m about to be a big fan of this agave sweetened business.
So there you have it ladies and gentleman, pies for dinner this lovely sunday night.
Oh yeah, and the apron. Do you remember back during the holidays I made some aprons for Christmas presents? Well I am a jerk and never gave one to it’s intended recipient. It’s nearly the end of April and it’s just been sitting in my closet. I think it needs a home. I will just give my friend a cooler present next year. Now it can be yours! Think this apron is cute? Just leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite kind of pie and I’ll randomly pick a winner by May 1st. Then you can make pie in a cute apron.
*yes I have done this. it hurts.
Update: And the winner is…Monica. Congratulations!
2009!
I know it’s a new year (first post of 2009 in fact) but I still have a few things left to share from 2008. For the holidays I tried to create as many gifts as possible instead of buying them. I made a handful of stuffed animals, knit projects and of course holiday cookies. While I started all of these ambitious tasks well in advance, there’s only so early that you can bake cookies without delivering them stale to their recipients. I had decided on snowflake sugar cookies and had even acquired some edible glitter to decorate them. Unfortunately, this cookie baking session was doomed from the start. I burnt whole batches and had other mishaps including dropping an entire sheet on the floor while burning my hand. In the end, the beautiful glittered and iced cookies I had imagined did not come into fruition. I’m pretty sure the end product still tasted good though, even if it wasn’t as pretty as I would have liked.
Immediately following the new year was Shawn’s birthday. To celebrate he got the dessert of his choice, which ended up being peanut butter cup cupcakes. I think my favorite thing about these guys is getting to say “cup cup.” Ha! As you can see, they’re chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling/frosting and peanut butter cups on top. They turned out super good. I think next time I will have to try a different way of frosting them so that they can have an entire peanut butter cup on top (and not look ridiculous). Also, I’d love to make the peanut butter frosting a bit more fluffy. It’s a great consistency for the filling but a little dense on top.
Holidays, NYC and lots of dessert
homemade cinnamon bunIt is the last day of 2008! Had to squeeze in one last delicious post before the new year. I’m excited for all the projects and plans coming up. I know it’s going to be an awesome year.
Before moving forward, I’m going to have to look back for a moment as the past weeks have been terribly busy and I haven’t had a chance to show off some of the treats we’ve been indulging in. I made the above cinnamon bun from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I’ve been dying to make these, but was a bit scared off by the prep time. Since I have had a couple of days off, I finally had a chance to indulge myself. It was extra inspired by smelling the Cinnabon in the airport the day prior. Despite the fact that those things are quite possibly one of the most disgusting creations ever, the sure do smell good.
I ended up over cooking my buns a bit, but I think this may have had a bit to do with using new cookie sheets. They still tasted awesome, and were even better reheated the next morning with coffee.
peppermint cookies and cream cupcakeFor my family Christmas party, I opted to bring cupcakes rather than anything to actually eat for dinner. It worked out rather well as a bunch of my cousins happened to make vegan vegetable dishes. I made peppermint cookies and cream cupcakes. The cupcakes themselves came out amazing, perfectly moist and chocolaty. I still can’t decide if I liked the peppermint in the icing though, it was good, but perhaps too much. Maybe not though.
cookies and cream cakeShawn and I went back East to spend time with his family for the holidays. It was super exciting for me to show up and see snow on the ground.
I feel very lucky to have so many vegan restaurants in Los Angeles to go to, but it’s nothing like going to NYC. There’s just a different style of vegan/vegetarian restaurant there. The other thing that gets me super excited is getting to have some Vegan Treats. Pretty much every vegan restaurant in the area serves their desserts and there is honestly nothing like them. Over the summer, Shawn and I made a pilgrimage to their storefront in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where I was even more blown away by their selection of French pastries.
On one of our days in the city, we had lunch at Curly’s. I had a toastie with tomato, which is basically a vegan grilled cheese with red pesto and of course tomato. It was one of the most satisfying lunches. Simple and tasty and exactly what I wanted. Shawn had the Suno melt. I’ve had vegan tuna melts before, but have never been impressed. I only had a bite, but this was super good. Of course, we had to get some dessert, and I insisted on a cookies and cream cake, freshly delivered from Vegan Treats the previous day. The cake was moist and the frosting light and fluffy. Honestly, exactly how cake should taste, sweet and rewarding.
peanut butter cheesecake
cookies and cream brownieAt some point we also made a quick stop at Moo Shoes and Babycakes. I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me, but after some more sampling, I’m really not a fan of Babycakes. Their desserts just don’t quite fulfill my sweet tooth. I can’t really pinpoint what it is about them that I don’t care for. The best way I can describe it is that I always feel a level of excitement when I enjoy a really good vegan dessert. Babycakes just doesn’t give me that thrill. I also am not a fan of their prices at all. Some cupcakes cost nearly $5 and that seems outrageous to me.
So that’s about it for 2008. Many exciting things to come in the future. I hope everyone had lovely holidays and Happy New Year!
