Peach Cake - vegan

I heart peaches.

Today's recipe was adapted from Gourmet magazine, and it's a winner (as usual). It is an unusual way of baking a cake, and the reviews on Epicurious reflect that. A common question asks if it's really a cake, or is it a pie. Maybe a tart?

It does take just about forever to bake, so it definitely requires some planning. I made this one yesterday and first tasted it for breakfast today (what? it's got fruit). The cake itself isn't very sweet, which is perfect, really, because the peaches make up for it.

Peach Cake 
adapted from Gourmet via

For the pastry:
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp Ener-g egg replacer (equivalent of 1 egg)
1 tsp baking powder
1 stick vegan butter, cubed
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla

For the filling:
1/2 C sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp quick-cooking tapioca
2 lb ripe peaches (I used about 7), thinly sliced
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Make the pastry:
In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, egg replacer, and baking powder to combine. Add the butter, and pulse just until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. There should still be lumps. Add the water and vanilla and pulse again, this time until the dough starts to come together.

Turn the dough into your greased pie plate or 9-in springform cake pan. Use your fingers to evenly spread the dough along the bottom and sides of your pan. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes while you make the filling.

Make the filling:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together the sugar, flour, and tapioca in a large bowl. Add peaches and lemon juice and gently toss to coat.

Spoon the filling into the pastry, loosely cover with foil, and bake for 90 minutes (yes, really). Remove the foil and bake for another 15-30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. It'll firm up while cooling, so don't worry if it's still a bit liquidy)

Notes:
Gourmet's original recipe instructed, "Grind 2 tablespoons sugar with flour and tapioca in grinder until tapioca is powdery, then transfer to a large bowl and stir in remaining 6 tablespoons sugar." That's probably not a bad idea, but I don't have a coffee or spice grinder. If you plan ahead, you might be able to use the food processor for that step before you make the pastry in it. Or you could make the pastry, wash and dry the food processor, and then try, but, really, do you want to? It worked just fine without grinding the tapioca, but it definitely would look prettier (no tapioca lumps) if I had.

Do a better job of greasing your pan than I did. The picture above is post some scraping/eating of bits left behind.