Pumpkin Pie - dairy free

Since it's Thanksgiving this week, I thought, for once, I'd get up an appropriate recipe ahead of time. Not the day of or the week after, which is less than helpful.

Yesterday I showed you how I cooked my pumpkin, and today I'll tell you how I made it into delicious, delicious pie. If you try to eat vegan or dairy free, you may have noticed that pumpkin pie is tough. Almost all "regular" recipes I've seen use condensed milk or evaporated milk, and there's not an intuitive substitute that I can think of. However, in Devil's Food Cake Murder, I found a substitution recipe. The book itself is not good, but the recipes are mouthwatering. Anyway, thanks to this book, I was able to make a dairy free pumpkin pie without using tofu. and it was DELICIOUS. Seriously.

go forth and make pie.

Substitute for Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 eggs
1 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Beat the eggs together until they are a uniform color. Add the brown sugar and mix in well. Add vanilla and beat in. Add the flour and beat for another minute and make sure it's well mixed. Add the baking powder and salt and mix in.

This makes enough to substitute or one 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk.

Pumpkin Pie - dairy free
1 1/3 C smooth pumpkin
1 batch substitute for sweet condensed milk
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1 C hot water

one 9 inch pie crust- vegan, gluten free, homemade, store bought, etc.

Preheat oven to 375F. Beat all ingredients together until just smooth. Pour into a prepared 9 inch crust and bake for 50-60 minutes. It's normal if the center is still somewhat jiggly, as it will set as it cools.

Vegan & Gluten Free Apple Cranberry Pie

This week turned really cold really fast. Fast enough for there to be thunderstorms the other night that were windy enough to knock down formerly happy trees. So I wanted something warm and comforting that was delicious, not overly complicated, and easily made without braving the grocery store. (Have you noticed that grocery stores get crazier and crazier the closer we get to Christmas? It makes me not want to go, and grocery shopping is my favorite chore. It's a bummer, but maybe I'll vacuum instead?)

Oh yeah, and sweet. I wanted sweet.

Official Taster is big into pies, and apple is his favorite. Apple is not my favorite, and I don't like crust that much, so the standard double-crust apple pie is relatively low on the dessert list. But, since I'm awesome, and since OT has been feeling a bit under the weather, I decided I could get on board with a baked apple pie-like thing.

I've mentioned before that fruit crisps are one of my favorite things, so I chose to use my favorite topping on the apples and dress them up with some dried cranberries. One of these days I'll make a homemade pie crust, but, in the meantime, store bought does just fine.

Vegan Apple Cranberry Pie

1 premade pie crust (both vegan and gluten free are available)
6 Cups-ish apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin (5-6 medium apples)
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C cornstarch
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C dried cranberries
lemon juice

For the topping:
1/2 C flour
3/4 C brown sugar
6 tbsp chilled vegan butter, cut into half inch pieces
1 C quick oats
gluten free: see the notes below


Prepare the pie crust according to directions on the package. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the apples and cranberries. Drizzle a little bit of lemon juice over the bowl and mix again. Transfer the fruit to the pie crust.


In a food processor, blend the flour, sugar, salt and butter with several on-off pulses or only until the mixture looks like a coarse meal. Add the oats and pulse a few more times to break them up.


Spread the topping over the fruit and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the top is a nice golden brown. 


Notes:
I used the juice of about half a lemon since I had a fresh one left over. It's probably totally optional, and you could also use juice from a bottle. 


I didn't use enough apples because I was lazy. I only used four. As you can tell from the pictures, it's a pretty small layer, so you should use more. 


Want to make this gluten free? Click here for the post with the wheat free topping recipe.

Is it cake? Is it pie?

So, Tuesday was Official Taster's birthday. I love birthdays! For some reason though, he doesn't have the same attitude about his that I do about mine. I make it a month long celebration. I don't want to vacuum? It's my birthday. I want extra dessert? Birthday. (for those of you keeping track at home, January is the magic month) So for those nearest and dearest, I always try to make at least the actual day special. Obviously, if I can overdo it in the dessert department, I'm well on my way.

So last week, OT came home from work all excited. "Did you know there's this dessert where they bake..." I knew the rest: a pie into a cake. Yes, folks, he just let on that a) he missed a blog post and b) I actually knew something trendy before he did. I had already been contemplating attempting this Cherpumple feat, but that decided me.

On Tuesday, I made a two layer pie-cake extravaganza. The bottom layer is a spice cake surrounding an apple pie, and the top layer is chocolate cake surrounding a mixed berry pie. I frosted everything with just a basic vanilla buttercream, since it seemed there were enough flavors. I didn't do the most beautiful frosting job, but we wanted to eat!

So if, after reading about and watching the video, you were curious how it turned out, here's your answer. Awesome! No, really. Awe inspiring. Rich, moist, sweet, a sometimes strange mingling of flavors. Definitely worth a try!


Such an unassuming cake from the outside!

A Little Bit of Awesome

I know I haven't posted all week, but you may have picked up on the fact that I moved, so I'm laying the blame on the packing, moving, cleaning, working, moving some more, cleaning, thrift store runs, more moving...you get the idea. Unfortunately, I didn't get any welcome baskets, but instead several "hellos" and even an offer of help (though that came after the really heavy stuff).

However, I think that many of you will forgive my dereliction of duty when you watch this video from Charles Phoenix. It's pretty phenomenal. Not only is he surrounded by cute vintage ovens, but he surrounds pie with cake. Three times, in fact.

He's named his creation the Cherpumple. A three layer cake with a pie baked into each layer. You have to see it to believe it!

Charles Phoenix is pretty entertaining throughout. My favorite quote? "You don't want to be stingy with the frosting, ever, on any cake." Words to live by.