Pie and I

One weekend. Two pies.

THIS is a make-up post from last weekend.

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Last weekend I made this delicious Pumpkin Pie. This weekend, I tried a new recipe from Oh She Glows.

Disclaimers: Contains tofu and brown sugar. (I'm so bad these days! It's the holidays...)

I altered the recipe as follows:
-1/2 cup maple and 1/3 cup brown sugar (rather than 1/4 c maple and 1/2 c sugar)
-added 1 teaspoon of flax just to try and thicken it... hopefully it gelatinizes in the batter itself.
-doubled the pecans (i'm hoping for a whole pecan layer!)
-used a frozen crust (I'm not worthy of being in the food blogosphere! I will perform harikari as soon as this pie is eaten!)

Pie Fail #1: Next time, follow the recipe


But does that not look scrumptious?

Here is her original recipe (I suggest using it!!!).

Vegan Pumpkin Pecan Pie with [frozen, but she makes spelt] Crust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare pie crust and place on the bottom:
1/2 cup pecans mixed with 1 tablespoon of maple syrup

In a food processor, mix until smooth:
12 oz. silken tofu

Then add:
2 cups pumpkin (but only 1.5 cups comes per can so I used less)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I used her alternative: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp clove, and added my own 1/4 tsp allspice)
1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch

Process until smooth, fill the pie crust, and pop it in the oven for 42-47 minutes.

Done.

NEXT!!!


Vegan Pot Pie

This actually turned out great, but I did make a fatal error (see pie fail below) that I would need to remedy before serving this pie to anyone except me and my husband.

In a saucepan or pressure cooker, heat until almost done:

4 cups chopped vegetables

enough broth and water to cover vegetables

The vegetables were basically clean-up food. Whatever I had left in the fridge from the week is what I used. Browned onions, two cloves of garlic, cauliflower, mushrooms, one tiny eggplant, sweet potato, carrots, and celery. I pressure cooked all of them for about ten minutes (I'd do seven next time). The final result was a good texture, despite the combination of vegetables in the cooker.

Once the veggies are done, strain out excess liquid and save. Set veggies aside. You'll use about 3 cups of them once they are cooked. The extra you can pack up and save for another meal.

Place the liquid back into the saucepan or cooker. Cook over medium, and add:
1 heaping tablespoon of brown rice flour (any flour will do)
2 heaping tablespoons of nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon tarragon
salt and black pepper to taste

This will be your gravy. Stir until just mixed, and either whisk or food process (I processed to get the vegetable chunks down to a minimum). Place back into pot, and add:
1/2 cup seitan, rinsed and cut into small pieces (optional)

Bring to boil, and then turn off heat, stirring frequently (even after the heat is off because it wants to create a skin and also stick to the pan).

Get your pie crust ready. I used a frozen one.

Dump the veggies into the gravy and fold them into the gravy so as not to break them up.

Dump this mixture into the pie crust.

I used this recipe to make my top layer.

Bake at 375 for 20 -30 minutes or until the top crust is browned.

Pie Fail #2: Don't Broil the Top Crust, and if you do, wait near the oven and don't go sweep the house and forget that your pie is broiling.

Pie Win: Other than that, it's an awesome pot pie with some awesome gravy.

Recipe Fail: Why did I make this recipe sound so complicated? It was so easy!

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[Gives self a cheer-up hug] Both pies were eaten in entirety, so the pie fails didn't ruin them completely.