Friday, December 6, 2013

Peanut Butter Pie with Pretzel Crust

A change in contraceptive method has resulted in a return of regular  menstruation and subsequently cravings for really ridiculous foods.

Today, I made a peanut butter pie, inspired by my colleague's "lunch" from Astoria Bakery in Royal Oak which looks delightful, but doesn't have evenonething that is vegan. But I put the peanut butter pie in a midwestern foodbastard delight: the pretzel crust. Take 5 bars have pretzel and peanut and choco. My husband always eats peanut butter with pretzels, and of course those ridiculous peanut butter pretzel things at Trader Joe's I can't stop myself from buying.

I'm always delighted when I google for a recipe and something by my former fellow volunteer at REPRESENT), Jolinda, pops up. She writes for vegetarian.about.com and she is a lovely person and excellent cook.

This recipe is mostly made of things you have around the house, and isn't that bad for you as cream-pie-like desserts go. It's got "good fats" and "protein" and APPLE SAUCE. Nevermind all the pretzels and butter and refined sugar and sodium...

Crust Recipe:
2 cups of pretzels-- I made sure to dump out all the extra salty tiny bits at the bottom of the bag
1 c. apple sauce
2 T. Earth Balance stick
2 T. sugar or other sweetener

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt the Earth Balance in the microwave.
3. Combine everything in a food processor or blender (I used the Vitamix "dry container" and keep telling myself I don't need a food processor even though a food processor would've been a lot better here).
4. It doesn't have to be super finely blended, a few chunks will be delightful.
5. Using a rubber spatula and your clean, dry hands shape into a pregreased pie pan.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Pie Filling:
1 block (16 oz size) of tofu, (soft/medium/firm will do, anything but extra firm). I squeezed mine out but didn't go overboard.
1 c smooth peanut butter (I use the natural runny stuff)
1 T. vanilla extract
3/4 c. sugar
1 T. almond milk (maybe more if you use conventional peanut butter)

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor (I used the liquid container on my Vitamix and it worked well despite how thick it is).
2. Blend on high for about one minute once everything is well combined. Stop and stir as needed.
3. Pour into the pretzel crust once it has cooled.
4. Use a silicone spatula to even and smooth it.

Topping:
1 T. Earth Balance stick
1/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips (I use the TJ's ones)
1 t. almond milk

1. Combine in a microwave safe bowl and zap until liquid, stirring every 10-15 seconds.
2. Drizzle (or dallop) atop the filled pie
3. Refrigerate immediately for about 2 hours until set.



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Vegan Pop Tarts!

I didn't really like pop tarts as a kid. I was more of a Cinnamon Toast Crunch type. And I don't really like breakfast breads. But the brunch place in town, Mae's, had homemade pop tarts that I needed to recreate.

I used homemade blueberry jam that I made last month, but any jam will do. When I make these again, I will probably try them with the "Just Fruit" blackberry jam from Kroger.

This recipe was adapted from Dairy Free Cooking . About .

The Crust
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 stick of earth balance, softened (1/2 c I think)
1/4 c. almond milk
Dash of salt

Mash the butter into the flour until it is of uniform crumbliness. Add salt and milk and mix until it forms a nice dough ball.

Roll it out with a rolling pin on a floured surface until it's thin. Think it's thin enough? It's not, keep rolling. It should be like 1/8th of an inch. I used one of the dough scrapers from Sur La Table to measure the rectangles (I actually made mine 6" x 6" squares, but you could make rectangles). Put parchment on a cookie sheet (or spray it with Pam) and put half the rectangles down. You don't need to leave much space (unless you have jam volcano like I did).

The Filling
About 8 heaping tablespoons of jam of your choosing.
Some cornstarch if the jam of your choosing is real liquid-y

Spoon the filling onto the rectangles that are on the cookie sheet. Using a fork dipped in water moisten and "rough up" the edges of the bottom crust. Place the top crust on, squishing down the jams so they are flat/even. Use a fork (dipped in a little flour now) to seal the edges. I ran into trouble here. You really gotta seal the edges. You can't just hope they'll magically seal in the oven and put them in your very uneven oven on a cookie sheet with no edges. Really seal the edges.

Pop them into the oven at 450 for 10-15 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown.

Take them out and let them cool. In the meantime, prepare the icing.

The Icing
1 healing spoonful of the liquidiest part of your jam.
1/3 c. powdered sugar
Cornstarch as needed
Almond milk as needed

Mix the jam and powdered sugar. Add more jam/soy milk/cornstarch as needed until it's icing-y. Once the poptarts have cooled, spoon on the icing. Add sprinkles if you need to.