Vegan No Bake Blackberry Cream Pie

One of my other hobbies (besides slaving away to my baser desires in the kitchen) is knitting. I knit a lot. And with knitting comes Open Knit Night, which is every Wednesday. One of the things I love about knitting night besides the camaraderies and (obviously) knitting is the wine and food and talking that everyone shares together. Often we find ourselves wandering to the local Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor which has homemade creations ready to be devoured.

Despite my love of Brown Cow, I still love to share homemade goodies. One week it was sugar cookies that looked like yarn balls. The next time it was my vegan chocolate cupcakes with the experimental icing. This time it's going to be a no-bake pie. Well, almost no bake.

My recipe inspiration actually came from a Better Homes and Gardens email that was filled with summer recipes. They had this one here, for Black Raspberry Pie. However, It clearly needed to be altered. When feeding my friend baked goods I've learned to think "vegan", and then of course like me he also has to be gluten-free and corn-free. So I went about thinking of what I could do.

Whipped cream substitutes are a no go because they all seem to contain corn. Or a minute amount of dairy. Or at least the ones available by me do. If you know of a better one, I'd love to hear about it.

So anyway, the cream cheese portion was covered. I changed the whipped cream to vegan sour cream to make it a little less dense and used Blackberry Jam instead of Black Raspberry or some such thing.

The pie crust itself was a bit of a challenge. . . Initially I was going to make a "graham cracker" type of crust out of gluten-free vegan cookies. . . Until I realized the ones I had selected had almonds in them. D'oh. Can't use almonds.

Luckily for me, I had just bought Fabe's Gluten-Free Vegan Macaroons. One box was supposed to be for me and one box was supposed to be for knitting for everyone to eat and enjoy. Macaroons are always popular.

Inspired by the presence of these squishy cookies, I decided to try and press them into my pie dish to see if I could form them into a crust of sorts. Sure enough, they smoothed right together to form a crust. I then coated the inside of the crust with agave nectar and baked it for 10 minutes at 350 F just to firm it up a bit.

Recipe As Follows:

Jam-of-Your-Choice Vegan Cream Pie with Vegan/Gluten-Free Macaroon Crust

1 9 inch pie dish (you can make smaller pies if you choose, which might make the crust cost less)
2 Packages Fabe's Mini Macaroons
Agave Nectar
1 10 oz jar of your favorite jam or jelly
1 8oz container of Vegan Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Vegan Sour Cream
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350. Smash macaroon cookies into bottom of pie plate evenly and then up the sides. Lightly coat the inside of the pie shell with agave nectar (use a basting brush). Place in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. The crust will still be slightly soft when you take it out of the oven, so let it cool while you prepare the rest.

In a large mixing bowl, whip the 8 oz of cream cheese with the 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar on high. Add the 1/2 cup of vegan sour cream slowly and continue to whip on high. When combined, add the 10 oz jar of jam (I choose blackberry) and mix on low until evenly distributed. Slowly pour into pie crust and let set for 10 minutes.

Cover pie (carefully) and freeze overnight. Slice into even portions while frozen and top with fresh berries (to go with jam of your choice). Garnish with lemon zest or mint or anything else suitable. Enjoy!

Search for the Perfect Frosting: Part 5

So, I know I promised pictures but that was before I realized that the camera was AWOL. Anyway, I finally came up with a solution for my frosting and it was a tasty one at that!

Of course, afterwards I found this product, which I will be ordering in the near future.

So, my corn-free vegan white frosting recipe:

1 cup vegan cream cheese (with the ingredients closely checked for allergens)
1 cup Jungle Vegan Shortening (be careful keeping this at room temp if you don't have AC, it melts quickly)
2 cups arrowroot or tapioca starch, sifted
6 tbsp Agave Nectar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tsp Stevia liquid extract (this can be found in the vitamin area at whole foods)
1 tsp other flavoring to taste (mint, coffee, lemon, orange, almond, you name it
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

I made this with a kitchen aide mixer, however a hand mixer will work too. You can mix by hand but it will be less fluffy and more dense.

In the bowl, blend cream cheese and shortening until mixed, soft and pliable (basically until they are spreading themselves around the side of the bowl).

Add 3 tbsp of agave nectar, mix.

Add 1 cup starch by sifting, mix until combined as well as possible

Add Vanilla and other flavoring and Stevia. Mix

Add remaining cup of starch by sifting and combine as well as possible (it will be dry at this point)

Add remaining 3 tbsp of agave nectar and combine.

If frosting is still dry at this point, add 1 tbsp of water and mix. If still dry add a second tbsp. Taste for sweetness. If you desire it to be sweeter, add more stevia to taste a tsp at a time. If you desire any flavor to be stronger, at a 1/2 tsp at a time, mixing together each time you add something. Make sure to continually scrape down the sides of the bowl as well.

Mix on high for five minutes. Add cream of tartar (gives it a little bit of body) and mix on high for another three minutes

Now go decorate your baked good!

Search for the Perfect Frosting: Part 4

Bwahah! I have stumbled upon something quite successful.

So my miniature test run of making frosting with the starch first and sweetener second has been successful. However, I added really really dark cocoa and I can't seem to get rid of that little bit of dark chocolate sour. So I think when I make my "real" batch I am going to sweeten it first, and then add in cocoa. Or maybe I'll just make almond frosting. Who knows.

More later updates to come later as the project progresses.

Search for the Perfect Frosting: Part 3

Well, making my own powdered sugar was a failure. I just do not have the grinding power to make the sugar into small enough granules as to have it actually combine properly into the frosting. What I succeeded in making was very gritty, albeit tasty, chocolate frosting.

So my initial failure has had me thinking about how I could fix this texture problem without compromising taste.

Since the frosting has to be egg free and corn free, Italian Butter Creme and most Glazes are out of the question. I am not really a fan of glazes anyway for anything other than a pound cake.

However, it occurred to me that the essential component that the powdered sugar provides to the frosting is less the sweetness and more the fluffy texture when binding with the oil (butter, shortening, etc) in question. And that it can be sweetened post mixing, if i can aquire the proper texture. Much like one adds flavoring such as vanilla or almond.

So right now I am letting my shortening soften (it had to go in the fridge as our pantry gets too hot to get it from melting) so I can attempt this alternate route to frosting creation. I am making a very small sample batch. If it comes out well, I plan on trying a larger batch and ditching my grainy mess.

I look forward to taking these cupcakes to knitting night if they come out well. And, if you're lucky I'll post pictures!

Muffins Galore

So, if you haven't noticed yet, I like muffins. I think I'm attracted to them as a single-serving source of deliciousness. I like that I can put a bunch in the freezer for later (my freezer has the butternut squash-date muffins waiting for me right now) and I like that if I take a single serving nothing dries out or goes stale. And of course, it makes it that much easier to share with anyone who might want some.

Banana-Raisin Muffins

Makes 12 Muffins

2 tbsp Flax Meal
1 1/2 banana, mashed into pulp
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup sugar (your choice of what kind, but solid only - not liquid)
1/4 cup coconut oil (this is more soild than liquid, so shortening or butter could be substituted)
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tbsp hot (not quite boiling) water
dash of nutmeg
dash of cinnamon

Take 2 tbsp of flax meal and put in a small bowl with 6 tbsp room temperature water. Let sit for approx two minutes, until thick and goey.

In large bowl, add banana mash, sugar and coconut oil and mash together until evenly mixed. When thickened, add flax meal mixture and stir until evenly combined with banana mixture.

Add xanthan gum, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix until combined for a approx 3 minutes. Add flours and mix until evenly combined.

Stir in raisins

After mixture is evenly combined add the 2 tbsp hot water and stir for a about a minute until it is evenly mixed.

Evenly distribute the batter into 12 paper lined muffin cups.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes, and then on wire rack until completely cool. Enjoy!

Note: You might want to consider refrigerating these as gluten-free products tend to have a shorter shelf life than regular baked goods.

Search for the Perfect Frosting: Part 2

So I've been doing some research and I came across this lovely recipe for homemade powdered sugar. Which, essentially is perfect for my cause.

So, instead of using the corn starch the recipe calls for I plan on substituting arrowroot starch.

I am still searching for what kind of frosting I want to make. I'm debating between a tradition "buttercream" or a chocolate "cream cheese" frosting. Maybe I'll make both - who knows.

I will keep you posted as to how the frosting turns out taste and texture wise. Wish me luck on my powdered sugar endeavor!

Search For the Perfect Frosting

So, I've run into a bit of a problem here. I made cupcakes, but how do I go about frosting them? The issue at hand is this:

Not only does the frosting have to be Vegan (for the dietary needs of other people eating the cupcakes) but it has to be corn-free (for me). And all powdered sugar has corn starch in it. A LOT of corn starch. And much of the "good" vegan shortening or butter has corn in it (in some form on the ingredient label). So I'm in search of a corn-free vegan frosting solution.

I am going to have to think long and hard about this one. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

Product Review: Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

As any American would, there are times that I like my food (and my baked goods) easy. In other words: from a box. Today I decided to try out Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix. There were a couple of reasons I decided on this particular cake mix. 1) I like Bob's products. They're consistently good quality as far as taste, texture and appearance. 2) They included a vegan egg-free option on the back of the package. 3) Wednesday is knitting night (one of my other hobbies) and there is an individual at knitting who has an enormous amount of food allergies and is having a hard time adjusting to his new diet, therefore I decided that I would bake treats that were both tasty and available for everyone to eat. It's no fun being left out of the cup-cake party after all.

So, for this particular endeavor I substituted chocolate hemp milk (since its a chocolate cake) for the milk, safflower oil for the butter and milled flax seed + water for the eggs. As eggs are a really hard ingredient to substitute, I was unsure how this was going to work. Nevertheless, when I popped those cupcake pans in the oven the batter puffed right up like a regular cake and smelled delicious the whole time.

The other interesting thing was that right before I finished mixing the batter, the instructions had me add 1/3 cup of hot (110 degrees F) water to the mix. I was thinking on why this might be
and concluded that it must be to activate the baking powder. For those who are unaware, baking powder does not activate until it is heated. I think I can attribute this factor to the fluffy texture and supreme rising power of the batter. I will have to try adding a little hot water to other recipes in the future.

After they cooled I had one of the not-so-large ones and it was very, very tasty. I have to say I was impressed that the cake was light (so many gluten-free items are super dense) and moist and tasted like a chocolate cake should!

Zuchinni-Banana Muffins: An Experiment

So I find in the world of gluten-free baking that I end up not liking a whole lot of the available recipes. Which usually means I end up making my own, or using a base recipe as something to build off of. Sometimes it turns out on the first try, but that's a rarity. As with any recipe you create yourself, baking or otherwise, there are usually many revisions before you figure out exactly what's going to work.

And of course there are some recipes you just scrap and never attempt again.

Today I decided I needed a non pumpkin/squash based muffin. So I attempted to adapt my current (very successful) gluten-free muffin recipe to fit new ingredients. My first batch just got out of the oven and I can say without a doubt that they were too moist. They sunk in the middle. However, we'll have to see how the flavor turns out when they cool. I have a good idea of how I want to deal with the excess moisture.

Stay tuned for baking progress!

Gluten-Free Baking

I don't have diagnosed food allergies. However, I do have a crap-ton of other allergies. And approximately two years ago I discovered just how much food influenced my other allergies. The only thing to do was make a drastic (but not permanent) change. I had to go gluten-free, dairy-free, pork-free, fried food-free, limited soy and a few other odds and ends for a minimum of 6 months. And I had to change overnight.

This, to say the least, was a challenge. But I managed for six months to eat the most boring diet I have ever managed to have. Ever. Mostly because of how under-educated I was on the subject of alternative diets. Needless to say, because of this I learned to research and seek out new and different and tasty things. My diet worked, I felt 100% healthier.

Anymore, I'm not as strict as those 9 months (how long I was on the über diet). I don't stay entirely gluten free all year, but I am about 80% gluten free in the summer (when my allergies are at their worst). I don't consume cow-milk products any more if I can avoid it at all. But I do consume a lot of goat-milk products.

However, when I do have to limit my gluten intake my biggest complaint is that gluten free baking sucks! Store-bought items taste horrible. And this year I've discovered I'm corn sensitive so buying in store gluten-free is harder than ever. Thus, I resort to baking.

My first ever successful gluten-free baked good were these muffins, which are an adaption of a gluten recipe off of Jaime At Home by Jaime Oliver (aka The Naked Chef).

Pumpkin Coconut Spice Muffins

Makes 24 Muffins

15 oz Pumpkin Puree (alternately, butternut squash)
2 1/4 Cups Brown Sugar (alternately, sucanat or agave nectar)
4 Large eggs
1 Cup Almond Meal
1 Cup Sorghum Flour
1/2 Cup All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour
3/4 Cup Oil (olive, palm, veggie, whatever you like best)
1 Cup shredded coconut (approximate) (alternately, dates, almonds or other nuts, dried fruit, etc)
2 tsp Baking Powder (if you need it to be gluten free, make sure that this item qualifies!)
2 tsp Xanthum Gum (alternately guar gum)
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch of Sea Salt

Blend Pumpkin, eggs and oil. Blend dry ingredients in separate bowl. Mix in dry ingredients slowly until incorporated (do not over mix). Put into paper-lined cupcake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 F