chocolate peanut butter tofu pie

 A vegan friend made this pie for me more than 20 years ago, and it became a favorite though I haven't made it in many years.  I've been craving it for over a year, and I gradually acquired the ingredients, and boom I just made it.  i plan to have a slice tonight and then to slice them and stash with parchment paper in the freezer, to pull out a slice from time to time when I want a rich treat.  

There are a lot of iterations of this but I just wanted to dump things in and not add sugar besides the chocolate.  So here's what I did.

 Ingredients

• a graham cracker pie crust 9" (or another type of crust that goes well with chocolate and peanut butter)
• 1 bag of dark chocolate chips (I got them from Trader JOe's, 10 oz)
• 1/2+ cup of natural peanut butter  
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 box of silken tofu (mine was about 10.8 oz I think it said) 

Melt the chocolate chips at 30 second increments and stir until melted.  Put all ingredients into a food process and combine.  

Pour into the crust and let chill a few hours before serving. 

whole wheat pie crust

 From here.  It makes two shells, quite nice.

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or other whole wheat flour) = 192 grams (@96 g each cup)
• ¾ cup butter, chilled and cubed
• 1 tsp fine sea salt (½ tsp if using salted butter)
• up to ½ cup ice cold water

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse flour and salt. And cubed butter.
2. Pulse a few times until pea-sized pieces form.
3. Slowly add 1 tablespoon of water at a time, stopping when you fill up your spoon with water.
4. Pulse and continue to add water until a ball has just formed with the dough.
5. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Cut the ball of dough in half.
6. Roll out dough on top of plastic wrap, one ball at a time, to form the crust. Turn out dough into your pie pan and shape the edges by pushing your thumb of one hand into the thumb and pointer finger of your other hand on opposite edges of the dough and work all the way around.
7. Continue with your pie recipe as instructed.
8. You'll get a top and a bottom crust. You can freeze one if your recipe only calls for a bottom crust.

Notes

• The original recipe made with all-purpose flour uses 5 tablespoon of water. If you are using all-purpose flour, reduce the water to 5 tbsp.
• Use cold butter and ice cold water. Keeping everything cold will result in a more flaky crust.
• Similarly, you don't want to butter to be blended into the flour too much. Small pieces melt in between layers of dough when baked, giving you a flaky crust.
• Try not to add too much water, or the crust will be sticky and difficult to roll out. You want it to just start to come together.
• I love using whole wheat pastry flour for the lightest result. If you can't find whole wheat pastry flour, look for white whole wheat flour (made with soft white wheat, it's not bleached).
• I use salted butter because I prefer a little more salt in my crust to contrast very sweet fillings. However, if you prefer less salt, use unsalted butter or reduce the salt to ½ tsp.
• For vegan version, use cold coconut oil in place of butter. If you use virgin coconut oil, your pie crust will taste like coconut, though.
• If you have a very deep pie dish or a 10 inch dish, you may need to use 1.5 times or double the recipe to make sure you have enough crust.
• For parbaking and make ahead instructions, see post above.

 

no added sugar sweet potato pie

 Trying to keep my added sugar consumption quite low, I'm surprised at how little there is for this on-line without adding artificial sweeteners - which, yuk. 

So here is my first attempt at no sugar added sweet potato pie.

For reduced sugar, I took this pie with the sugar cut to scant 1/3 cup.  That breaks down to (with full 1/3 cup), about 8.3 added grams of sugar per slice.  That is not bad compared to almost everything else.  I took it to Thanksgiving and it was very good.

But I also want to lean into my date paste and what a great sweetener it is.  It's worked so well with muffins.  I need to remember how I made it because it's great tucked back in the fridge for months.  I also need to remember the whole wheat pie crust recipe I used for this pie.  (I froze one crust, as it made two.)

So here is how I made this sweet potato pie, and I will rework it until I'm satisfied.

• 1.5-2 pounds sweet potatoes cooked
• 2 T butter
• 1/3 cup date paste
  
• 1/4 c. milk (any percent, half & half, evaporated, etc.) (note: this is cut from 1/2 cup because the date paste provides moisture)
  
• a bit of salt
• 1tsp+ vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• mace or cardamom or other spices
• 2 eggs

Bake sweet potatoes (about 3 medium) for about 55 minutes at 425 degrees.  Allow to cool and peel.

Blend sweet potatoes in a food processor.  Add butter and process some more.  Add the rest of the ingredients and process together.

Bake in uncooked pie crust at 350 for about 55 minutes. 

**

Verdict: DELICIOUS.  It was a little grainy, probably from the date paste that I had made in the food processor.  If it mattered (like taking to fancy company), date paste in the blender.  But I do not mind grainy in my pie (at all), so for me it's perfect!   The color wasn't even off, which I'd feared.  The date paste is a not very appetizing gray-brown, so I thought it would make the pie off-color, but it was like pumpkin pie, which people eat without complaint.)

sweet potato pie ("vegetable protein dish")

 Looking for less sugar always, this is what I've come up with:

• 1.5 pounds sweet potatoes cooked (so a bit more raw)
• 2 T butter
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. milk (any percent, half & half, evaporated, etc.)
• a bit of salt
• 1tsp+ vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• mace or cardamom or other spices
• 2 eggs

Bake sweet potatoes (about 3 medium) for about 55 minutes at 425 degrees.  Allow to cool and peel.

Blend sweet potatoes in a food processor.  Add butter and blend some more.  Add the rest of the ingredients and blend together.

Bake in uncooked pie crust* at 350 for about 55 minutes.

*I want to figure out a nicer pie crust than usual ones, which don't excite me.  Graham cracker crust?  Shortbread? 

key lime pie

  This recipe from the crazy and wonderful Ms. Moon.  Deviations found at the link.

Key Lime Pie

(original recipe)

3 eggs, separated

1 can sweetened condensed milk

(Like Eagle Brand)

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup key lime juice

1- 9 inch pie shell

Beat egg yolks. Add sweetened condensed milk. Beat again. Add lime juice. Beat 'til smooth.

Put in pie shell. 

Make meringue with whites and sugar. Top pie. 

375 degrees until brown.

Serve chilled.