Vegan Chocolate Peanut Pie

Oh, this was good, good, good! Not perfect, but chocolaty deeelicious.


I have a cookbook titled Retro Pies. It doesn’t have a plentitude of recipes I would like to try to veganize, but this southern Chocolate Peanut Pie definitely got my attention. I will give you the recipe as I made, then tell you how I think it would have been perfect.

Chocolate Peanut Pie

The filling cooks up in layers – kind of gooey on the bottom and almost crispy on top, and the crunchy peanuts rise to the top.

Ingredients:

2 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened baking chocolate
¼ cup margarine
¼ cup brown or turbinado sugar
¾ cup white sugar
½ cup nondairy milk
2 T. maple syrup
2 T. light corn syrup (karo)
2 t. vanilla
3 EnerG eggs
1 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Make 3 EnerG eggs and set aside.

Melt chocolate and margarine together in a small saucepan over very low heat. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Combine sugars, milk, syrups, and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat with electric beaters or in your electric mixer. Add eggs and mix well. Mix in chocolate mixture until well combined. Stir in peanuts. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

I know it seems really sugary, but even for me it seems perfectly balanced by the salty peanuts. So, my suggestions for improvement:

Can you tell there is no crust on my pie? I made a chocolate cookie crust and it literally melted away! Lesson learned – cookie crusts are for pies that do not require baking. Use a sturdy, i.e., standard pie crust for this recipe.

Did you notice this is a flourless (gluten free) pie? I had to refrigerate my pie to get it to set up completely. I don’t normally attempt to veganize recipes that contain 3 eggs, and this is why. I think a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch or flour (AP or GF) would give this pie the stability it needs. But hey, its still crazy hot here and we did not mind eating a cold pie!

This Chocolate Peanut Pie was for my mom’s birthday party. It was actually for the vegans and all chocolate lovers. After I baked this pie, I made a pie especially for my lemon lovin’ mom. Her birthday pie was a simple but very lemony pie, made with lots of love. It was not vegan because my mom is not vegan, but it could have been by using vegan cream cheese and milk. It turned out perfectly creamy and beautiful and my mom loved it.

I would have posted this nonvegan pie anyway, but I am posting it specially tonight as a show of solidarity for my friend Veggie Girl. I will let her address her issues on her own, but I will take this opportunity now to remind my readers to be compassionate to all beings. Where is it written that vegans should be kinder to animals than they are to humans?

And finally, I have had THREE very nice happenstances recently! Some of my Facebook and Twitter pals know I’ve been sick for the past several days, so fun stuff while I’ve been sick has been really great. (I'm feeling much better this evening.) So, I won TWO blog giveaways!!! First I won a whole box of chocolate Weil bars from Pride & Vejudice, plus Nora threw in 2 extra flavors.

Thank you, Nora! I’ve been enjoying these bars almost every day.

AND I won Kristen’s complete set of Raw ebooks! Yep, all eleven books full of recipes and information I am reading as fast as I can. Thank you again, Kristen!

(Oh, I should remind you now to enter MY giveaway – drawing this Sunday the 23rd.)

The third and most rewarding thing was an email I got. It began, “Hi Diann, I have been an avid reader of your blog for over a year now. I am ready to take the plunge to become a vegan…”

And life is good.

Soup Into Salad

I saw a recipe on Johanna’s blog for Mexican Rice Soup and thought it looked so yummy. Without complaining again about the tortuous heat, there was no way I was going to make soup, so I decided to turn it into a salad! I just omitted the broth, and I took some shortcuts by using prepared salsa and frozen corn. The first night I ate it as is.



And the second night I put it atop some greens.

It was just perfect! I thought I was so clever and began looking through Vegan Soups by Nava Atlas for more ideas. Oh, the possibilities! You have your ingredients and spices all worked out for you, so even when it’s not soup weather you can still enjoy Johanna’s and plenty of Nava’s recipes in salad form. And if it IS soup weather where you are, be sure to check out Johanna’s recipe and remember to pull out your copy of Nava’s book of delicious soups.


I have a couple of other bloggers to mention. I made Vegetation’s Chickpea Tofu. I don’t tolerate soy, and I get so envious when I see all the wonderful tofu creations you all get to enjoy. Now chickpea tofu is not as firm as the soy variety, but it is really delicious and quelled my tofu envy both in taste and appearance. It just requires a quick mix, like making polenta. Then you let it set up.

Once set, give it a quick sear in your sauté pan and add it to your veggies.

A long long time ago, Amey sent me several packages of allergen free baking mixes. One morning before the thermometer reached 95 degrees (that would be 10 am, but, again, I’m not complaining) I decided to bake myself some treats and pulled out this mix.

I also decided to experiment again with replacing the margarine with beans. Kinda ironic the package says “bean free.” Anyway, I prefer fatfree, so I mixed up some drained and rinsed white beans and added enough applesauce to replace the ¾ cup oil.

I know some of you are still having a hard time believing bean brownies and cookies don’t taste like beans, but I swear you would never ever know! And see, they turned out perfectly.

Sometimes I don’t eat all my broccoli so I'll have room for cookies.

Daring Bakers Challenge - Vegan Milanos

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

How nice to have an option to make either or both of these cookies for this month’s challenge. The marshmallow cookies, sadly, were not an option for me, as I don’t have any vegan marshmallows. The Milanos, however, have already been veganized, thanks to Isa.

Isa’s recipe is more suited to my family’s tastes. She uses a bit of orange zest in the cookie batter and a pure chocolate filling. Gale Gand’s recipe has lemon zest in the cookie batter and orange zest in the chocolate. My family has a thing about fruity chocolate. I did use Gand’s method to spread on the chocolate filling rather than Isa’s method of dipping the cookies into the melted chocolate.

I knew the hardest part of the recipe would be making good looking cookies. I've steered clear of baking sandwich cookies because it's difficult (for me, anyway) to hand shape evenly sized cookies. I didn’t flour my hands to pat out the dough as per Isa’s method. I found the oily batter to be quite easy to work with as is. As usual, my only issue is the time it takes to shape 32 cookies. My attention span is about 10 minutes and these required much longer than that, probably about 30 minutes. I was reasonably happy with my shaping.

I baked the cookies for 14 minutes. After they cooled I melted the chocolate. I was doing other things in the kitchen, and my chocolate seized up. I saved it by adding 1 tablespoon of Smart Balance and 1 tablespoon of corn syrup, then I reheated it and got it back to a nice smooth consistency. I spread it on and made the little sandwiches. Voila!

Now I haven’t had a store bought milano in years, but I’m sure mine are too thick. I have to call them My Big Fat Milanos.

Since these are not gluten free cookies, I had only a taste of about half a cookie. Aside from being too fat, the cookies are wonderful. I am a huge chocoholic, but I would enjoy eating just these cookies without the chocolaty center. They are really crispy, and I enjoyed that for a change. Plus it's perfect with the creamy chocolate center. I know this recipe made the blog rounds about a year ago, so if you didn’t make them then, you should now. They are actually quite easy to bake and super delicious to eat!

A Festive Fifth of July

I’ve had a quick peek at all of your July 4th posts and you guys prepared some fantastic feasts! I didn’t get to make an All American meal on the 4th, but I did get to – finally - have a Sunday dinner on the 5th with Chase. It was just the two of us enjoying several hours of much needed quality time together. He told me he had been neglecting his intake of veggies and fruits lately, so I set about to remedy that!

I think it’s been a year since we last made this, but we made Indian spiced kabobs using the marinade from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. It is completely fabulous. The recipe calls for pureeing and straining the marinade, but I left mine chunky. We had all farm fresh ingredients, except the tofu. We skewered the tofu along with purple and red peppers, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, and one tiny pattypan squash.




I also had lots of red potatoes that I got from my CSA box, so I made the Potato Cole Slaw from Vegan Brunch. I only sorta liked the avocado cole slaw from VB, but I absolutely loved this one! What a fantastic concept. I used broccoli slaw instead of cabbage, and coconut yogurt instead of vegannaise (eww). The toasted cumin seeds in the slaw complemented the kabobs perfectly.

I also made yummy gluten free cornbread.

So here’s the table set for two hungry people.

And here’s my happy son’s veggielicious plate. I was lucky to get a shot just before he dove in.

I saved the Sweet Freedom strawberry and blueberry dessert for him, and he ate all of that too. I thought it was huge, but he thought it was just right. Someone asked if I put coconut on top – yes, I did!

I think I got 8 kinds of veggies in him plus two fruits – just what he needed.

Now I need some help from you. Actually, I need two recommendations.

First, I need a good protein/carb post workout drink. With this heat, I’m just too thirsty to eat within 30 minutes of my workouts. What product do you recommend that’s not pure sugar or too high in calories and vegan?

Second, we have another family birthday this weekend. I’m looking for a pure chocolate cake, preferably wheat and soy free, and not the wacky cake I just made two weeks ago. Has anyone made the Double Chocolate Crumb Cake from Babycakes? Or Dreena’s Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Cake she posted on her site? Please recommend your own or your favorite recipes. It doesn’t have to look like a birthday cake, but it does have to be chocolaty delicious!

Thanks for your help!

Cool Food for Hot Days

The past 16 days have brought record heat to Austin with temperatures between 100 and 107 degrees every day. It couldn’t even cool off at night. Several people I know had their a/c go out, including my mom. Our office a/c went out too. Thankfully, today we caught a bit of a cool front and even got some rain. It’s been rather pleasant. I’ve been eating tons of cold food, and even when I would cook dinner, I wouldn’t eat it until it was room temp.




My last CSA box included much of the same, squash, oriental cukes, carrots, onions, and chard. Not pictured are cherry tomatoes, radishes, garlic, beets, and red potatoes. My prize was finding this gorgeous heirloom included!

I haven’t eaten an heirloom tomato in ages. I simply sliced it and ate it with just a bit of salt.

I had forgotten how completely delicious they are. It was like eating the tomatoey-est tomato juice you can imagine. Simply fabulous.

I’ve also made a great big cucumber, onion, and tomato salad, which I seasoned with basil and salt.

There’s been many many batches of Green Smoothie Dressing to go on everything, from green salads I take to work to leftover steamed broccoli.

Of course there was more raw beets to eat. I had been hesitant to put them in my spiralizer, but I finally relented and ended up with a lovely bowl of red and gold beets and a few radishes. Jessy, can we call these *boodles*?

I got a near-empty jar of Dijon mustard, thinned it with water, and poured it over the beets for my dressing.

I mentioned in my last post that it was my brother’s birthday. I was thrilled that he (not vegan) asked me to bake him the Moosewood Deep Chocolate Vegan Cake. I made it for my own birthday last year and it was beautiful.

Sadly, I knew a layer cake would never last being transported in my car to my mom’s house with an air conditioner that had only been working a few hours. So it looked like this. (My brother is much older than the number of candles on the cake!)

Quality trumps beauty! I made it using my best Scharffenberger cocoa and 99% chocolate. Bro loved it, once again proclaiming it the most delicious, moist, richest, and best cake ever. I think it has a lot to do with the fantastically yummy peanut butter frosting. I just had to take this picture.

A funny restaurant story – when we were eating out for our birthday dinner, there were no vegan entrées, so I ordered sides of asparagus, sugar snap peas, and mushrooms, then handed the waiter my menu. He said, Ma’am, you forgot to order your entrée!

Before I end, I want to ask you all to go visit my blogger friend Judy. I’ve been following her for several years and have admired her cooking and baking skills, even when the food wasn’t vegan. Well, now she has publicly declared her decision to go completely vegan! Please let her know how delighted you are and go give her some love.

Banana Oat Bars – Sweet Freedom Saturday

This week’s edition of Sweet Freedom Saturday features the most excellent gluten free, soy free Banana Oat Bars. Ricki describes them as a cross between a cookie and a granola bar.




As you can see, I added chocolate to this recipe. I just can’t help myself.

I didn’t eat all of them myself this time, but I do have another confession to make. I completely forgot to include the sugar in the batter! Of course I didn’t realize my mistake until the batter was all spread in the pan and I was just about to pop them in the oven. I decided to sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of sucanat on top. Thankfully, the batter recipe is very forgiving because the bars were a perfect granola cookie, and the caramelized sugary topping turned out to be all the sweetness we needed. I love that bananas can be your sugar.


I will try very hard to prepare next week’s recipe correctly, but I can’t promise I won’t eat them all. Sweet Freedom recipes are the best!

Vegan Brunch

I have just a quick post of a couple more recipes I’ve tried from Vegan Brunch. My ‘Horns are playing and if they win they go to the College World Series!

I made the Curry Cauliflower Frittata for Chase, using some beautiful orange cauliflower from the farmers market that I roasted.

It smelled wonderful as it baked. Here it is out of the oven.

I don’t have a picture of a slice, because it didn’t hold together. Chase didn’t care. He said he would just call it a scramble and enjoy it that way. I’ve noticed several other posts where these frittatas haven’t held together. When I made it, I thought it seemed dry and there was no liquid or binder at all in any of the frittata recipes. Maybe my tofu was squeezed too dry. Have you run into this problem? Or are you adding some liquid to your mixture? I would love to make another one for Chase, but I want it to turn out right.

The other brunch item I made was the Potato Spinach Squares. I added some onion and sundried tomatoes to my batch. This baked up beautifully.

These squares got RAVE reviews and I thought they were super delicious.

Isn’t it pretty?

I’ll be around to visit after the game! Hook’em ‘Horns!

Maple Walnut Cookies – Sweet Freedom Saturday

Last Saturday I mentioned I was undecided on which of Ricki’s Sweet Freedom cookies to bake. I was looking for a cookie to complement my Peach Strawberry Ice Cream and finally decided on Maple Walnut Cookies. Ricki describes them as chewy with a crisp exterior. These delicious cookies were the perfect choice.

I’m glad the recipe only makes a dozen cookies, because although I tried to save some for Chase, I ate them all myself!

Figaros – Sweet Freedom Saturday

Awhile back I had the delicious privilege of being one of Ricki’s testers for her cookbook full of treats, Sweet Freedom. So when shellyfish began her Sweet Freedom Saturdays, it was easy to decide to join in.

One of the things I love most about Ricki’s recipes is that they are so easy. Most of the ones I’ve made don’t even require an electric mixer – just bowls and spoons. Since I had tested lots of yummy treats already, I picked out a cookie I hadn’t made before. I chose Figaros, your healthified Fig Newton.

No figs on hand? No problem! I didn’t have any figs either so I used prunes, I mean dried plums. And you know what? They still tasted exactly like the Fig Newtons I remember, only better because they didn’t have sugar and chemical preservatives.

I need to say that I got a copy of Babycakes and after reading the book twice, there is still not a single recipe I want to run into the kitchen and bake. On the other hand, there are 3 Sweet Freedom cookie recipes I have bookmarked now that I can’t decide between to bake for tomorrow. But I’m leaning toward oatmeal.

Daring Bakers Apple Strudel Challenge

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I had never made Apple Strudel before. It’s just so easy to throw your apples into a pie crust. The challenge in making a strudel is to roll out and stretch the dough until it is paper thin. I didn’t find this challenge too difficult, perhaps because I made a half recipe and my smaller portion of dough was more manageable. I didn’t get creative either, just followed the given recipe, substituting vegan Smart Balance for the butter.

First I made the dough so it could rest for an hour or so.


In the meantime I peeled, cored, and sliced 2 large Gala apples and sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar.

There were also Craisins soaking in brandy to add to the mix, and toasted buttered fresh bread crumbs prepared.

When it was time to roll out the dough, I cleared off the dining room table and got to work. The dough was absolutely beautiful and I found it very easy to roll and stretch with the backs of my hands. We were told holes were okay, an indication of a good stretch.

Next the dough was buttered and sprinkled with bread crumbs. Then walnuts were placed at one end, and then the apple mixture spread over the walnuts. The first dough coverage is done by hand, then the rest of the strudel is rolled using the cloth under the dough. Kinda scary, but lots ‘o fun!

Rats, there’s a wrinkle! But I can’t fix it. I tucked the ends under and it was done. It was easy to transfer to the baking sheet. 30 minutes later…

After it cooled I wrapped it in foil and hoped the dough would stay relatively crispy until I could take it to my mom the next day. I cut it right in half for my mom and Chase to share.

Yay, it still looks nice and flaky! I only ate a pinch of pastry to make sure I had done it right. And now, relying on an old Veggie Girl method, here is my mom’s (completely unbiased) review:

The apple strudel was the best I have ever had! Little old German ladies baking strudel for the County Fair could not have baked strudel this good!!! I loved it! Chase's portion is not going to be long for this world. I cut off half of my piece to eat, then went back for the rest. I put fresh sliced peaches on top - heavenly!

So there you have it. Next time you’re in the mood to bake a pie, bake a strudel instead!

You can find the recipe here. Don’t let the lengthy directions put you off. It only took me 2 hours start to finish. A couple of tips: Increase the amount of cinnamon. Don’t skip the homemade bread crumbs. I only used 3 slices of bread, crusts removed, and cut into big 1/4-inch pieces. They soak up some good buttery flavor and help the layers of dough separate. And I’ll bet a fresh peach strudel would taste amazing.

Beans for Breakfast Cake

I made the Beans for Breakfast Cake and again it turned out so good. Since Chase wasn’t around to take it from me, I discovered that it’s even tastier the next day. I’m going to keep playing with this recipe. I think I can make hearty cookies out of it, and Chase wants me to make some for him using protein powder so he can have a super protein treat. My method is a little unconventional, but it doesn’t really matter since it has no gluten!




Beans for Breakfast Cake (gluten free)

Makes one loaf

Ingredients:
1 T. flax or chia seeds
2 T. water
½ cup gluten free oats, ground
½ cup gluten free oats, whole flakes
½ cup gluten free flour mix (I used Bob’s Red Mill, but you could use any flour on hand)
1 t. baking powder
½ t. xantham gum (omit if you don’t have any)
pinch of salt
3 – 4 T. brown sugar (depending on the ripeness of the banana)
¾ cup white beans, pureed (I’ve used chickpeas and Great Northern)
½ of a medium very ripe banana
2 t. vanilla extract
½ cup nondairy milk (I used So Delicious coconut)
1 T. canola or vegetable oil
¼ cup chocolate chips
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup walnuts

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the flax seeds and water and set aside.

Mix the oats, flour, baking powder, xantham gum, salt, and sugar in a large bowl and stir well to combine.

Place the beans in a food processor (I used a mini prep) and puree. Add in the banana and the flax seeds and process until smooth and incorporated. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients in the large bowl. Stir in the vanilla, milk, and oil and mix well. Stir in the chips, raisins, and nuts.

Spread the mixture into an oiled 8 x 4 inch loaf pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until it begins to pull away from the sides and the top is golden brown, dry, and puffed. Let cool completely in the pan before slicing.

Earlier this week we had Pizza Night. We had a vegan pizza delivered from Hoboken Pie and I had my first taste of Teese. The pizza was a delicious 18-inch monster of a pie.

Thin crust, perfectly topped.

I’m always telling you how much Chase eats, so I’ll tell you I had one slice of this pizza and he ate all the rest at dinner – amazing. He and his girlfriend got bad colds this weekend, but they are still awfully cute!

I’ve been eating lots of salads with fresh foods from the farmers markets and my CSA box. I’ve also made a couple of recipes from Vegan Brunch – my copy finally arrived – one success and one failure. As soon as I organize myself I’ll post all the pictures I’ve taken.

I don’t think we’ll be grilling today since the kids have to work AND they’re sick, but I’ll probably cook something to take them this evening. I took them and my mom to the IMAX yesterday to see the new Night at the Museum movie. It was fun.

It sure is nice to have a Monday holiday!