The Pie Saga finally concluded: Raw Fruit Pie

Things finally seem to be falling into place with the internet,

food, the coming Holiday, and our health. Thank goodness.

I promised it so here it is... my first Raw Pie.

No kidding around, I'll voice my comments throughout the

recipe. This is across the board refreshing and guilt-free!!

Raw Apple-Pear Pie

Crust

2 cups almonds, soaked overnight

2 tablespoons mildly flavoured oil

1/4 tsp salt

Blend all together- better yet throw it in a food processor.

Unfortunately, I do not have one. But process it until the almonds

have the consistency of sand. From now on this is how I am going

to use my almond pulp leftover from when I make almond milk.

Make sure to scrape down the sides as you go so it has an even

consistency. Press into

a pie pan evenly and set aside.

Filling

1 gala or fuji apple

2 ripe pears

1 tsp lemon juice to prevent browning

1/4 cup golden raisins, chopped

6-8 dried apricots, chopped

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

For easier blending , chop the apple and pears and blend

with lemon juice to obtain a chunky apple sauce texture.

Mix in dried fruit and spices.

Pour into prepared crust and serve! Easy as pie.

My only complaint? A little wetter than baked pies.

But the filling is amazingly just like a cooled cooked apple pie!

Sooo tasty.

Emergency Freeform Pie, no lie: Part Six

Sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

We came home and we were in the mood for food.

After hitting a mall and taking out some hard-core holiday

shoppers we needed some sustenance- but comfort food

is what we were looking at. And since I have two more days

of pie to throw out there...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pie angels smiled down upon us once more.

They said unto Monkey-man,

"Do-a unto the crust what thou would do unto...

some flour and nondairy butter. Roll it out in a shape

like the sun and almighty creator's bum, but leave the

pan in the past, dear boy."

They spake at me then, beckoning the berries, sugar,

flour, ginger, nutmeg, and earthbalance.

"Mix it thrice more, oh witchy one, and it will taste of

supple sweetness. Add chocolate chips only if thou wishest

to sin in the greatest of ways."

"Oh Pie Angels, why didst thou not instructith me earlier

to relinquish the pan and fold my pies as such?" I bade them.

"Because you idiot," They replied. "You were making custard

and it would have gone all over the place."

And we baked it at 375F for 40 minutes.

And sweet and supple it was....

Cranberry-Chocolate Freeform Pie

1 pie crust recipe, enough for an average 9" pie

2 cups of cranberries or mixed berries

2/3 cup sugar (I did half raw sugar and half maple syrup)

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

a couple tablespoons vegan chocolate chips

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon of earthbalance

Roll out the pie crust into a circle. Mix all the other ingredients

together, except the earthbalance. Transfer the crust to the

middle of a baking sheet. Dump the filling into the center of the

crust and begin folding the edges up, pinching the dough together.

It is sort of a fan effect and looks very fancy-shamansy.

Although, its super easy once the swearing subsides.

Bake at 375F for about 40 Minutes with the exposed fruit

protected by a piece of foil...

To be used in emergencies only... (a loosely assigned status)

**Note: our crust was a little too thick, so it didn't reach in as

far as it should have, thats why it looks a little wonky.

But you should have a circle opening with about a 6 inch diameter.**

Dinner Pie, Oh My: Part Five

I've heard it said "Eat Dessert first, you never know when

you're gonna die." I strongly concur.

However, what if your dessert was hijacked by a dinner

disguising as a dessert. Like a pie, that wasn't your

average pie...

Yes my friends, I am talking about the dastardly meal

that is shepherds pie or worse yet pot pie. Shepherds pie

though is very often mislabeled... It actually is just a

veg and meat pie topped with potatoes and baked. Pot

pie actually has a pie crust.

I remember my dad making shepherd's pie when I was

a kid and I hated celery, so I never wanted to eat it.

And you have to admit that dinner pie isn't the most

photogenic or appetizing looking meals... So naturally,

as most children do, I had to give it a suitable nickname.

My Dad's shepherd pie became "Shepherd's Hulgh" --

as in a puking noise. I'm not sure how to spell that, but

you get the picture.

I feel pretty bad about this because my Dad is a damn

good cook and he doesn't cook nearly as much as he used

to, very sad. Also, I know that if I had his shepherd's pie today

I wouldn't be complaining.

We did a special take on the whole shepherd's pie idea today

for dinner... Our filling was just a load of mostly broccoli that

could be the base of a very good soup. (onions, garlic, broc,

carrots, sage, rosemary, bay leaf, soymilk, salt, pepper,

and a vegan roux).

Now the crust is what brings us back to the traditional sense

of shepherd's pie-- taders. Instead of lobbing some potatoes on

top we made a potato crust, as follows.

Potato Pie Crust

2 cups mashed potatoes, cooled

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp water

Mix all but water. Slowly add water until a ball is formed.

Divide and roll out in to about 1/8" thickness.

This is good for a 9" crust and up. We used an 8" pan and

still had some dough left over. Once the bottom

of the crust is in place, pierce some holes in it with a fork

and prebake for about 8 minutes at 350F.

Pour in your filling and apply the top crust. Cut a couple of

slits in it, so the heat can escape. Bake for 30 minutes or

until golden brown.

My Shepherds "hulgh!"

Hee hee looks like the pie puked though!

just a thought or two

Sorry folks, I'm busy getting ready for my last day of my grad

class this evening and I can't really focus on doing a decent

food blog today, but don't worry I do still owe you all

three more days of pie!

Instead I'm gonna throw out a quote for you all.

This is from Philip K. Dick's Voices from the Street.

Dick is a foundation science fiction writer, which I keep

find myself coming back to. Most notable he penned

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and Do Androids Dream

of Electric Sheep (later made into the movie Bladerunner).

'He leaned close to Hadley and grated in his ear: "It's like pumping

arsenic in a child's bloodstream. Billions of corpses of dead germs.

Ground up and pumped into the child. Diabolical! Read this article."

He pushed the magazine insistently against Hadley's wrist. "They

spread disease all over the world. The only real way to health, as any

sane person knows, is through proper eating. Remember, what you

put in your stomach comes out of your soul. Isn't that right?" He raised

his voice. "Isn't that right, Betty?"

"Yes Horace," Betty answered wearily as she lugged the two bottles

to the counter and sank down on her stool. "That will be a dollar forty,

Stuart."

Wakefield caught Hadley's wrist with his thin, cold fingers.

"You know what causes cancer? Eating meat. Pork and beef fat,

especially pork. Lamb fat is the most difficult substance known to

digest. It lodges in the lower gastrointestinal tract and putrefies.

Sometimes a lump of lamb fat lodges for weeks, rotting and stinking."

His lips drew back from his gold teeth in a grimace of disgust; behind

his steel-rimmed glasses his enlarged eyes danced excitedly. "A man

turns himself into a garbage dump. Stinking mounts of filth and

rubbish, flies and worms buzzing around. There's those trichinosis

worms in pork. They burrow into your muscles, all through your body.

Big soft white worms burrowing, burrowing..." He shuddered and

returned to his tapioca pudding. "Remember, Stuart," he said quietly

as he intently spooned up the last of the pudding. "What you put in

your stomach comes out of your soul."

Pondering Pie: Part Four

Yesterday I wrote about the two main ways of looking

at fruit pies, cream and custard pies have very much

the same division. You can always look at pies as being

cooked or uncooked. Well, not really uncooked, but more

'precooked'. I'm not even touching on 'raw pie' here, but

I am thinking on doing a post for that...

So custard pies are those that are baked in the end.

Of course the crust may be prebaked briefly before to

ensure

it doesn't get soggy when you add the filling, but it is again

baked after the filling is added. You could call these double-

baked pies. These would be your average custard pies, pumpkin

pies, sweet potatoes pies (maybe), etc.

When I used to consume eggs- we had rescued chickens and

many were separated from the roosters, so we used the

eggs that were not fertilized or my dad sold them to friends...

But I've been off the liquid chicken for sometime now-

I used to make an apple custard pie every full moon.

Green apples line the bottom and a spicy custard is poured

on top and it is baked.

Custard primarily is an egg mixture plus milk, sugar, vanilla

and some spices. So how do we substitute and achieve that

perfect custard smoothness in a twice-baked pie?

I've had excellent luck with silken tofu as an egg sub.

I think it was the main substitute for Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's

sweet potato pie...

For Pumpkin pie, I may add a little tofu to thicken a bit,

but usually I'll just use soymilk and cut back on the liquid

requirements in the recipe. It is really nice to just let the pumpkin or

squash stand alone. The flavour is really amazing.

But I know we all love that creamy texture. Try out tofu-

Silken Firm is the best, it the pack that comes vacuum packaged

and is not refrigerated. It is what I use in one of my favourite

creations, my 'Lover's Accident Pie'. I cannot divulge my entire

recipe to you but I will give you a break down of the tofu custard

that is used.

The Mini Custard

The real sized pie

For a Basic Tofu Custard

1 12-oz package of silken firm tofu

1/2 cup soymilk

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

Blend all ingredients except the arrowroot,

once smooth and creamy add the powder and blend

again. Pour into a pre-baked crust and bake at 375F

for about 40 minutes or until golden brown on top

and it appears to be setting up. Don't worry if it is

a little giggly, it will set up as it cools down a little too.

Now you can add any variety of spices here or use this to

set up a batter for something else. It adapts well into a

cheesecake if you add something to sour it or add more vanilla

to use it as a vegan creme brulee recipe...

Baked and creamy

Topped with cranberry syrup...

The other type of cream pie, which I haven't touched on

get is that which is poured into an entirely pre-baked crust

and chilled to set. The would be like a banana cream pie

or a pudding pie. The crust is baked about 15 minutes or

less depending on what type it is. You can use a graham

cracker crust which is pretty popular for these types of pie.

I don't make these too often because I'm not a huge pudding

person. I do make a really good chocolate pudding, but very

very rarely am I in the mood for it.

I would have pictures because I made one a couple months ago

for my grandparents, but it wasn't worth photographing

because they cut it up before it was entirely set and I didn't

feel like taking a picture of a blob of pudding was worth it.

You get it though: pudding cooked in a pan on the stove and

put into a prebaked crust and chilled= yum.

But definitely try out that vegan custard, its the foundation

for any good custard pie.

Pie Heaven: Part Three

So far we've talked about giving your pie crust a tune up

and exploring new corners of pie-dom, but I wanna jump

over to essentially what the basic principles of certain

pies are. Today... fruit pies.

Fruit pies can be made with a pre-baked crust and a soft

fruit by boiling a syrup separately and pour over the fruit

and cooked crust (berry pies)

or

by primarily making the fruit part of what becomes the

syrup during the baking period. (Apple Pie)

So by mixing the fruit with sugar, when baked the juices

of the fruit combine with the caramelizing sugars and

form a syrup/jam like filling.

I'm not saying this is written in stone and you'll never

find a pie that differs, but in general this is what you

will find and it will make baking pies a bit easier to

analyze.

For Thanksgiving at my Uncles I made a fruit pie

by combining these two techniques, as well as

the different flavours of fall.

Frankly, to me it is not Thanksgiving with out apples

and cranberries. So I mixed it up a little. I really wanted

to make a pie out of pears and put it all together.

As I said before, I combined the basic techniques.

I made a syrup with lime juice, maple syrup, cornstarch,

spices, and orange juice concentrate. I then poured it over

my fruit and allowed it to thicken up.

I filled the crust and baked it at 375F for about 40 minutes.

Honestly we didn't slice the fruit quite thin enough,

but it was quite the hit, despite the crispness. I'm probably

the only one that actually noticed.

Princess of Pies: Part Two

The pie parable continues...

Typically we are confronted by two kinds of pie right?

Custard/Cream Pies and Fruit pies.

Generally it is thought that pumpkin pie and sweet

potato pie fall somewhere in the middle if not make up

their own new category. What say I? Who gives a trixie's butt.

I love the idea of creating pies that no one would expect.

Or creating pies out of whatever you can scrape together.

For the vegan potluck we attended at Rancho Park in LA

on Thanksgiving, I made a winter fruit pie. Originally from

Catt Johnson's Witch in the Kitchen, I veganized it.

It uses a basic pastry crust, but I can imagine something like

a gingersnap or oatmeal crust being really good too.

The filling includes

3 cups of dried fruit (any, chopped)

I used apricots, raisins, golden raisins, and cranberries

2/3 cup vegan rum (white bacardi is good)

1/3 cup turbinado sugar

juice of one lemon or large lime

2 tbsp of earthbalance

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp sea salt

Mix all your dried fruit in a bowl, so its evenly distributed.

Heat the alcohol, sugar, juice, earthbalance, and seasonings

over a medium heat until it starts to thicken and bubble.

Add the vanilla and pour over the fruit, stirring to coat well.

Allow to sit about 20 minutes, so the fruit absorbs the syrup

and it can thicken a little. Pour into your prepped crust and

bake for about 20 minutes at 375F.

With the extra bits of crust, I shaped some autumn leaves and

placed them on top. Beautiful!

For more picture in this series checkout my facebook page!