Vegan Pie Crust

This pie crust I found here, but I made my own adaptation because I didn't have margarine (we are non-margarine eaters in our house). For good information, be sure to read to original. I did not reprint all the info, because its alot to type. I just included my own adaptation below.

It was simple to do, super flaky, stood up well to a high moisture pie and tasted great. I'm generally not a fan of pie, mostly because I don't like the crust (too soggy, edges are burned, bland or bitter flavor). But I have to admit, this crust was a huge success! I love it and I will use it again. Blueberries are coming into season and I'm already looking forward to some blueberry pie! If you are nice to me, I'll share it with you!

A few rules of thumb when making any pie crust:
1) Handle the dough as little as possible
2) Resist the urge to overmix
3) Be sure your liquids are ice-cold

VEGAN PIE CRUST
makes two 9-inch pie crusts

2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
1 t salt
3/4 C Coconut Oil (find it at Ingles in the baking aisle or at Bloom in the gluten-free section)
1/2 C vegetable shortening
1/4 C ice cold water
3 T ice cold vodka

Combine flour sugar and salt in the bowl of your food processor (just give it a quick pulse or two to combine). Add the shortening and coconut oil and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand - about 3-5 pulses if I remember correctly (you will have a few larger pieces of fat-that's okay). Resist the urge to overmix (the larger pieces or fat in the crust are what makes it flaky).

Drizzle half of the chilled water and vodka over the mixture and gently toss with your fingers (or do what I did and just give it a pulse in the processor). Drizzle the other half in and toss again (just one more pulse). Some parts may seem wet, and other parts dry. Thats okay.

Dump the dough out onto your counter. With as little handling as possible, compress the dough with your hands. Cut the dough in half, wrap each piece in plastic wrap and shape into a 4" disk. Refrigerate for one hour or freeze up to 6 months.

When you are ready to bake, cut two pieces of parchment paper to 12 inch by 12 inch size. Roll the dough out between the two sheets until its about 12-inches in diameter. Peel the top paper off, invert the crust over your pan and gently lay into your pan. Peel the other paper off and gently with your hands, work the crust into the corners of the pan.

If you have a few holes, patch them gently with scraps or push the dough together. Cut the dough overhanging the edge of the pan to leave a 1/2" overhang. Gently fold the outer edge underneath the crust. Flute the edge with your fingers or a fork. Prick the shell with a fork on the bottom. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.



Unbaked Pie Shell (see the striations of shortening and coconut oil?)


If you are prebaking the crust, cut a piece of parchment paper about 12"x12" and place it in the shell. Fill the shell with pie weights or dried beans. Bake at 425 degrees. I always use a pie sheld, because for some reason, my crust always gets too dark on the edges, but you don't have to.

Place the shell on a cookie sheet and place on the lowest rack setting. Bake for 15 minutes, the remove the paper and the weights. Rotate the pie 180 degrees and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool completely before filling.




Fully baked pie Shell (Golden brown)

Groceries

I know this is slightly off topic - but we do have to buy the ingredients for all these wonderful recipes somewhere....

So, I want to give a shout out to the Clemson Ingles. I am so excited that they keep adding new products so I don't have to drive to Greenville!! I (along with others, I suspect) have been making product requests at the front desk when I can't find something that I would buy there if they carried it.

A short list of some the new helpful products I saw today:
- Vegan sour cream and vegan cream cheese (in the produce section with the tempeh and tofurky)
- Coconut oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower oil (baking aisle)
- Soy yogurt (with the yogurt)
- Coconut milk (dairy section)

Some of these may have been there for a while, but I requested the sour cream and cream cheese about a month ago and have been actively looking for them. The others I just happened to notice today.

Now, I'm on to requesting Coconut milk yogurt and Amy's quarter pound veggie burgers!!

Maybe if we take time to share the items we would like be able to buy locally and help each other by making requests they will show up on the shelves!

Banana Ice Cream

Kerri told me about this super easy recipe - it's here. It's frozen bananas, blended into ice cream. No dairy.

We've made it twice now and the kids have gobbled it down both times. Last time we made it with absolutely no milk - just let the bananas thaw a little bit before adding to the food processor. A little cinnamon and vanilla and voila! Dessert!!

Since it's starting to really warm up, I thought I'd post it. Plus, I have a cute picture of a certain missy trying to lick the remnants of her ice cream out of her bowl.

Oh My! Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups!

I checked out The Kind Diet from the library. I have heard good things about it. It is an interesting read. Glad I got it, but not sure if I will use a lot of things from it. I tried a couple of recipes, one of them being these chocolate peanut butter cups. I am a hug fan of chocolate and peanut butter and these looked awesome.

The recipe has you heat up the peanut butter mixture and add it to muffin cups. Then you melt the chocolate and spread it on top. I really couldn't get mine to spread in an even layer, so they ended up really an opposite peanut butter chocolate cups. Darn. After assembly, you put it in the fridge to let it set.





Oh my!



I think I made these on saturday. Mark doesn't like peanut butter desserts so I was going to post them and invite everyone to come over and have one. However, they were all gone on Tuesday.

Maybe I will make another batch this week. Maybe I will tell you...maybe I won't!

Red Beans and Rice

I made this recipe pretty much right after "the change". As I was making Mark commented "I love red beans and rice!" Really? Well, okay. At any rate, this is a good recipe with lots of smoky elements. The directions say to cook until the beans start to disintergrate, but I have never gotten them to do that. I have even tried the fancy smancy non-generic beans. Jennie - you will have to weigh in on how authetic this recipe is!

Real Louisiana Red Beans and Rice

1 pound dry red kidney beans (if you're in Louisiana, only Camellia brand will do)
4 cloves garlic
1 very large onion (about 2 cups chopped)
4 ribs celery
1 large bell pepper (about 1 1/2 cups chopped)
3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4-1 teaspoon red pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1-2 teaspoons chopped chipotle pepper, in adobo (this is not traditional but lends a smoky taste; substitute another tsp. of Liquid Smoke seasoning if you prefer)
1/2-1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke
salt, to taste
cooked rice, to serve

Tip: Start off lightly with the red and black pepper and Tabasco sauce; you can always add more at the end.

Cover the beans with water 2 inches over beans and soak overnight. Or, bring beans to a boil for one minute, remove from heat, and soak for at least an hour. Drain beans and rinse.

Put the beans back in the pot and cover them with water 2 inches above level of beans. Put over high heat to begin cooking while you prepare the other ingredients.

You're going to want to chop the garlic, onion, celery, and bell pepper very finely, and the fastest and best way to do this is in a food processor. I throw the 4 peeled cloves of garlic in first, and then add the onion, quartered, and pulse until finely chopped. Add this to the pot on the stove, and then do the same thing with the celery and bell peppers, adding each to the beans. Add the remaining ingredients, except the salt and the rice.

When the beans reach a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring every now and then, until they are completely tender and falling apart. This can take anywhere from 2 to 3 hours, depending upon the age of your beans. (Add more water as necessary to keep them hydrated.) When they are completely tender, add the salt to taste, and check the seasonings. Add any additional spices you want, and cook for at least 10 more minutes, until sauce is thick and beans are disintegrating. Remove the bay leaves, and serve over rice.

Note: If your beans are old, they may never disintegrate, or at least not in time for dinner. What you have to do is take out a bunch of them, mash them up well, and add them back into the pot (or use a hand blender right in the pot). Then proceed as though they had fallen apart on their own. I won't tell anyone if you don't!

I served it with brown rice cooked in the oven. If you don't have a rice cooker, I highly recommend this method!



I also served it with cornbread. I think some of you have been trying to find a good recipe. I use this one. I like it. It is a little denser than non-vegan cornbread, but I really like it. I don't add all the maple syrup it calls for. Why do people from the north think that us in the south add sugar to everything?

Warm Provencal Salad

I'll have you know that I rarely turn on daytime TV. But a while back, I think when both of my children were still taking two naps, I flipped on the Rachael Ray show. Normally she bugs me, but I guess at the time I just felt like chillin in front of the tube for a bit.

It just so happens that she had a pretty good recipe she was demonstrating that day. Find the original here. The original contains chicken, but I didn't need to modify it much to make it vegan.

When I cook, I like to have everything mise-on-place, so I can just crank it out when Nick walks through the door. Therefore, I've rewritten it the vegan way below, with my adaptations to make it a bit easier to put together at crunch time. After the prep work has been done (which may take about 30 minutes), it should go together in about 15 minutes.

Also, as its written, it makes a ton - more than 2 adults and 2 toddlers can eat and I don't think it keeps all well as a leftover. I recommend halving the recipe.

This is one our faves:

2 pounds baby white or yellow potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
4 small onions, sliced into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
8-10 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2-2/3 cup EVOO, divided
Salt and pepper
1 pound trimmed green beans or asparagus, halved
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup black pitted Nicoise olives
1 shallot, coarsely chopped
A small handful of fresh sage leaves
A small handful of fresh tarragon (or a teaspoon dried)
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 cup flat leaf parsley, loosely packed
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 cups arugula
1 baguette

In advance:

Slice the onions and potatoes and trim the greens. Nuke the potatoes until they are about 3/4 of the way done. This will dramatically shorten your cooking time. Toss is a bowl with the onions, garlic, a little EVOO to coat. Set aside until approx 15 mins before dinner time. (FYI, if you don't know how to crush garlic, peel off the skin, lay it on the counter and lay the side of a chef's knife on top. Give it a hard whack with the heel of your hand. It crushes easily.)

Set the trimmed greens aside in a different bowl.

In your large serving bowl (it sounds like we're using alot of bowls, but its not really all that bad) combine the arugula, tomatoes and olives. Set aside.

In a small food processor, combine the the shallot, herbs and mustard and season with salt and pepper. Pulse-chop to finely chop the mixture, then stream in about 1/4-1/3 cup EVOO to form a pesto-like sauce. Refrigerate until you are ready to eat.

About 15 mins before you are ready to eat, fire up your broiler.

Place the potatoes, onions and crushed garlic on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and place in the oven. Broil for about 5-10 minutes (depending on how your oven cooks), flipping them to achieve browning on all sides.

Toss your trimmed greens with EVOO to coat and season with salt and pepper. When potatoes are about 3-5 minutes from being done, toss the greens on the tray and allow to broil with the potatoes.

When the veggies are done, add them to the arugula mixture in your serving bowl and toss with the dressing. Serve with a crusty baguette.

Yumm-o (did I just write that?)

Vegan Pancakes

Amy H asked for this recipe. It is a great basic recipe. I usually double it and make it Saturday mornings, our little "pancake day". Andy loves them! It is from Vegan with a Vengance by Isa Chandra Mosokowitz.

Pancakes

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (have used part whole wheat with good results)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (optional, but I'd do it!)
2 TB canola oil or other
1/3 cup water
1 to 1 1/4 cup rice or soy milk (I use unsweetened almond)
1 tsp vanilla
2 TB maple syrup

Preheat skillet. Add oil if necessary.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. I just stir with a whisk. In a separate bowl (or measuring cup), combine all other ingredients. Add wet to dry ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix, a couple of lumps are ok.

Cook pancakes until browned on bottom and bubbles form on top, about 4 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until browned and barley firm to touch. Transfer to another plate. Repeat with remaining batter.

Enjoy!