Vegan Chocolate Silk Pie

I was seven when my dad switched to an entirely raw food diet. Being seven, I ate what he ate, which included raw tomato sauce (ick), zucchini noodles (love ’em now, but with a quick sauteé please), and different types of dehydrated flatbreads. Needless to say, his diet changes prompted me to learn how to cook and bake.

In the past years my dad has relaxed his diet and now will eat soft-boiled eggs, cooked fish, and yogurt occasionally, but he still shies away from most desserts. This chocolate silk pie was my father’s day gift to my dad and the rest of my family. By the end of dinner, there wasn’t a single slice left. Success.

As I mentioned in my last post, college has been pretty chaotic and I haven’t had time or the supplies to cook, but I did make a pretty delicious pistachio smoothie the other day, so I’ll try to remake it and share that soon. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Vegan Chocolate Silk Pie

Easiest pie ever. So silky, so delicious.

Makes 1 pie, which is about 12 normal servings (the cake is super rich ah) or 8 super generous servings.

Crust:

• 1/2 cup dates
• 2 1/2 cups assorted nuts (I used: half almonds, quarter pecans, quarter walnuts; salted nuts are ok, but will introduce a sweet salty element to the crust)
• 2 tbs coconut oil

Filling:

• 2 cups cashews, soaked overnight or boiled for 4 minutes
• 1 3/4 cup unsweetened cashew milk
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 6 oz dark chocolate, melted
• 2 tbs dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extact
• 1/2 tsp salt

To prepare the crust, pulse the dates, nuts, and coconut oil in a food processor until the mixture is crumbly, but beginning to stick together. Press into the bottom and sides of a greased springform pan. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

To make the filling, combine all the filling ingredients in a high-power blender and blend until completely smooth (no lumps or chunks!).

Pour into the crust and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. If desired, press fresh raspberries into the top of the pie before serving. Serve as is, or to be extra fancy, add a dollop of coconut cream to the top of each slice.

 

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Crustless Pumpkin Pie!

(It’s pretty ugly, I know.)

I have no clue why I like pumpkin pie so much. Technically, I think it should revolt me. I don’t like squash, can only stand sweet potato in fry form, and am I firm believer in keeping sugar and vegetables separate. I don’t even like mushy foods.

There’s absolutely no reason why I should be obsessed with a pie that’s basically soft, sweetened squash, but considering this is my third post about pumpkin pie and I’m just approaching 50 recipes, clearly I am. It’s not even a phase! I briefly had another food blog two years ago, and even with only 10 posts, pumpkin pie made an appearance. I might have a problem.

This year, I didn’t even have cake for my birthday – I HAD PUMPKIN PIE – and I’ve been eating pumpkin pie as breakfast (and dessert) for the past three days straight. Is there a pumpkin pie eaters anonymous club I can go to?

Please?

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

Adapted from here.

See when you’re obsessed with pumpkin pie as I, you don’t want any crust distracting you from the real goodness – the filling. So here’s a crustless pumpkin pie recipe I adore. The pie pictured was really just me throwing ingredients together so it turned out a little more custardy than I prefer, but I’ve made the recipe below several times and the pie is always perfect. I even have a picture!

• 1 can PURE pumpkin puree (15 oz)
• 1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I just add heaps of cinnamon, and a little nutmeg, cloves and allspice)
• ½ cup biscuit baking mix (NOTE: For a more custardy texture, I’d reduce this to ¼ cup, OR, I’d  do what I did for pumpkin pie first pictured and add ¼ cup potato starch instead.)
• ¾ cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon molasses (optional, but adds a great flavor)

1. Combine everything but the biscuit baking mix in a food processor. Blend until combined.
2. Add the biscuit baking mix and pulse until smooth.
3. Bake in a greased pie pan for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
4. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream!

Oh, and I forgot to say, Happy Thanksgiving! I’m still recovering from my family’s chaotic nineteen people affair. (Partially because I ate my weight in food.)

Healthy Chocolate Pudding Pie [vegan]

(Healthy) Chocolate Pudding Pie-Vegan 

A few years ago I made a batch of tofu chocolate pudding and was absolutely enamored with it.  It was SO simple to make and I ended up eating a whole batch, thinking tofu automatically made it a health food (not that you can taste more than a hint of soy).  Flash forward to a couple months ago, when I saw a recipe for a Chocolate Bar Pie on a wonderful (healthy) dessert blog called Chocolate Covered Katie (she has recipes which make even me LOVE garbanzo beans). Yum yum yum!

I realized, looking at her gorgeous pictures, that my life called for some serious tofu chocolate pie.  Not one to follow recipes, I kinda took a glance at the recipe on CCK, and ended up guessing ingredients and their amounts.  To my surprise, it was a experimental success (trust me, my experiments aren’t usually so pretty, haha).  I made a chocolate shortbread crust for the pie, and it complemented the silkiness of the filling really nicely.  I would continue rambling about the pie (and I could, believe me!), but it’s five in the morning (hello jetlag, you have too much power over me), and I think I should go back to sleep.  G’night or good morning, and until next time!

Chocolate Tofu Pie

Inspiration from Chocolate Covered Katie’s Chocolate Bar Pie

Crust:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter [vegan butter, if desired]

1. Add the flour, cocoa, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Cut the stick of butter into thin slices, and add to the bowl.
3. With your finger, work the butter into the dry ingredients until a crumbly dough forms.
4. Press the dough into a greased pie pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
5. Allow to cool completely.

Filling:

• 1 container of silken tofu, 16 ounces, drained
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (half a 12 ounce bag)
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 pinch salt

1. Melt the chocolate chips, and stir until smooth.
2. Place all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.  Easy peasy!
3. Pour into the cooled pie shell and refrigerate until the filling holds its shape.
4. Garnish with chocolate shavings and fresh berries. 🙂

EDIT: Gave a slice to my friend who’s really finicky about Tofu and she liked it.  Success!

Blueberry Crumble Bars

A quick note from Chomps of Life:

Guess what?  My amazing brother has generously bought me the domain name chompsoflife.com! Yee!  That means that if you want to get to this blog, you can now omit the .tumblr.com. Much easier, amirite?

Now back to the blog:

Today’s recipe is brought to you by the various times my dad’s gone to the Farmer’s Market, and arrived home with a giant paper bag filled to the rim with blueberries.  Although I knew that my family was completely capable of eating all those berries raw, I knew that an even more delicious use of them would be baked, preferably in a pie.  I, being an extremely lazy baker, looked for a recipe that could satisfy my appetite, and my couch-potato personality.  This blueberry crumble is it! It only requires making one simple dough for the crust and crumble, and an even simpler blueberry mixture for the filling.  If you’re a lazy baker, make this today, and if you’re not, make it anyways and realize how wonderful laziness can be.

Blueberry Crumble Bars

adapted from here

• 1 cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. In a bowl, combine ½ cup of the white sugar with the brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

2. Blend in the vanilla, butter, and egg to form a crumbly dough.

3. Pat half of the dough into a greased 9×13 inch pan.

4. In another bowl, combine the blueberries, other ½ cup of white sugar, and cornstarch.

5. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the dough, then crumble the remaining dough on top of the blueberry mixture.

6. Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees, or until the top is golden brown.

7. Cool completely, cut into squares, and enjoy!