By min | October 23, 2012, 8:58 PM | Vegan Vittles | Link

Baking Day

I made some stuff.

me (at 11pm): aw, i didn't even get to make croissants.

fnord12: Please don't make any more food.

To be fair, that full-sized pie is going to a friend. And i didn't intend to make pumpkin bread, but i had extra pie filling and no more crusts to put it in.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Pie Crust Ingredients

• 3/4 cup white flour
• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 6 T butter, cold and cut into cubes (we like Earth Balance sticks)
• 1/2 vegan egg (we like Ener-G egg replacer)
• 4 tsp ice water
• 1 T non-dairy milk

Yield: 1 Single Crust (up to 10")

In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt and mix to combine. Add 3 T of the butter (half) and continue mixing until the mixture holds together when you clump it, and there are pecan-sized lumps of butter still visible.

Meanwhile, whisk together egg replacer, ice water, and milk in small bowl.

Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and process until a dough forms. Add remaining butter and pulse in short bursts a few times to incorporate. There should be small clumps of butter in the dough. Wrap and refrigerate for several hours. (The dough will keep for several days in the fridge and several weeks in the freezer.)

Roll out as needed. Chill the pie shell for about 30 minutes before baking.

Pumpkin Pie Ingredients

• 29oz can solid-packed pumpkin purée
• 3/4 cup rich non-dairy milk (we like Silk Soy Creamer)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 T molasses
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice or ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

If you're one of those industrious types, you could actually use fresh pumpkin. Cut up a fresh sugar pumpkin and steam the pieces so the insides are nice and scrapeable (there are plenty of instructions on how to do this on the interwebs). Just make sure to drain it for several hours in a hanging cheesecloth else you'll have pumpkin soup in a pie crust bowl instead. I did this once. Notice the recipe i am giving you uses canned pumpkin.

If the puréed pumpkin looks a bit lumpy, whir it around in a food processor first.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine all of the ingredients (sift the cornstarch post-measuring) and whisk until well combined.

Pour the filling into the prepared pastry shell. Cover the edges with foil and bake for 30 min at 350degF. Reduce temperature to 325degF, uncover crust edges, and bake for an additional 30 min.

Allow pie to sit in cooling oven. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

Mini Pies: Seeing as i ended up with extra filling, i couldn't say for sure what the proper proportions should be. It's something close to 2/3 of the pie crust recipe plus 1/2 of the filling recipe. Using a round cutter slightly larger than the top diameter of one cup of a muffin tin, cut out circles of dough. Drop the dough into the greased muffin cups, making sure to center. "Crimp" the edges by making small indentations with a chopstick-like utensil. Fill each up and bake for half the time as a full-sized pie.

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil (we usu use canola)
• 2 vegan eggs (we like Ener-G Egg Replacer)

• 1/3 cup water
• half of a 15oz can solid-packed pumpkin purée (or if you don't know what to do with an unused half can of pumpkin mush, just double the recipe and use the whole can)
• 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Yield: 8 mini loaves or 1 9-inch loaf

Grease the pan.

If your pumpkin looks a bit lumpy, whir it around in a food processor until smooth. Whisk together the sugar, oil, and egg replacer. Add the water and pumpkin. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add half of the dry mixture to the pumpkin mix. Stir gently until just combined. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients.

Spoon batter into the pan, filling about halfway. Bake at 350degF for 30-35 min or until an inserted pointy thing into the middle comes out clean.

Cool for 10 min before removing from pan and cooling on a wire rack.

Vegan Gingersnaps

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter (we like Earth Balance)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 vegan egg (we like Ener-G)
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of ground cloves

Yield: ~30 cookies

Cream the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and egg and beat until smooth.

Sift the flour with baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until well blended.

Use a cookie scoop to scoop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350degF.

To be honest, these cookies aren't all that snappy. They are a bit crisp on the bottom, especially right after they come out of the oven, but for the most part, they're more of a "gingerchewy". And when i make them extra buttery (cause why wouldn't you?), they're ginger-unsnaps of deliciousness. That's the same recipe with an extra 1/4 cup of butter, if you're interested.

I love the cookies and i love the bread, but let's face it - the only reason for pumpkin pie is to have a way to shovel whipped cream into your face without being too conspicuous. Mini pies are surprisingly efficient as whipped cream shovels.