Raw Vegan Coconut Cream Pie with Mango

I came back to D.C. in peak summer to find that our air conditioner is not working. This isn't the first time, and honestly it hasn't been that hot here. But the summer weather does make the prospect of rolling out all-butter pie dough seem like a daunting and altogether unpleasant task. In these situations of heat and humidity, I generally turn to an icebox pie (which I suppose this pie is a form of), but I've had this recipe for a raw, vegan, gluten-free, no-refined sugar Coconut Cream Pie in my back pocket for awhile now, so I thought it an opportune time to give it a go.

A few notes before you tackle this recipe--the ingredients are a little on the expensive side and you'll  need to be within striking distance of a Whole Foods or specialty grocery to get your hands on some of them. For the young coconut meat and coconut water, I recommend the Exotic Superfoods brand, which you should be able to find in the freezer section of most Whole Foods stores. You'll also want to eat the pie within a day of making it, as it does not keep especially well. That being said, this is a incredibly refreshing and exotically flavorful pie, especially considering that it is raw, involves no animal products, and contains no gluten or refined sugars! Because my blender is not the most powerful, the texture of my filling was akin to rice pudding, which I have no problem with, but a better blender could get it even smoother. Either way, this is a little tropical island kitchen treat, air conditioning or no.

Raw Vegan Coconut Cream Pie with Mango
From Carla Cabrera of The President Wears Prada

Ingredients
For the crust:
2 1/4 cup dried shredded coconut
1/3 cup extra virgin coconut oil
2 dates, pits removed
1 Tablespoon maple syrup or agave
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup finely diced mangos, to line the crust

For the filling:
2 cups young coconut meat
1/2 cup diced, peeled baby zucchini (the flavor is too strong with larger zucchini)
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked 30 minutes then drained
1/3 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1 1/4 cup fresh young coconut water
1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons maple syrup or agave
1/2 cup mango, diced, for decorating the top and sides
Fresh mint sprigs, for decorating the top (optional)

Directions
For the crust:
1. Place all crust ingredients except mangos in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the coconut oil is evenly distributed and the mixture is beginning to bind together. Scoop crust mixture into a deep 10-inch pie plate. Using a spoon, push the mixture up the sides to form a pie crust, approximately 1/4-inch thick. Chill for 30-60 minutes. Spread diced mangos on bottom of crust just before pouring in the filling.

For the filling:
1. Place all ingredients except mango and mint in a blender (I initially used a food processor, as pictured, but the blender achieves much smoother results) and process until smooth, repeatedly scraping down the sides of the blender. Mixture should be smooth, silky, creamy and thick. Pour into mango-lined chilled crust.

2. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. Shortly before serving, decorate the pie with additional diced mango and mint sprigs. Serve cold and eat immediately, as this only keeps well up to 1 day.

Related Recipe:
Gluten-Free Chocolate Coconut Pie

Vegan Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie!

Post contributed by my friend Justin in Baltimore...

Making vegan pecan pie is easy! I recently made my first, a chocolate bourbon vegan pecan pie, with great results, as pictured. I read a bunch of recipes, and followed along loosely with the three listed below to get an idea of measurements and ingredients:

Vegan Baking Recipe

American Food Recipe

Cupcake Punk Recipe

The basic idea is to make a sticky, sweet liquid mixture, combine that with about 2 cups of pecans that you've toasted in your pie crust, and bake at 350F for about 35 minutes.

If you're looking for a vegan pie crust recipe, I can recommend 1c all purpose flour, 1/4c water, 1/2c (or 4 oz) non-hydrogenated margarine or vegetable shortening, and a pinch of salt if your margarine isn't salted. Work that all together, put it in the fridge for a while, covered, if you have time, and roll it out when you're ready. For this recipe, you can pre-bake your crust and toast your pecans at the same time. Line your pie dish with your crust, then pour in the pecans, and put it in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes or so.

Choose a mix of sweeteners such as maple syrup, agave, corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar and water, brown rice syrup or whatever else you have on hand. Combine these in a pot with a little vanilla, a pinch of salt, 3 tablespoons or so of bourbon if you like, and heat over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring. Add a little corn starch at the end, then mix in your pecans, put it all in your pie crust, and bake it! If you want to add chocolate, put in some broken up pieces of baking chocolate or dark chocolate chips or a broken up bar right before you bake the pie.

Baltimore Birthday Pies

My friend Justin in Baltimore send in these birthday pie photos from our friend Anna's 30th birthday party. He said,

Here is some pie porn for you. I think Anna sent you a picture from this same occasion, her 30th birthday dinner in Baltimore. Needless to say, your pie day put us to shame, but here we have two delicious pies that are sorely missed, my savory vegetable with the birthday engraving, chickpeas, green beans, potatoes, carrots, onions, and assorted spices including fresh oregano and thyme...


as well as Bob's take on shepherd's pie featuring sweet potatoes, bleu cheese, peas, and I believe the meat was from a turkey.


Wish I could have been there! He also asked if I had a recipe for a vegan pecan pie. Anyone have a good one?

Davis & Dewald Thanksgiving 2008

Four pies this year!

I made the first two, a vegan pumpkin pie and apple pie, both repeats from the Obama party. My brother cut out this amazing turkey - wow!

The barley crust on the apple pie turned out great. Here's the recipe, adapted from Angelica's Kitchen cookbook:

4 cups barley flour
2 T maple syrup
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t sea salt
3/4 cup walnut oil

This made a very hardy crust that would be amazing with a savory pie.

After a delicious gluten-free vegan Thanksgiving dinner (it was really good), we went over to Meghan and Gahlord's house, and then the two of them, plus JT and Rachel, came back over to our house for pie. Greg made maple whip to go with these beautiful pies that Meghan made.

The first is an apple-quince tart with sour cream - very original and rich with an amazing shortbread-like crust. The second is a Japanese squash pie that was as creamy as cheese cake and perfectly baked.

Greg about to enter the PEZ

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

From the kitchen of Andi Whitaker, my bff in Berea, Ohio:

Because I'm off of eggs and milk for a little while, I figured I just wasn't going to get any pie this Thanksgiving. That's a pretty unbearable thought, no? So I tested out this recipe last night: 

Vegan "Punkin" Pie 

Take 1 package (12 oz) of soft tofu. Blenderize it.
Add 1 small can (15 oz) of punkin. Re-blenderize.
Add 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of ginger and 1/4 tsp of clove. Tri-blenderize.

Pour into 9" graham cracker crust. (I guess you could make your own, but I had a toddler clinging to my leg, so I used a store-bought crust.)

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 min, then turn down to 350 and bake for 40 min. Let cool and resist the urge to add whipped cream.

The photo doesn't look like much, but it was extra tasty. I give it a big thumbs up. I'm going to do an apple crumble (with apples from our tree!) for Thanksgiving day. I hope it's as good!

Baltimore Pie Party (People)!

Last month we had a pie party at Jamie, Anna, and Dana's house in Baltimore. We decided to make an Apple-Rhubarb-Pear-Basil pie after viewing this post on feeding maybelle. We tweaked it a little and I wrote down our recipe, but now cannot find it, alas. Basically, I made the crust using the standard Nothing-in-the-House crust recipe. Then, Jamie cut the apples and pear (about 2 cups, and acquired at the Baltimore Farmers' Market):and picked the basil in the backyard: Anna cut the rhubarb (about 2 cups): and made the basil simple syrup with one leaf basil, sugar, and water: (I like how the filling bowl looks like fluted crust!)

We combined the fruit, simple syrup (added no additional sugar), spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger & cloves), put it in the filling, topped with a crust, designed with basil leafs cut out and in relief:
Then we invited friends. and pies. Bob made a delicious vegan savory pie, topped with mashed potatoes and filled with TVP, and an assortment of fresh veggies. He's seen happily cutting it here: Justin and Becca also brought a gourmet vegan savory pie, my favorite of the night. With a gravy and all sorts of yummy veggies. It's pictured here on the left, with Bob's pie on the right, and a can of National Bohemian (NattyBo, Baltimore's beer) in the corner: For dessert we had the rubapple pear basil pie, which turned out great, with the tang of the rhubarb, sweet of the syrup, and a pleasantly subtle basil flavor, and a scrumptious pumpkin pie brought by Katie and Katie from their excursion to a nearby orchard.
Here's Justin and Becca in the post-Pie Enjoyment Zone:and Jamie, who Nothing-in-the-House photographers caught licking his plate: We ate 4 pies, listened to Fleetwood Mac, and made lots of jokes. Baltimore Pie Party, People! (who want to know what kind of pie you are making for the biggest pie party of all, Thanksgiving)!?!

Dede's Savory Pies

Jamie just sent me this e-mail about his latest great pie experience...

oh man
we made the best savory pies the other day!!
my friends build a "brick oven" outside and we cooked em up in there.
oh man

the pies were of two varieties:
AMERICAN pie
and CURRY pie

both were vegan (my friend justin ruined the fun for the rest of us)
but were so tasty that i couldn't fault him this night for his overly
ascetic habits.
one pie picture should be included with this email, but more are
available at www.flickr.com/photos/annamessing

hope all is sweet and savory with you!

JAS

a subsequent e-mail added more detail...

crust used a product called "BUTTERY STICKS." it might have been made by earth balance. can't remember though. the crusts were actually excellent. the innards were, potatoes, carrots, onions, seitan, garlic, green onions, for both, and the seasoning was adjusted to render each either "AMERICAN" or "CURRY." a pie in my eye!

(Pie Enjoyment Zone)

George Washington Cherry Pie

I made this pie today for Thanksgiving at Meghan and Gahlord's house because I wanted to make a light pie that would be relatively low on the glycemic index. I had Gahlord in mind. Cherries are lower than many fruits, and the pie has very little refined sugar in it, using apple cider and the sweetness of cherries instead, except for the topping, in which I reduced the sugar but still used it because, well, it's Thanskgiving. Here's the recipe:
  
George Washington Cherry Pie
 
Ingredients:
1 1/3 c. wheat flour
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 c. canola oil
1/2 c. + 1/3 c. apple cider
4 c. fresh or frozen cherries
2 Tblsp. arrowroot powder
1/2 c. all purpose flour (could use wheat)
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tblsp. butter

For the crust:
1. Combine and sift 1 1/4 cups wheat flour and 1/4 t sea salt. Add 1/4 cup canola or other oil and combine until oil is in pea-sized clumps. Add about 1/2 cup of apple cider and just mix, adding more cider if you need to. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. 
2. Roll out crust as thin as you can and put in a greased pie plate. Weigh it down to prevent bubbling in the oven with another pie plate filled with dried beans (or whatever technique you like). Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes until it just starts to brown.

For the filling:
Pit and half 4 cups of fresh cherries (I used frozen ones from this summer, already pitted). Put in a sauce pan with 1/4 cup of apple cider and simmer until cherries are good and soft, about 10 minutes. If you have a ridiculous amount of liquid, pour some off and drink it and think of my mother, who always does this! Combine 1/4 cup apple cider with 2 T arrowroot powder and add to cherries. Turn off heat. It should gel up.

For the crumb topping:
Combine 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 T butter.

Put the pie together; you know how. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 more minutes, until the topping browns lightly. You might also want to put a tray underneath the pie because it might leak!

Shepherd's Pie

Hi, friends. I made this shepherd's pie last Saturday, just as I was becoming stricken with tonsilitis. It had porcini mushrooms, lentils, carrots, celery and onions for the "meat" and rosemary, garlic mashed potatoes for the potatoes. The crust was a crazy bisquik-type batter with tons of vinegar in it that turned out great. It took a long time to make but was easy to do in my nice new kitchen. Then we had Emily and Ben over, and then Greg and I had it again for dinner the next night. Awesome good vegan dinner pie goodness care of (who else?) Angelica Kitchen. And Mandy.