It is as Easy as Vegan Pie

In the never ending slew of arbitrary holidays, like national donut day, squirrel appreciation day, and bring your daughter to work day, I finally remember that's it's national pie day! Normally I would celebrate pie day in March, but hey, this arbitrary holiday finally works in my favor. I was offered a review copy of Hannah Kaminsky's newest cookbook Easy As Vegan Pie back in October. The holidays came and I got all sorts of bogged down, and three months later I am finally done baking three of the pies so I can give you a complete opinion!

I made the speculoos pumpkin pie first thing. It was October, and I was set on trying a new kind of pumpkin pie. The speculoos filling sounded like it would make the typical pumpkin pie heavy and maybe a teeny bit too rich, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much lighter it was than I expected. It was creamy and gently spiced. A delightful new twist on an old favorite. I over-baked mine a teeny bit so the top cracked, but it was nothing some coconut whip and coconut whip beating with additional speculoos spread couldn't fix. If I hadn't been so set on trying Hannah's perfect pie crust recipe, I would have probably tried it with a speculoos cookie crust too.


The cannoli pie was next on my to-bake list. Made from a rich cashew mascaparone and an ice cream cone crust, you can't go wrong. It was rich and satisfying. The cannoli pie recipe was unlike anything I have ever made before, which is something I have come to expect from Hannah's books. She has a knack for twisting classics into something new & refreshing.
I made the Greek silk pie just after New Years. Made with containers of Greek style coconut or almond yogurt, it was a much healthier twist on silk pie. While much more resolution friendly than you average pie, I felt the need to top it with more whip and an extra dusting of cocoa powder to fully indulge my sweet tooth.

There are so many more recipes I plan on working my way through. Hello snickerdoodle pie, we'll be officially meeting before the end of winter. Her lemon chia seed meringue is first on my list for the spring, and the Southern girl in me was thrilled about the chess pie! Aside from the phenomenal recipes, there's beautiful photographs to accompany each pie and all sorts of phenomenal sides & toppings to further enhance your baking like coconut bacon, vegan honey syrup, & speculoos cookies.
For the gluten free folks Hannah has provided a great tart shell recipe, and for those inclined towards the savory side there's all sorts of quiche, tarts, & even a wasabi pea pie! If you haven't added Easy As Vegan Pie to your bookshelf yet, I highly recommend it.

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake with Speculoos Crust

As the last few days of October are winding up I had to rethink what I was going to make a little more closely. I decided to combine a few of my things and make a pumpkin vanilla swirl cheesecake with a speculoos cookie crust. I always see pumpkin cheesecakes with gingersnap crusts, so I decided to tweak it and go with speculoos instead. I also have been trying to use more cookbooks, so I went with a recipe from Emily Mainquist's Sweet Vegan. I thought that I had all the ingredients, but when I started making the filling last night, I realized that somehow 2 of my 3 containers of Tofutti cream cheese had some sneaky little chunks missing. I ended up replacing the missing ~6 oz of cream cheese with vegan sour cream since the ingredients are pretty similar and the taste isn't too different either in my opinion. This might have led to my cheesecake setting a bit more softly than with all cream cheese, but no one seemed to mind. I also added a half tablespoon of vanilla bean paste to the vanilla cream cheese filling, and at least an additional teaspoon of cinnamon to the pumpkin cream cheese filling. I think pumpkin pie is pretty boring, so I was happy to know that this works & would be a fun substitute for the upcoming holiday dessert table.


Speculoos Cookie Crust
enough for an 8-9" cheesecake
13 ounces Speculoos Cookies (one & a half packages)
1/2 to 3/4 cup Earth Balance cinnamon spread
Crush the cookies to crumbs in a food processor. While those are being pulsed, melt the Earth Balance in the microwave. Pour over the cookie crumbs and mix with hands until the butter is fully incorporated. Start with 1/2 cup of melted Earth Balance. If the cookie crumbs still aren't wet enough to hold together when you squeeze it in your hands, then add the remaining spread. Press into the pan's bottom and up the sides. Bake as directed for your preferred cheesecake filling. If you want to use the regular spread, it will be just as good, but the kick of extra spice is really nice here, so I would add a half teaspoon of cinnamon to the cookie crumbs.
After the cheesecake baked I let it set overnight, then topped it with dollops of coconut whip cream and halves of the remaining speculoos cookies leftover from the crust recipe. I was glad to have so many people home from the storm so that I wasn't tempted to eat more than one slice of this cheesecake! Do you have a favorite cheesecake recipe? This is the first one I have ever made. I have never been a huge cheesecake fan until recently. Now that I found a nice springform pan at the thrift store for $2 I feel a lot more compelled to try a few recipes!

Speculoos Pudding

Speculoos Pudding
makes 4 small cups or 2 large servings

1 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk
8 oz speculoos spread
2 tbl cornstarch
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of white pepper
In a sauce pan combine 1 cup of milk and half of speculoos spread. Whisk on medium heat until all of the spread has melted into the milk. Add the remaining speculoos spread and spices and whisk until it is dissolved. Allow mixture to come to a low boil. In a small bowl combine remaining 3/4 cup milk with vanilla and cornstarch. Slowly pour this into the saucepan while whisking to combine. The mixture should thicken fairly quickly. You must cook this on medium to low heat and whisk continuously or the pudding will burn on the bottom of the pan.
Pour into small dishes and allow to cool for an hour. Top with crumbled speculoos cookies.

This pudding is incredibly simple and only takes a few minutes. It is great cool, but also could be served warm if you so desire. The spices are really what enhances the flavor of the speculoos, so you won't want to leave them out!
The dishes in the photo are also from Anthropologie. I went on a teeny shopping spree earlier in the week, and bought one of all 6 colors that I saw. They were on sale for $2 each! I might have also bought the napkin on the same day from World Market. Whoops! My kitchen wares are slowly taking over the majority of my space. I really need to start doing some purging & reorganizing.

Apple Speculoos Muffins

Last winter I finally found speculoos spread and sort of went wild. I might have overdosed on it. I couldn’t really look at it for a few months. But now with the mornings and evenings being cool again and the leaves turning colors, I had to break it back out. I found a half empty jar tucked under a few bags of ancient pasta when I was cleaning out my kitchen. I was going out of town for a few days, and I wanted to use as many things as I could before I left, so I found a way to combine speculoos spread and apples into muffins. This might sound like an odd combination to you too, but I thought what the hell, I might as well try it.
I made these muffins the morning I was flying to Nashville. I have learned from experience that it is always a good idea to bring snacks to the airport with me. And it proved to be true yet again. We sat in the airport for just around 4 hours waiting for the flight crew to show up so we could board our plane. We might have also eaten a bag of Sour Patch Kids, but hey, I’m a stress eater. And I probably would have snacked a lot more if we had driven the 12 hours home. So I count it as a win.


Apple Speculoos Muffins
makes five jumbo muffins

1 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup speculoos spread
1 tsp vanilla extract
egg replacer for 1 egg- I used Ener-G but I think flax would be great
1 apple, diced

In medium sized bowl combine all dry ingredients. In small bowl whisk together oil, speculoos, and vanilla. Fold wet into dry with a rubber spatula and then add the diced apples. I didn’t peel mine because I love the texture the skin adds. Fill liners ¾ of the way full. These won’t rise very much. Bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes.

These muffins were a wee bit oily. I don’t think it’s anything that most people would notice, but I definitely picked up on it. If I were going to make them again, I would replace half of the oil with applesauce. I would probably also try using a flax egg to add a little extra umph.

Baked Speculoos Donuts

Speculoos, Biscoff spread, cookie butter... call it what you will, but it's just as delicious by any name. I had a fear that cookie butter was going to be a seasonal item at Trader Joe's so I bought two jars to save. In the same week, I saw not one, but TWO recipes for baked speculoos donuts & realized that Biscoff spread was consistently available at a World Market near my gym.
When one of my friends and I scheduled a baking date but weren't able to make the pignoli cookies she had hoped for, I knew it was time to crack open the jars of cookie butter.
So we set in for a long afternoon of mixing, dough rising, and the heavenly smell of donuts baking. We used both Celine of Have Cake Will Travel's yeast recipe & Nikki of the Tolerant Vegan's cake donut recipe. All in all, it took us around 4 hours to complete both recipes and induce sugar comas. We started Celine's recipe first as it needs such a long time to rise. As you let the dough do its first rise, you have plenty of time to complete the cake donuts. We frosted the cake donuts during the second rise of the yeast donuts. By them time we had finished decorating the cake donuts, it had only been around 30 minutes but I knew I couldn't wait any longer to put the yeast donuts in the oven. They still rose quite a bit during baking, so I don't think it made a huge difference.


I definitely preferred the texture of the yeast donut. It was thick and dense, with a heavy crumb. The extra spices added to the batter really pumped up the flavor of the speculoos. The cake donuts were also incredibly delicious, but their texture just wasn't as interesting to me. However, I definitely preferred Nikki's cookie butter ganache. The chocolate ganache was nice, but the chocolate sort of overwhelmed the speculoos flavor. If you were only going to make one batch of donuts, I would also halve the chocolate ganache recipe. I made a half batch and it went very, very far.
We went for a mish mash of donut and ganache combinations. Their was dipping and drizzling, and crumbling cookies on top. If you are looking for speculoos like cookies, Trader Joe's had a brand called Bistro Biscuits or you can maybe find a bag of Biscoff cookies at a World Market.
These donuts were all phenomenal, but my favorite combination was the yeast donut with cookie butter drizzle and a handful of crushed cookies on top.
We used a jar and a half of speculoos for this project! If you are looking for something else to bake with the speculoos, I've also used it to make snickerdoodles and frost cupcakes. Happy baking!

Speculoos Caramel Cookie Bars

I got my holiday gift a little early this year. My partner and I are both pretty impatient when it comes to surprises, so we exchanged presents on Monday. I sponsored a chicken for a year in his name at Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary, which I thought was pretty neat. However, I got outdone! He surprised me with a pistachio KitchenAid standing mixer! I have been wistfully staring at pictures of this mixer on their website for many months now. I couldn't believe that it was finally mine! After grinning incessantly and taking a few photos, I decided it was time to put it to use making him something extravagant.


I had seen this recipe on Seitan is My Motor earlier this month and knew it wouldn't be long before I cracked open my second jar of Speculoos spread to attempt it. I have made a dulce de leche before, but this time something went wrong. My caramel never firmed up even though I cooked it for quite a while. In attempts of saving it, I threw in some agar. This made it thicker so that it was no longer a liquid, but it gave it the texture of a custard. I knew that it was going to be too thin for successfully cutting the bars, but I used it anyways.
I really enjoyed the cookie crust from this recipe. It was firm and not too sweet, which balances the super sweet cookie butter layer. I melted two teaspoons of coconut oil into the dark chocolate I used for the top layer, and spread it with an offset spatula.


All in all, my bars were a mess because of my caramel error. But I will definitely attempt these again. They remind me of a Twix bar with a subtle hint of cinnamon. In fact, next time I might try the caramel from this vegan Twix bar recipe. I might also try using the 'dulce sin leche' recipe from VCTOTW, which uses brown rice syrup as a main ingredient.


Sometimes it's good to have a reminder that baking is a trial and error process. At least I have a beautiful mixer now! Did you ask for kitchen or baking supplies for the holidays? I think I have a never ending list of things I would love to have.

Cinnamon Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Speculoos Frosting

To correspond with the many bloggers from countries that celebrate St. Nicholas day, I decided to make a second Speculoos spread recipe. While the cookies I posted about yesterday were delicious, they didn’t really highlight the taste of the cookie butter as much as I would prefer. I thought the texture of the spread would really lend itself to a making a peanut butter-esque frosting.


I still haven’t decided what type of cupcake would go best with this frosting. I saw a lot of different variations on the internet with most people seeming to settle on chocolate. However, I went with a simple cinnamon & vanilla bean cupcake that I thought would enhance the subtle spiciness of the frosting. I used the vanilla cake recipe from VCTOTW (I know, again) and added a tablespoon of vanilla bean paste and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Speculoos Spread Frosting
Enough for piping lightly on 12 cupcakes


3 tbsps shortening
heaping 1/2 cup Speculoos spread
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Cream shortening and cookie butter in a standing mixer or with electric beater. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and mix until incorporated. Add remaining ingredients. Beat for a little longer, until fluffy.


This frosting was very, very light. And tasted just as delicious as I had imagined. One of my taste-testers said it was like eating a Christmas cookie in cake form. I can't wait to play more with the second jar of cookie butter I bought. Just this morning I saw a recipe for chocolate caramel speculoos bars on Seitan Is My Motor!
What are your favorite holiday recipes? I'm trying to think of something that will wow all my omni co-workers at our holiday party this Friday.

Speculoos Spread Snickerdoodles

I remember the Speculoos craze in 2009. It seemed like every blog I read was either using it or searching for it. The cookies, the spread, whatever they could get a hold of.
I found a jar of Speculoos spread at Trader Joe’s for the first time recently and swooned. While I had eaten my fair share of Biscoff cookies on many Delta flights, I hadn’t ever seen the spread. It was pretty magical. I spread it on my toast and an apple and had the great realization that I must bake something with it.


(photo from fitnessista.com)
For those of you who are unaware of what Speculoos/Biscoff cookies are, they are a caramelized biscuit with a hint of spices. And most of the time the cookies and a spread made from the pulverized cookies are vegan!
Speculoos cookies are also a Belgian and Dutch tradition for celebrating St. Nicholas Day on December 5th or 6th depending on which country you are in. So I thought I would make two recipes using the spread as a modern twist on those traditions.
The first recipes I made was a cookie (if you can’t tell, I have been on a cookie craze lately). While the recipe I followed, looked much different than my results, I was highly pleased. My cookies were very similar to snickerdoodles, with a pleasantly crisp outside and thick chewy center. I ate them with a cup of hot tea and wouldn’t change a thing. I’m not sure if the differences in our results were due to a difference in the spreads or I somehow mucked up the recipe. I haven’t repeated it to see yet, but soon!


Along with the spread, Trader Joe’s also sells a Speculoos/Biscoff type cookie they refer to as Bistro Biscuits if you want to try the cookie. If you don’t live near a Trader Joe’s, you can also buy the cookies and spread from Biscoff in the US (and I think get bonus points if you are a Delta frequent flyer). If you would rather make the cookies or spread yourself there are great recipes here and here.
Have you ever eaten the cookies or the cookie butter? Are you as crazy about it as I am? One of my friends described it as ground up Cinnamon Teddy Grahams, which I find to be pretty accurate.