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 Rice Crispy Treats

I'm gonna say something that isn't going to make me any friends. But I just need to get it off my chest. I love pumpkin. Seriously. I adore it. As soon as there's the first hint of cool weather and changing leaves I will begin putting pumpkin into everything. Cupcakes, oatmeal, curry and soup. But, there are two things that I don't think should be paired with pumpkin. First, coffee. Here's looking at you pumpkin spice latte. I don't understand why you're so hip & cool. Maybe I'm just a purist but vanilla and chocolate are the only flavors I really want mixed with my coffee flavored things. The second combination I just can't get behind is pumpkin & chocolate. It just feels off for me. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't turn down a free pumpkin chocolate chip muffin but you won't ever see me making one.
Last week there were dozens of bags of Dandies on sale. They had just gone out of date, but I knew they would be totally find for melting into rice crispy treats. So I bought six bags. I stumbled upon a pumpkin rice krispy treat at the Sweet Life, and decided there was no sense in making a single batch when I had so many Dandies to spare. So I doubled it, left out the chocolate, and make some little changes based on the partial can of pumpkin I had left after making a pie.


Pumpkin Rice Crispy Treats
tweaked in the most minor of ways from The Sweet Life

8 cups rice cereal
5 tbl Earth Balance
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground gloves
1/4 tsp salt
2 bags dandies

Line a 9x13" pan with parchment or wax paper. Pre-measure the cereal and add it to your largest bowl. In a heavy bottomed stock pot, melt Earth Balance. Add pumpkin puree, vanilla, and spices. Stir until distributed evenly. Add marshmallows and heat over medium heat, stirring frequently until the marshmallows are mostly melted. Fold the pumpkin mixture into the cereal and press mixture firmly into the pan. Let cool for one hour before slicing.


These rice crispy treats were very delicious and a total piece of cake. They would make a nice non-traditional addition to a Thanksgiving dinner table or as a snack anytime in the next few weeks. I feel like this recipe would also be terrific if you used sweet potato puree instead of pumpkin, added a cup of chopped of walnuts and some mini marshmallows to pay respects to my favorite casserole. Have you heard that Dandies are coming out with mini marshmallows?!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Seeds

The cool mornings are finally here. I have broken out the cardigans and the thicker socks. I have been drinking hot coffee & craving oatmeal in the mornings instead of smoothies or fruit. I think year round is pumpkin time, but most people would argue with me. Now I think it's an acceptable time to break out the pumpkin cupcakes. I know MoFo was moved a month earlier to help avoid some of the pumpkin flavored things, but you just can't deter someone as committed to pumpkin as me. For the cake I used Claryn of Hell Yeah It's Vegan's slight twist on the pumpkin cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The cream cheese frosting is my own twist, with slightly more cream cheese than most of the popular recipes call for. I personally love the taste of Tofutti. If you aren't a fan of the "nuanced" flavor of vegan cream cheese, than you might want to head towards a recipe with a little more margarine & shortening to balance it out.



Cream Cheese Frosting
more than enough for generously piping one dozen cupcakes

3 tbl Earth Balance
3 tbl shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup Tofutti cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream Earth Balance and shortening for several minutes until fluffy. Add powdered sugar in halves, beating until fully incorporated both times. Add cream cheese and vanilla extract and beat for several minutes until smooth.

Cinnamon Sugar Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

3 tbl Earth Balance, melted
3 cups pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt Earth Balance and toss pumpkin seeds in melted margarine until completely covered. In a small bowl combine 1/3 cup sugar with cinnamon & sea salt. Pour half of the cinnamon sugar on the pumpkin seeds and toss until coated. Pour on a parchment lined sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Allow seeds to cool. Toss in remaining cinnamon sugar. Add additional sugar if desired!


Pumpkin seeds are one of my favorite snacks. I think they go perfectly in granolas & trail mixes, but I also love eating them by the handful. Plenty of people make Old Bay or nice nooch-y savory versions, but this sweet version is what I am all about. It also makes a nice sparkly topping for cupcakes if you can restrain yourself from eating it all.

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!

Pumpkin Tiramisu

Today has been an incredibly productive day. I got up early, even though I went to bed late. I made myself breakfast and starting baking. I caught up on all sorts of things that had been piling up. I ran a work errand and a personal errand with a friend so we had time to catch up. I came home, finished baking and cleaned up all my messes. I watched a movie. I talked to some friends & family. I took a bath full of seaweed and lavender and drank a glass of skullcap tea. I am trying my hardest to get a good night's rest to prepare myself as best possible for the last half of my work week. Things are starting to get very hectic in the bakery. Another person has left and no one has applied for the position yet. The holidays are rapidly approaching, and I am starting to panic. I know that things will work out. After all, they always do. And everything else is going so well in my life. There have to be a few minor bumps to help us appreciate those good things.



Pumpkin Tiramisu
makes 6 individual dishes or 1 loaf pan

1 batch lady fingers from Vegan Desserts
1 batch coconut whipped cream
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 container Tofutti cream cheese
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbl cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
In mixing bowl with the whip attachment, mix all ingredients (aside from the lady fingers and whip cream) until fully combined and slightly airy. In dishes, arrange a layer of lady fingers, a layer of pumpkin cream and repeat. Top with a layer of whipped cream. Allow to chill for at least 8 hours before serving. Once chilling is done, top with a heavy sprinkle of cinnamon

Pumpkin Spice Palmiers

I understand the concept of spring fever, and I remember feeling that way a few months ago. I remember how exciting it is for the flowers to start blooming, and the air to start getting warm, and feeling like all of the color is starting to creep back into everything after a long winter. But spring seems like so long ago, and I have been struck with fall fever. I can't walk down the street with picking up a beautiful red and orange leaf. I can't walk down the grocery store aisle without picking up more spices and tea. I don't want to do anything besides revel in fall. I am trying to hold onto fall for as long as I can. I am ready to carve our pumpkin & head to another haunted house. I don't ever want this season to end.


I found a recipe for pumpkin spice palmiers while browning Serious Eats. The recipe sounded pretty intriguing to me, but seemed to lack a few details. I wasn't sure how long to cook the pumpkin syrup for, so I simmered until it was reduced to a half cup. While it tasted delicious as a syrup, once it was spread thinly on the puff pastry the flavor wasn't as intense. Next time I would reduce it to 1/4 cup most likely. If you make these, I also suggest spreading the syrup as thinly as possible. If there is too much parts of the palmier will not crisp properly and will get soggy only a few hours after you bake them. I also switched up the spice mix a bit. I omitted the ginger, and more nutmeg and a bit of cloves.

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

When I first went vegan in college I needed to learn how to cook for myself pretty quickly. I had never really been too interested in baking, but was a huge fan of sweets. I realized that my sweet's connections had largely been cut off and so I started baking. I started with muffins. For the first few months those were the only things that I made. That's the first time that this recipe surfaced. I brought it to several potlucks and often shared them with friends. I hadn't made them in years. But when I decided that I would be doing fall sweets for my MoFo topic, my friend Jenna asked if they would be included. So I made a batch from memory. I never wrote down all my original alteration to the recipe, but I think that this is pretty close.



Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins
veganized from here; makes 16 muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tbl ground flax mixed with 3 tbl water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large chopped apple
In bowl combine all dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl combine all wet ingredients. Fold the wet into the dry, then add the chopped apples. Don't over-mix the batter. Scoop into muffin pans, about 3/4 full.

For streusel
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oats
3 tbl flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbl Earth Balance
Combine every except the Earth Balance. Cut the Earth Balance into the mixture using your fingers and sprinkle heavily on top of all of the muffins. You might have a small amount of extra streusel. Just save it for your next pie.
Bake the muffins at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
These muffins might not be the most beautiful thing to look at, but most muffins aren't. But once you take a bite, they will win you over. The pumpkin is much more subtle than with most pumpkin muffins. The apple helps balance the pumpkin out a lot. The sugary streusel gives the top of the muffins a really wonderful crunch too. It might just be because I live with 4 boys, but these muffins disappeared more quickly than something has in quite a long time.

Pumpkin Crème Brulee

There is a great restaurant in Richmond, Virgina called Ipanema. They are best known for their pies, but when Greg and I were there a few weeks ago I also got coffee crème brulee. Greg hates coffee, so he didn’t get to appreciate how nice it was. But after we got back I was determined to make a batch in a different flavor. I scanned a few cookbooks, and found a recipe for pumpkin crème brulee in Vegan Desserts. I have looked through Vegan Desserts several times, but I think is the first time I actually used it. Confession: I am a cookbook hoarder. I buy them all the time, and they pile up on my shelves and look adorable. But I don’t use them near enough. Hopefully MoFo will help me remedy this.
Anyways, back to the sugar. The crème brulee was really nice. The custard was like warm pumpkin pie with a nice crunchy topping. I think my kitchen torch was a little low on fuel, because I was having trouble getting the sugar to caramelize. I know that I could have broiled it in my oven. But the drawer was full of pans and I just couldn’t bring myself to empty it all out. I would definitely make this again if I were having people over for dinner, so that we could all have nicely plated single serving desserts.
Are there are things that you all use your kitchen torches for? I have used it to toast marshmallows and now for this dessert, but I feel like I need to find more ways to make it useful. Otherwise it's just taking up space that I could put another cookbook on.

Pumpkin Bread

When I started MoFo, I didn't really know if I was going to have a theme. But last night I realized that I unintentionally created a theme. It's fall sweets. Apple, pumpkin, a little bit of pear, and a lot of spice. I might get wild and throw chocolate in there. Because I just can't break chocolate's allure for a whole month. No shame.


There are two pumpkin bread recipes that I always end up back on. They are very, very similar. There's only slight difference in flour choice, a touch of maple syrup, and a bit more spice. Isa's pumpkin bread will never fail you. But if you love your pumpkin bread to be a bit more nutrient dense and have a spice profile reminiscent of gingerbread, then this recipe is for you. I sometimes make things even more convoluted, and make Isa's recipe but replace half of the flour with whole wheat. I didn't do it with those loaf because I was running low on supplies, but I definitely suggest you top the bread with a handful of pumpkin seeds. It adds a lot of beauty and a nice crunch to the crust.
This is the kind of bread that you eat on a rainy morning when you woke up at 4am. This is the kind of bread that you eat when it's the last morning you have to wake up before a mini vacation, where you get to fly home to Tennessee for your friend's wedding. When you are stressing about how everything will get done at work in your albeit brief absence, and whether you have jewelry to match your bridesmaid dress, and if the electric bill ever showed up this month or not? This is the kind of bread that will comfort you, calm down for a few minutes to savor the cool morning, and urge you to treat yourself to a really fancy cup of coffee. I did it, so you probably should too.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filled Bread

When I first saw this recipe last winter on Seitan is my Motor, I realized I had all the ingredients in my pantry and made it hours later. Since then, I have made this recipe at least a dozen times with various fillings. There has never been a loaf that has turned out poorly.



I filled this batch with a pumpkin tofu cream cheese a friend had left over when they got home from New York this week. I would assume it's from the Bagel Store. I also used Pumpkin Spice Silk rather than a quarter cup of soy milk and for brushing on the top of the braid. My favorite thing about this bread is how crisp the crust gets, while the inside stays so soft.



The first loaf was eaten by my housemates in less than an hour, so I made a second loaf which was braided a little neater. It didn't finish baking until it was dark, so my camera wouldn't have gotten a decent photograph. My friend did however!