Your Vegan Mom

Gauva Cheese Turnovers

If you come to my house for Valentine's Day, it is required (not optional) that you bring a valentine for all those present.  I love the elementary school version of the holiday that celebrates love for all your pals in a non-icky-long-stem-roses kind of way.  

In this vein, this is my valentine to you.  Each of you.  Inspired by a long ago lazy afternoon spent with good friends at that purple Cuban cafe on Sunset in Silver Lake.  

These turnovers should be accompanied by big steamy mugs of cafe con leche, and of course, people you really like.  

Guava Cheese Turnovers

• 1 17.3-ounce package puff pastry sheets (I use Pepperidge Farms.)
• about half a tin of Guava Paste, cut into thin (1/4 inch?) slices
• 2/3 cup raw cashews
• scant 2/3 cup plain soy yogurt or one 6-ounce container (I really like Wildwood.)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch salt

If your puff pastry is frozen, get it out of the freezer.  Open it up and let it thaw on the counter. 

Now let's make the cheese.  Grind the cashews in a food processor to a a pretty fine meal.  Add the yogurt, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.  Process again until smooth and creamy.  

Arrange a rack in the center of your oven, and preheat to 400 degrees.

When the pastry is pliable, unfold it on a floured counter or board, and cut each sheet into four smaller squares.  

Place a generous tablespoon of cheese onto the middle of each square.

Arrange a slice or two of guava paste on top of each dollop of cheese.

Fold over to make a triangle.  Seal edges with the tines of a fork.  With a sharp paring knife, cut a few little slits in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape.  

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  

 Happy Valentine's Day, Love. 

Cookies

I know it's getting late for cookie recipes, but if you're anything like me then you are nowhere near done with your holiday baking and last-minute present making, despite your best intentions and annual vows that next year it will be different.  Good thing you forgot to give the diaper service guy his package this morning.  Those are twelve less cookies you need to make tonight.  I'm sorry diaper guy - they're really good cookies.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

Chewy Chocolate Mint Cookies (I love these, and as an added bonus they're delicious straight out of the freezer.  Learn from my mistakes and quadruple the recipe.)

Swedish Heirloom Cookies

 Snickerdoodles

Crunchy Little Animals with Chocolate Boots (because even if you don't have time to bake, you can always just dip stuff in chocolate)

Merry Christmas and all!  

Mini Pumpkin Pies with Sticky Pecans

Have you ever made miniature pies?  I love the idea, but not the work involved in cramming tiny pie crust into tiny muffin tins.  About six months ago there were about 312 dainty little chocolate cream pies with tiny dollops of coconut whipped cream that put me off this whole sub-class of baked good forever.  Total pain - take my word for it.

 So I was thinking...I bet Susan V's crustless pumpkin pie would make a perfect bite-sized Thanksgiving treat.  And they do.  The simple spiced pumpkin batter cooks beautifully in either a regular sized muffin pan or a mini one.  Plus, they puff up in the oven and then deflate as they cool leaving a perfect little crevice to cradle some caramel-y-molasses-coated toasted pecans.  (Or without the nuts, serve as the best treat for a small child ever.)  Perfect.  Also, you should know that these are moderately healthy as far as dessert goes, and crazy easy.  Happy Thanksgiving.  

Mini Pumpkin Pies with Sticky Pecans

Makes 48 tiny pies (mini muffin pan) or 24 small pies (regular muffin pan)

pie:

• 1 3/4 cups soy milk
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups pumpkin puree (or 1 15-ounce can)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

topping:

• 1 cup chopped, toasted pecans
• 1/4 cup brown rice syrup
• 1 tablespoon black strap molasses

Heat the oven to 350, and grease your muffin pans well.  

In a blender, whiz together the first four ingredients until combined and frothy.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the blender and puree until completely smooth.    

Fill muffin tins 3/4 full, and bake until the edges are browned.  This will take about 25 minutes for mini muffin pans or about 35 minutes in a full size muffin pan.

While the pies are baking, mix the pecans with the brown rice syrup and molasses. 

Let the pies cool completely (an hour or two on the counter or overnight in the fridge) before spooning on pecan topping.  (Spray a teaspoon with cooking spray to make your sticky pecans stick to the spoon less and the pie more.)  And serve.    

 

S'more Pie

 

On the topic of picnics, I thought we really ought to discuss this pie.  A couple years ago, I developed this recipe for a guest post on Veggie Meal Plans.  The site appears to be undergoing some maintenance right now, and the recipe is not currently available, and what with it being summer and this pie being crazy delicious, I thought it was perhaps time to share this twist on a classic summer campout treat, in pie form.   

S'more Pie

Makes 1 9-inch pie and two bonus pudding cups for the cook

• 1 graham cracker crust (I used Arrowhead Mills.)
• 1 carton Suzanne's Ricemellow Creme (Mine came from Whole Foods.)
• 1 recipe chocolate pudding (This part I actually made.)

Chocolate Pudding:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 2 2/3 cups soy milk (I'm partial to the refrigerated Trader Joe's organic.)
• 1/4 cup extra-firm silken tofu
• 2 tablespoons non-dairy butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Blend together tofu and 2/3 cup of soy milk until very smooth.  (I like to use an immersion blender for this.  A regular blender will work, but if the mixture gets very frothy, let it calm down a bit before continuing.  Otherwise the extra air can give your pudding a moussier texture, rather than the dense silkiness of good chocolate pudding.)

In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, whisk together sugar and cornstarch.  Chop up chocolate and add it to the pan.

Add the remaining soy milk as well as the tofu mixture to the pan.  Whisk continuously over medium heat.  Once the mixture begins to bubble, continue whisking for one minute.

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.

Pour into the prepared crust and chill until set, in the freezer for two hours, or the refrigerator for at least four or overnight.

Once the pudding has set up, top with the ricemellow creme.

Now for toasting your marshmallows:

Heat up the broiler.  Wet a dish cloth in cold water.  Ring out the excess water and use the wet cloth to line a rimmed baking sheet.  Place the pie on the towel and surround it with ice cubes to keep the pie chilled while you toast the topping.

Put it under the broiler and watch it while the marshmallow toasts.  This will take a matter of seconds, so don't go off and do anything else.  

Ice Cream Balls

 

I have a bit of a thing for ice cream bon bons.  Last summer we froze dozens of tiny ice cream balls and experimented with different combinations of chocolate and dipping methods.  But it's kind of a pain.  There were always swirls of melted ice cream slowly spiraling out from each gingerly dipped ball, endangering the fragile environment of melted chocolate.  And then there's the tricky issue of chocolate to ice cream ratio, and the even more problematic proportion of time spent making to time spent eating - not satisfactory.  And then the Rice Dream people came out with these little bites.  My effortless bon bon eating dream had come true.  I bought them once.  They were perfect.  And then, to be honest, I haven't thought about bon bons since.  It turns out, that like so many mild obsessions, this one was primarily fueled by the elusive quality of the quarry.  

But then yesterday, yesterday Desmond and I, well really Desmond, Katie Lee, and I came up with the most ingenious solution to my need for tiny ice cream.  Ingenious, because perhaps the only thing I love more than tiny hand-held ice cream is a good dipping sauce, and maybe the only thing I love more than a good dipping sauce is toasted pecans and velvety warm dark chocolate dripping from them.  Oh good land, I'm happy.  

 

Ice Cream Balls with Hot Fudge Dipping Sauce
Makes 12 balls or 4 3-ball servings with sauce

The flavor combinations are limitless.  Next time, like probably tomorrow, I'm going with coconut vanilla ice cream coated in toasted almonds.  

• 1/2 pint vanilla soy ice cream
• 1 cup toasted pecans
• pinch of salt
• 4 ounces dark chocolate 
• 1/2 cup soy creamer
• 1 tablespoon non-dairy butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and put it in the freezer to get good and cold.  In the meantime, put the ice cream in the fridge to soften for about 15 minutes.  Pulse the nuts and the salt in a food processor to make coarse crumbs.  Put the ground nuts in a small dish.  

With a cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop out an ice cream ball, roll around in the nuts, and place on the cold cookie sheet.  When all your balls are formed, place in the freezer to firm up for about an hour.  

Shortly before serving, make your sauce: chop up the chocolate and place in a heat proof bowl.  Gently bring the creamer and butter to a boil - that's two minutes in a pyrex measuring cup in my microwave, or you can do this in a small pan on the stove if you prefer.  Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate.  Tap once on the counter and let sit for a minute.  Add vanilla.  Stir until smooth.  Serve with ice cream balls to dip.  

Do you have little soy sauce dishes designed for all the sushi that you don't make?  Those are perfect for a little pool of hot fudge sauce.