The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Baking - Donna Diegel [73]
As a vegan, you’re not out of luck when it comes to pie. All you need is a crust, a filling, and a good recipe, and away you go! Simple substitutions and ready-made products can help make your pies vegan-friendly and just as delicious as regular pies.
A Pie for Everyone
With mix-and-match crusts and fillings, pies are so easy to customize until you get your perfect pie.
Some people like their pies in a traditional Flaky Piecrust; others want something a little healthier and go for the Whole-Wheat Piecrust. Some pies do better in a Shortbread Crust, while others are perfect in an Oat Nut Piecrust or Chocolate Cookie Crust. Either way, you’ll find plenty of piecrusts in Chapter 13.
Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Cool Blueberry Pie, and Peanut Butter Pie are simple desserts made with a single crust. Traditional double-crusted pies like Raspberry Pie, Southern Peach Pie, and everyone’s favorite—Grandma’s Apple Pie—are baked with a second crust on top, cradling a hot and bubbly filling underneath. Covered pies can be as simple as covering the filling with the pie dough and cutting a few holes in the top. Or you can make them as elaborate as you’d like by cutting out decorative shapes in the top crust with cookie cutters—a small apple cookie cutter would make cute vent holes for an apple pie. Or you can get a little more creative and make a lattice top for colorful pies like Blueberry Pie, Very Cherry Pie, and Blackberry Pie.
Most fruit pies can be made with any type of berry or stone fruits you want. Try varying the fruits from what the recipe calls for or mixing two or three fruits together for a mixed berry pie.
DOUGH-NOT
Keep in mind some fruits don’t play nicely with each other. Although strawberry and apple pie might sound delicious, the apples will take far longer to bake than the strawberries, and either the apples would be crunchy or the strawberries would end up being mush in the finished pie.
Likewise, experiment with spices in your pies. If you don’t care for cinnamon, use nutmeg or ginger. Add nuts, raisins, and dried fruits to fruit pies to make them more interesting and give them extra flavor and texture. If you don’t like coconut, leave it out of the streusel.
Vegans will be pleased to discover that dairy-free and egg-free Pumpkin Pie really can taste good. Most people want Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving, but you can vary the filling to include yams or sweet potatoes and eat it year round.
Nut pies are another area where you can flex your pie-making skills. Switch them around a bit and make a mixed-nut pie. Add some vegan chocolate chips and bourbon to Pecan Pie for a special holiday treat. Toss some toasted pecans or walnuts in your traditional Pumpkin Pie, or add a crumb topping to make it unique. Mix and match, and have some fun!
To Freeze or Not to Freeze?
With the exception of any lattice-topped pies, the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (too much moisture), and the Pumpkin Pie, all the fruit pies in this chapter can be frozen before and after baking. Nut pies do not freeze well before baking because they’re too gooey and runny. They do however freeze well after they’re baked.
To freeze a pie before you bake it, simply double-wrap it in plastic and freeze for up to 3 months.
You have a few options when it comes to baking a frozen pie. One method is to place the frozen pie on a baking sheet (to collect any drips and messes), and bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes. Check the pie, and place an aluminum foil ring around the rim of the crust to prevent it from burning. If the top of the pie is baking too fast, loosely cover the whole pie with foil. Continue to bake for 15-minute intervals, checking each time for doneness. It may take between 1 hour, 15 minutes and 1 hour, 45 minutes to bake your pie, depending on how thick it is.
Another method is to bake the frozen pie at 425°F for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F, and continue baking for about 45 minutes or just until the crust is golden brown and the juices begin bubbling