Ridiculously Decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter Nice Cream Pie

Remember the chocolate pie I made a few weeks ago for the 4th of July Barbeque? I really, really liked that pie, but here's the thing: I felt like it could be more decadent, more ridiculously awesome, more...ice creamy.

Long ago, I had a vegan pot luck, and I planned to serve vegan s'mores using Sweet and Sara's delicious vegan marshmallows...but the marshmallows had sold out, so I was stymied. There I was with a bunch of chocolate bars and vegan graham crackers, but no marshmallows. I had just recently discovered the gloriousness of homemade vegan ice cream (I call it "Nice Cream"), so I decided to try a vegan nice cream pie. I crushed the some of the graham crackers for a crust, which I filled with homemade chocolate Nice Cream. Next, I topped the pie with vegan marshmallow fluff. Then, I used the chocolate bars and remaining grahams to make chocolate-covered graham crackers, which I arranged on top of the fluff and...voila! Vegan S'Mores Nice Cream Pie.

Now, this pie was good. But I didn't ask for a lot of opinions about it, so it was only recently that I learned that many people feel that Nice Cream Pie has replaced Ambrosia on Mount Olympus. Isa's Shmlove Pie seemed a good candidate for Nice Cream-ization, so that's what I did. It was pretty easy and utterly delicious.

I tweaked the recipe. A lot. By far, my favorite part of the original Shmlove Pie was the Peanut Butter Caramel. I kept that part. I used a store-bought vegan chocolate cookie crust for that pie, but for this one, I thought better of it. Anyway, here it is...

Ridiculously Decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter Nice Cream Pie

Ingredients:

Crust
A bag of Peanut Butter Newman-Os
1-2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil, melted

Nice Cream
1 bag of chocolate chips, or a couple of semi-sweet baking bars
1 can of coconut creme - (AKA creme de coco, creme de coconut...it's the same as the drinks mixer, also found in the Goya section. You know, this stuff:

Keep this in mind because it'll come up again when we discuss my Otherworldly Vegan Tres Leches Cake. Danged useful stuff)
1 can of regular coconut milk

Peanut Butter Caramel
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 tablespoons brown rice syrup
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Chocolate drizzle
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 tablespoon coconut oil

Instructions
For the crust:

I ran half a bag of Peanut Butter Newman-Os through the food processor, with a spoonful of melted coconut oil, and then pressed the resulting crumbs into a pie plate. This was almost as easy as just buying a pre-made crust. It was a little crumbly---maybe a little more oil would've helped?

I had some extra crumbs, so I set them aside and used them as topping.

If you do not have a food processor, you could just pour some cookies into a ziplock bag and smoosh them with a rolling pin, or a mallet, or...well, anything like that.



For the Nice Cream:

I used to have a Nice Cream Maker. It died, but you don't need one for this. I melted two bars of Ghirardelli's 60% baking chocolate in my own version of a double boiler - a small saucepan sitting inside my frying pan, which I filled with about 1/2 inch of water. This works very, very well for melting chocolate!

Once the chocolate was melted, I used a rubber spatula to spoon the melted chocolate into a blender with the can of coconut creme and the coconut milk. Blend away, and pour it into your prepared pie crust!

If you don't like the sound of my Nice Cream, I recommend you peruse Vegan Ice Cream Paradise and find a recipe you DO like.

Either way, freeze until the pie is nice and firm, then cover with plastic wrap until you're ready for toppings...here's the pie, midway through preparation (excuse the plastic wrap marks and the frost - I have a crazy freezer):


Next, make the peanut butter caramel. It's best to use a peanut butter with a consistent texture, like PB & Co's White Chocolate Wonderful, my go-to PB for all purposes.

To prepare the caramel:
Stir all the ingredients (peanut butter, brown rice & maple syrups, and vanilla) together in a small sauce pan. Gently heat everything over low heat, stirring constantly with a fork, just until smooth and heated through. It should fall from your fork in ribbons. If it seems stiff, turn the heat off immediately and add a little extra brown rice syrup, until it's fluid again. This happens because different peanut butters have different amounts of moisture. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Once it's cool, spread gently over your frozen pie. Return pie to freezer.

To make the chocolate drizzle:
Use your double boiler (or my sneaky "not really a double boiler" method, described above) to melt the chocolate chips. Add the coconut oil. Use a fork to stir it until completely combined. Turn the heat off and let cool for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then...drizzle over the top of your pie. If you have leftover cookie crumbs, you can add those, too. Then...back to the freezer again!

You may want to move the pie to the fridge 30 minutes before you serve it, to make sure it's soft enough to slice.

Here's what my finished pie looked like (I forgot to take photos until it was halfway gone!):


Obviously there are endless modifications that you could employ here. There are Mint Newman-Os, for example...hmmm...

Pumpkin Time!

I love fall. I love pumpkins. At this time of year, I want everything to be pumpkin. I want pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin soup, pumpkin nice cream, pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin. Another seasonal favorite is Silk Nog, or Pumpkin Spice Silk, which just landed in the refrigerated section of Whole Foods this week.

So, in honor of pumpkin and Silk Nog time, please enjoy this really wonderful pumpkin bread recipe! I've tried out three or four different versions, and all of them were a little lacking - too dry, too dense, too...something. This one is a Goldilocks-perfect "just right." If you don't have access to Silk Nog, any really creamy non-dairy milk will work - coconut milk would probably be a great stand-in.

I like mine really spicy, so I used 3 teaspoons of Trader Joe's pumpkin pie spice. If you're not a spicy pumpkin person, you go right ahead and take it down a notch. That won't hurt my feelings.

Obviously, you can add raisins, cranberries, walnuts, or whatever you like to this, but it really is LOVELY just all on its own. It can also be made gluten-free - just follow the directions at the bottom of the recipe. This makes 2 loaves of sweet, delicious pumpkin bread - you can cut the recipe in half if you want, or you can make one for yourself and another for a friend. Or, you can bake it in a bundt pan. Or whatever.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour*
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg

3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 can (about 2 cups) pumpkin puree
1 cup canola oil, or ½ c. oil and ½ c. applesauce
2/3 cup Silk Nog or Silk Pumpkin Spice Soy Milk
2/3 cup flaked coconut

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8" x 4" loaf pans or one bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

3. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin puree, oil (and applesauce, if you are using it), and Silk.

4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add in coconut.
5. Bake for about 1 hour (up to one hour and 15 minutes) in the preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven, and cover pan(s) tightly with foil. Allow the bread to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil, and turn out onto a cooling rack. Tent loosely with the foil, and allow the bread to cool completely.

* If you prefer a gluten-free version, simply replace the flour with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Baking Mix and add 1 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum. Nothing else needs to be changed. It’s easy and there’s no appreciable difference between the wheat version and the gluten-free version.

Serve plain, or with powdered sugar, or make a little not-cream-cheese frosting and eat it like cake! Share and enjoy!

Balsamic Glazed Chickpeas (and smoked paprika sauce)

Chickpeas!

These are a wonderful protein source for vegans and yet, it can be very difficult to decide what to do with them. Certainly you can sprinkle them over a green salad, or make them into hummus. You can create the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. But wouldn't it be nice to enjoy them as the centerpiece of a meal in something close to their original state?

I am happy to share one of my favorite chickpea recipes. I discovered this inadvertently last time I made my spinach-and-chickpea pie. This is easy, forgiving and healthy!

Balsamic-Glazed Chickpeas

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans (I use Eden because they have no salt added, but whatever kind is fine)

2 ribs of celery

1/2 of a small onion

a little vegetable broth or olive oil

balsamic vinegar (about 4 tablespoons)

2 teaspoons agave nectar or a little sugar

Instructions:

Add the broth or oil to a large frying pan and saute the celery and onions until they are just browned, about 3-5 minutes or so.

Drain the chickpeas, rinse and shake off all the extra water. Add them to the pan and mix them up with the celery and onions. Saute them all together for a couple minutes.

Add the balsamic vinegar and agave nectar or sugar, and allow the mixture to simmer for about 6-10 minutes, until the liquid begins to reduce. If you are a vinegar lover, you can add more.

The chickpeas should start to look brown and glazey, like this:

Salt & Pepper to taste.

You can serve these with the green veggie of your choice - I like them with steamed spinach or mustard greens. Tonight I'm having them with broccolini.

As you may have noticed in the photo above, I didn't use any celery and I included red peppers instead. I'm out of celery - but it really is good in this recipe - it adds a little crunch. However, you can add whatever crispy veg you like. This is also very good with finely chopped leeks instead of onions. Like I said, very forgiving.

Also, I usually whip up a little of this sauce for the greens:

Smoked Paprika Sauce

1/4 cup Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

Whisk all ingredients together. Drizzle over your greens (and the chickpeas, too, if you like), and there you have it - one easy, totally healthy dinner with chickpeas. Did I mention that it is also delicious? It is!