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| Vegan French Silk Pie topped with Coconut Whipped Cream |
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| Toby |
A few weeks ago, Craig was looking through our copy of the
Santa Clarita Magazine. The magazine in
which Toby, our good-looking pup, got his picture chosen for staff pick in
the cutest pet photo contest. Just had to
plug our little guy.
Craig noticed that #
CircleofHope, a cancer survivor’s
organization, was having a
pie contest.
Pie??? Now, I’m not much of a baker, but I couldn’t resist the
opportunity to show the community that great tasting vegan pie does exist. I decided to enter.
Choices, choices, choices…which pie to enter? I wanted to choose a pie that you wouldn’t necessarily
think of as vegan. Got it!
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| Vegan French Silk Pie |
I remember as a child, my family would stop at Baker’s
Square and pick up a pie. One of my
all-time favorites was their French Silk Pie.
Chocolatey, smooth, creamy goodness topped with whipped cream and
chocolate shavings.
I’ve never made a French silk pie, so I had to find out what
ingredients are in it. Here’s what I
learned, traditional French silk pie is made with raw eggs… yuck! Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, uses ingredients like baking chocolate,
sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and the raw eggs.
So, how am I supposed to get the
texture minus the non-vegan ingredients?
Answer,
Chocolate Covered Katie to the rescue! She uses ingredients like silken tofu,
chocolate chips, cocoa powder, vanilla extract … ingredients that are similar
to
The Grit’s Chocolate Vegan Death Cake’s Frosting. I made the cake for Nick’s birthday ( the
singer of Nightmare) the other week, so I knew the chocolate chips
would probably give it a firm consistency.
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| Nightmare -Nick & Cynthia |
I was right, Katie pretty much
nailed it. So, what could I change to
make it my own? It was time to
experiment in the kitchen. I grabbed my
friend and my sous chef, Stacey. Strong-brewed
coffee, soy cream, canned coconut milk, almond extract, and Teeccino (the
herbal, coffee alternative) seemed like good choices. I chose a version and made a graham cracker
crust (made with home-made graham crackers).
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| Taste of Vegan French Silk Pie |
Now, I remember the Baker’s Square
version was topped with whipped cream.
It was time to try my hand at coconut whipped cream. Stacey and I watched a youtube video by
Fablunch, and gave it a shot.
I found out it was pretty easy to
make. But here’s the caveat. You have to put the canned coconut milk in
the fridge so the fat solidifies. I had
a few cans of Trader Joe’s cream coconut in the fridge. I found that it has the most fat, which in
turn makes more whipped cream.
I topped the pie and made some
chocolate, sea salt shavings.
Decadent,
rich… a very adult dessert.
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| Trader Joe's Coconut Cream |
Pies, pies, pies... I was getting
sick of French silk pies. I made my last
few for the contest and put them in the fridge overnight. I thought I could just top them with the
coconut whipped cream in the morning.
Wrong!
The day of the contest, I grabbed
my coconut cream (the main ingredient in the whipped cream) and forgot to refrigerate the bowl. It was totally hot and humid (not typical LA
weather). My whipped cream turned to
soup. Oh No!
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| Chaokoh Coconut Milk |
Thankfully, I had more cans
in the fridge and tried again with a cold metal bowl. Yes, it worked. Beautifully whipped peaks. I topped one pie. Now I needed more whipped cream for the other
pies. I grabbed another can of the
Trader Joe’s coconut cream from the fridge and found it was liquid. No solid white fat on the top. The cans were identical on the outside, but
the ingredients were not. I salvaged the
first, soupy batch, by putting it in the freezer and re-whipping. I didn’t have much time left. No chocolate, sea salt shavings.
Lesson of the day: all coconut milks are not the same. The Trader Joe's coconut cream and the Chaokoh brand both list the first ingredient as coconut extract or extracted coconut. Other brands that I bought list water or another ingredient. In fact, one time the Trader Joe's coconut cream was great, the other time it didn't solidify. What's goin' on??? I'll have to call the company.
Stacey and I grabbed the pies,
hoping they weren’t going to melt in the heat for the car ride over.
(I put some ice packs in the containers to keep them cool and cranked up the a/c.) Success.
No melted pies.
The verdict. I didn’t expect to win the contest. I was merely looking to expose the public to
a decadent vegan pie and do a little promo. I did win, but not the
contest. I had fun, got great
feedback and made some new friends and connections. Saw my friend and mentor Darmon McGruder from
the Signal. Also, Cynthia and her group from
Our Place Barbecue. Overall a pretty great day! I learned a lot and had a kick'n time... a winner.
So, if you want to try your hand at #VeganFrenchSilkPie , I'd start with
Chocolate Covered Katie's recipe for your base and go from there. The coconut whipped cream has only 3 ingredients and if you can get the goods to solidify, you've got it made. Take a peek at the
Fablunch video for a how to.
Thanks to Stacey for the pics and
the help... and thanks to everyone who sampled my pie.
#VeganFrenchSilkPie
