After Turkey or Tofurkey for Dinner, Try a Vegan Pumpkin Pie

The first time I tried my hand at vegan baking, I made a sweet potato pie for a friend's birthday. It was a disaster -- not because of the pie itself, but rather because I was in the midst of preparing for the 2007 APC Crisco National Pie Championships in Orlando and was blogging about my baking. Since I am somewhat accident-prone, the blog more or less recounted my misadventures. The friend took offense - as if I had baked it out of a perverse sense of duty rather than because I actually wanted to - and we never spoke again.

But long before my first attempt, I knew that vegan baking was a delicate art. My journalism mentor was vegan and had embraced baking as a retirement hobby. Whenever I threw dinner parties, he would proudly bring rock-hard vegan cookies that we cautiously consumed as my vegan friends whispered, "Vegan baking is really hard."

So...if I was going to give advice to anyone who wants to make vegan desserts this holiday season but is afraid of forcing their nearest and dearest to eat said rock-hard confections, I would suggest perhaps taking the easy way out with fruit pies. As long as you make the crust with Crisco instead of butter or lard, a pie like apple is already vegan.

More traditional fare, however, requires additional tinkering.

Throughout my childhood, my family used Libby's pumpkin for most holiday desserts, so it's my go-to pie recipe. But Libby's requires a can of evaporated milk and I was nervous about finding a suitable vegan replacement. Carnation's Web site says that evaporated milk is merely fresh milk that has been heated to remove water so it becomes creamier. But can you just heat up soy, rice or almond milk and get the same result? Or do you have to add something to achieve creaminess? And, if so, what? I didn't know...and decided instead to find a recipe on Epicurious.com. (I ultimately settled on one that isn't all that different from Libby's -- it uses heavy cream and whole milk instead of evaporated milk.)

A number of Web sites will tell you that you can use tofu, bananas or soy yogurt to replace eggs, but heavy cream was trickier. I finally read on VeggieBoards.com that you can use silk soy creamer or full fat coconut milk to replace heavy cream. (My cookbooks weren't much help. The only Vs in Nigella Lawson's book are for "vanilla sugar," "Victoria sponge" and "vodka"...and the Joy of Cooking offers two vegan cakes, but skirts the dairy issue completely, instead using ingredients like vegetable oil and vinegar.)

The only time I have ever purchased coconut milk was for a coconut cake last Christmas that my aunt hid in the microwave above her stove. (It ended up melting with the heat rising throughout the day, so my dessert looked like a huge sagging hunk of shag carpet by the time dinner was over.) My grocery store had several brands to choose from, but since I was supposed to use "full fat" coconut milk, I purchased Asian Gourmet Imported Coconut Milk because it had the highest fat content per serving (15 grams, for those keeping score). I was worried that a cup of it would overpower my pumpkin pie with a distinctly tropical taste, but I couldn't find any silk soy creamer, so my hands were tied.

It wasn't until I had already purchased boxes of silken tofu (but more because the alternative in see-through packaging was only available in "firm" and "extra firm") that I noticed that The Post Punk Kitchen recommends vacuum-packed brands such as Mori-Nu and I got a little thrill because that's the kind I purchased.

My crust came together in a snap - in part because I had a brand new tub of Crisco. I had a devil of a time rolling out pie crusts once and couldn't understand why it was so difficult. When I finally ran out of shortening and opened a new tub, I learned a valuable lesson: the age of your Crisco matters. New Crisco yields crusts that are far easier to work with. It's also extremely important that your water is cold, so I like to measure it out before anything else and let it sit in a measuring cup with some ice cubes until I'm ready.

I can't say blended silken tofu smelled all that good -- just really beany -- but when the pumpkin, spices, coconut milk and soy milk were added, it certainly looked the part. And when I licked the spatula, it definitely tasted coconut-y, but pleasantly so. And I'm not even a huge coconut fan.
As it baked, it didn't emit much scent - as opposed to that "come hither"-smell that many baked goods do. But it turned out pretty.

I haven't tried it yet (unlike brownies -- which you can cut up and sample yourself and still give away without anyone knowing what you did -- you can't hide a missing piece of pie), but I'm optimistic. It's a looker. And at least no ruined friendships this time?

Comments

[degenerate1991]

Crisco? Does it come with a free artery de-clogger?

[PhatP]

The link did not work on my last comment so....The link for the vegan video is here now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBM0NULDYl8

[PhatP]

GREAT ARTICLE!!
I stopped eating meat 20 years ago after I was confronted with photos of dairy cows who had lived their whole lives in milking stalls and then brutally slaughtered. I do realize that most people do not care about the turkeys whose lives have just been ended for no other reason than some human somewhere will take pleasure in eating their flesh. Yet, the fact remains that those animals are sentient beings and no different than the animals you may share your home with. And in the big scheme of things, like maybe the entire universe, as fellow earthlings they are no different from you or I. Animals wake up in the morning and move throughout their day doing little things to try and make their lives better like you and I do. They want to live just like you or I and they also have an interest in not being treated as mere property. Turkeys are not chairs or iPods nor should they be someone's thanksgiving dinner.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=peta+turkey+video&search_type=&aq=0&oq=Peta+turkey

GO VEGAN!!

[rankola]

REally? A great article? Advising to use Crisco, because its vegan? Now ain't that somethin'! Crisco has absolutely no nutritive value and is 100% health detrimental. Grass-fed, free range cows produce product that is extremely high in conjugated linoleic acid, Vit E, and omega-3. Far superior in nutritive value than industrial farmed butter, and certainly better than crisco.

It's nice that you feel the need to dictate what "should" and "should not" be on someone's table as far as food is concerned. Keep in mind you became vegan by choice, and others choose to remain omnivores. Oh and please refrain from the anatomical argument that we were historically strict herbivores...that has been debunked. And please refrain from the Great Ape argument as well. Chimpanzees (our nearest DNA relative) are omnivores--they hunt and consume flesh. Baboons also hunt and consume flesh (they like gazelles). Lowland gorillas forage and consume invertebrates.

So all you have left is industrial farming. No argument there. However the alternative is freerange farming. The animals are treated more humanely, don't live their last days in manure feedlots...they graze up until they go slaughter, and it is not an assembly line slaughter.

[rankola]

Besides, where are the references to Chritina Pirello and Molly Katzen? Both well-known authorities on vegetarian/vegan cooking and baking.

[PhatP]

Humans are great apes. Baboons are not great apes. Please! Only the Gombe chimp ( a subspecies of chimp) hunts and eats meat and meat is only 3% of the male chimps diet and gorillas.....are 99.9% vegan except for the occasional insect here and there.
The point is humans do not need to eat animals to live a healthy life. So when one CHOOSES to eat meat today they do it NOT for survival or health reasons but for the mere pleasure it brings them from eating flesh. It is a choice...true... but unless people are made aware that there is a choice here and that they do NOT need to continue to eat animals this mythology that killing and eating animals is such a GREAT wonderful beautiful thing will continue...in the way many other harmful other myths have continued throughout human history. Even mainstream health care professionals today all agree that a plant based diet is the healthiest diet for human beings.
Its by far the healthiest diet for farm animals.

Go vegan.

http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

[DebbiM]

Vegan desserts can be really delicious, and I appreciate someone promoting an animal friendly alternative to the Thanksgiving favorite. If you would like a truly delicious and heart health vegan pumpkin pie, I would recommend this recipe provided by The Cancer Project: http://www.cancerproject.org/recipes/thanksgiving/desserts.php No scary tofu required; and if you want to make it really low fat yet still delicious, make it crustless, but top with crunched up (vegan) ginger snaps. Absolutely yummy! It"s good for your health, good for the planet, and good for animals. Now that"s something to be thankful for!!

[valkyrie607]

Why is this in the "green" section? The assumption that eating vegan is more environmentally friendly is false--unless, of course, you live on a tropical island with coconut trees AND food processing plants for the tofu and crisco.

Me, I live in Vermont and I'll make my pies with local milk and butter. They're not processed in factories (less fossil fuels, less waste products), they're not shipped over thousands of miles (less fossil fuels), and supporting local farms helps the local economy and preserves Vermont's rural landscape.

So eat vegan if you want, but the editors made a mistake here. They should have put this piece in the "lifestyle" section.

[REAL cook 1977]

The issue is not whether the article is in the correct section, but why/how the article made it to virtual print in the first place.

[rankola]

Criso? Last time I checked hydrogenated fats were incredibly unhealthy...more unhealthy than butter. Look at it this way: If the butter came from a locally-produced source that raised cattle (including milk cows) according to green and freerange principles, then the product produced will have higher amounts of cancer fighting conjugated linoleic acid, higher amounts of Vit E, beta carotene, and omega-3, than butter from cows raised on industrial farms.

What crisco does is add hydrogen to an unstaturated fat, which then saturates it, making it a transfat, which serves no essential purpose in the diet. Plus it raises LDL and lowers HDL.

[PhatP]

Going vegan is great for the whole wide world!!!
This article should be on the front page section actually!

Go vegan and nobody gets hurt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBM0NULDYl8

[PhatP]

THIS IS A GREAT ARTICLE!!! THANK YOU!! I don't understand why people get so defensive when other people make the choice not to eat animals or use their body fluids? So what if you can walk into your own backyard and get whatever animal product you have back there. Do you expect 300 million Americans to all have dairy cows in their yards? How do you think factory farms came about? 300 million americans all wanting non stop over flowing animal body parts cheap 3, 4 5 times a day.
Going vegan is the is the best thing you can do for the environment. Besides helping to end horrible cruelty to animals, environmental destruction, global warming (70% of all methane released is from cattle, 25% of all carbon released is from animal agriculture more than all transportation combined) you can help end the biggest source of water pollution on earth which is run off from animal waste. It takes 16 pounds of grain to make one pound of meat. The energy required to transport animals and then truck, fly the frozen meat all over the world is devastating. Humans kill and eat 13 billion land animals in the US alone every year. The best solution there is to all these vital issues is to Go Vegan!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4

[REAL cook 1977]

No one is getting defensive, but you need to cut down on the vegan tirade please.

[rankola]

Organic, and freerange animal products are available in every state in this country--even Alaska and Hawaii, so there is access. Besides, freerange farming eliminates the need for "manure control" because they're not in feedlots. The heard numbers are also much smaller. Besides if, all of a sudden there's a global mandate and everyone must stop eating meat, what happens to the livestock? What would be the environmental impact of such a mass release of domestic livestock? Are there enough natural predators to consume them? No. We've seen to that, so there will be carcasses everywhere. Then when the natural predator numbers increase due to all of this bounty, then what will we do? shoot them?

[rankola]

Valkyrie, you bring up some interesting points. I wonder how many steps does it take for the soybean to become silken tofu, and how many different types of resources are used in its production? The same can be said about coconut oil. Where is the nearest coconut tree farm? is it even in the contiguous 48 states? I really don't know. And how many steps does it take to get that coconut to become oil for us to use and how many resources are required to get it to us.

Weren't those soybeans industrial farmed and genetically modified?

Since freerange products are available in every state, it's possible that locally available sources would tend to indicate that it's a little less detrimental on the environment than the industrial farmed soybean that is harvested, often (but not always) shipped to Asia for processing, then shipped back here for purchasing. If there's an organic soybean farm that also makes tofu, I'll be all for it, but it's not something i've heard of.

I'm a fan of the slow food movement: locally, and organically produced, and minimally processed. How many steps does it take for the zuccini to get to the table? The chicken? How about the loaf of bread, or the bowl of pasta (grain takes far more steps to get to the table than vegetable or meat, or even some dairy products. People can make cheese in their kitchens, but they really can't grind flour to make bread now can they?

[valkyrie607]

Rankola, you're onto something with the slow food movement. Slow food is all about local traditions. There's no one solution for a sustainable, healthy diet. The determining factor is what your local agriculture supports. If you're into getting protein from nuts, sprouted grains, and the occasional avocado, hey. More power to you. I recommend moving to the tropics if you're also interested in reducing your carbon footprint. If you live in a temperate zone and you like eating local, as I do, animal protein is an inevitable ingredient in the mix. Some people get by without it. That's fine. I think if everyone just looks to the local traditions of whatever region they're in, they'll find lots of creative, healthy, environmentally sustainable ways to meet their nutritional, cultural, and ethical needs.