Guest guest Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008 hmm..i wouldn't say vegan baking is hard, but whatever. and crisco? ewwwwww http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-lacy/after-turkey-or-tofurkey_b_146633.html Lisa Lacy Posted November 26, 2008 | 10:48 AM (EST) After Turkey or Tofurkey for Dinner, Try a Vegan Pumpkin Pie Read More: Eating Matters, Food, Pie, Thanksgiving, Vegan, Vegetarian, Green News 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?  Comments7 View Comments: Newest First Oldest First HuffPost's Picks Expand All Collapse All - + PhatP See Profile I'm a Fan of PhatP I'm a fan of this user permalink 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!! Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:38 PM on 11/26/2008 - + DebbiM See Profile I'm a Fan of DebbiM I'm a fan of this user permalink 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!! Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 01:42 PM on 11/26/2008 - + valkyrie607 See Profile I'm a Fan of valkyrie607 I'm a fan of this user permalink 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. Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:53 AM on 11/26/2008 - + PhatP See Profile I'm a Fan of PhatP I'm a fan of this user permalink 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 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:42 PM on 11/26/2008 - + PhatP See Profile I'm a Fan of PhatP I'm a fan of this user permalink 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. For in a Republic, who is “the country� Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant—merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Mark Twain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008  Neither would I - and delicious it is too :-) Jo - fraggle vegan chat Wednesday, November 26, 2008 7:57 PM Try a Vegan Pumpkin Pie hmm..i wouldn't say vegan baking is hard, but whatever.and crisco? ewwwwwwhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-lacy/after-turkey-or-tofurkey_b_146633.htmlLisa LacyPosted November 26, 2008 | 10:48 AM (EST) After Turkey or Tofurkey for Dinner, Try a Vegan Pumpkin PieRead More: Eating Matters, Food, Pie, Thanksgiving, Vegan, Vegetarian, Green News 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? Comments7View Comments: Newest First Oldest First HuffPost's Picks Expand All Collapse All - + PhatP See Profile I'm a Fan of PhatP I'm a fan of this user permalink 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+turkeyGO VEGAN!!Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:38 PM on 11/26/2008 - + DebbiM See Profile I'm a Fan of DebbiM I'm a fan of this user permalink 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!!Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 01:42 PM on 11/26/2008 - + valkyrie607 See Profile I'm a Fan of valkyrie607 I'm a fan of this user permalink 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.Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:53 AM on 11/26/2008 - + PhatP See Profile I'm a Fan of PhatP I'm a fan of this user permalink 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=VIjanhKqVC4Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:42 PM on 11/26/2008 - + PhatP See Profile I'm a Fan of PhatP I'm a fan of this user permalink 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=iBM0NULDYl8For in a Republic, who is “the country� Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant—merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Mark Twain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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