December 19, 2015 – Pie with Cookie Swap

Saturday, December 19, 2015
VBC Meeting #34: Pie with Cookie Swap
Host of the Month: John
Location: Denton, TX

For the thirty-fourth Vegan Bake Club meeting our theme was pies, but because it was also December, we threw in a cookie swap. The night before the meeting, some of us got together to bake double batches of gingerbread and sugar cookies, so we would be prepared to ice and decorate treats at the gathering.

These cookies plus the cookie swap contributions meant that there were over 200 cookies at John’s for VBC. We did share with many other people for the holidays; we didn’t eat them all ourselves!

Here is what we decorated:

This is what we made:

Shannon: Cherry Pie; Crescent Cookies

For her first VBC meeting, Shannon rose to the challenge of being tricked into making two items. For the pie theme, she made a perfect cherry pie using her family’s hundred year old crust recipe (shortening based) and red tart cherries.

For the cookie swap, she made vegan crescent cookies containing flour, almond meal, sugar, Earth Balance margarine, vanilla and dusted with powdered sugar.

Brett: Teenage-Style Cookie Decorations

Brett, in from out of town, didn’t have a chance to make anything before the meeting. He did however decorate some cookies (see cookies on right).

Slynn: Rum Balls; Pie Dough

Slynn made rum balls with melted chocolate chips, dates, rum, coconut, cashews, walnuts, and pecans for the cookie swap.

Slynn ran out of time to actually make a pie for the meeting with the dough she made. She did use the dough to make Gas Station Pies from the The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes cookbook some days later. She filled these hand pies with Fuji apple and frozen cherries and drizzled their tops with glaze.

Ramon: Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles

Ramon didn’t attend this meeting, but he did send along cookies for swapping. He made a cookie inspired by traditional crinkle cookies, but instead of topping the chocolate cookies with powdered sugar, he topped them with crushed peppermint candy powder. He also put pretzels in them.

Billy: Ramon’s Nut Stuff Pizza (Three “Cheese” Basil Pizza)

The first two vegan cheeses on Billy’s pie were Daiya Mozarella and Cheddar Style Shreds. He made the third cheese with byproduct nut meal from nut milk that Ramon has been making for his artisan coffee drink work. Billy took the nut meal, containing finely ground nuts, carrot, and dates, and combined it with homemade rye berry rejuvelac, canola oil, nutritional yeast, tapioca starch, and salt. He made a crust using his old Risen Bread recipe, spread on a thin garlicky tomato sauce, then layered on the three cheeses, and home grown basil. Strangely, the brown chunks that look like meat are Billy’s cheese.

John: Swedish Apple Muffin Tin Pies; Chocolate Mint Star Cookies

John made mini pies in a muffin tin. He made the Swedish apple pies with apples, oats, oat flour, sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom. On the side, he made a cashew cream sauce.

He made chocolate mint star cookies containing flour, brown rice flour, apple sauce, and less than standard cookie quantities of oil and sugar (though more than the healthy recipe called for) for the swap. To ice the cookies, he placed 4 chocolate chips on each cookie while still warm, spreading the chocolate across the cookies as it melted.

Lauren: Cottage Pie; No Bake Cookies

Lauren made a cottage pie filled with butternut squash, textured vegetable protein, green beans, carrot, onion and tomato paste. She topped the pie with a crust of dill mashed potatoes and Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds.

For the cookie swap, Lauren put together some No Bake Cookies with ingredients including cocoa, oats, sugar, peanut butter, sunflower butter, and vanilla.

Michelle: Vindaloo Pie

Michelle made a vindaloo pie in a cast iron skillet for the meeting. She used a jarred vindaloo sauce, onion, garlic, potatoes, peas, radish, tofu, and coconut cream. First, she cooked the potatoes down a bit, then added onion and garlic and cooked it with some curry spices. She added the vindaloo and coconut cream with the veggies, topped with crust, and baked it for somewhere between twenty and thirty minutes. For the crust, she used a basic pie crust with part coconut oil for the fat. Unfortunately, after concocting this beauty, she didn’t actually make it to the meeting. She was able to show it off to us after we met up for brunch the next day though!

We finished the evening with some mah jong.

John has a nice vine window.