Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie

No need to check again, you read that right the first time. Chocolate. Peanut Butter. Pretzel. PIE. It's creamy. It's smooth. It's crunchy. It's decadent and rich. It's VEGAN. Believe it, folks.

Whoa Nelly! This is the kind of pie that sneaks up on you. You start with one teeny tiny slice. Which quickly turns into two slices. And before you know it, you've got your fork in the dish picking at the sides. Soon after, you throw all caution to the wind, and you end up with your finger in the pie. These things happen.

If you're lucky, you've got a good friend there to share in the indulgence, and to help rein each other in when faces start getting dangerously close to the pie.

Seriously, this thing should come with a warning: DO NOT EAT ALONE. But, y'know, if you do happen to go it alone and get half-way through the pie before you know what happened, I won't judge you. Pinky swear.

Of course there's some things I'd try differently next time: lightening up the peanut butter filling, making a harder ganache, tweaking the crust. But the recipe got eaten up pretty quickly as is, so no complaints here.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Pie
adapted from Vegan Nom Noms

Crust-
1 cup of finely ground pretzels
5 tbsp of Earth Balance vegan butter
3 tbsp of sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, melt butter slowly over medium heat. Mix together pretzel crumbs and sugar in a small bowl. Once butter is melted, add to pretzel crumbs and mix until completely moistened. Press crumbs into 9 inch pie pan and up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes, or until crust is set. Allow to cool completely.

Peanut Butter filling-
1 12 oz container of Extra-firm silken tofu (I like Mori-Nu brand in the aseptic packs. You can find them in the asian aisle, or at the asian market.)
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 - 1/3 cup maple syrup (you can also use agave or brown rice syrup in its place)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Drain tofu and remove excess water. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. (Since I used natural peanut butter, I used 1/3 cup of syrup. If you're using PB that's already sweetened, use less syrup to keep it from getting too sweet. ) Pour filling into prepared crust, and keep in fridge while you make the ganache.

Chocolate Ganache-
1/4 cup almond milk (or your non-dairy milk of choice)
3/4 cup of vegan chocolate chips
2 tbsp maple syrup (or agave, etc)

In a small sauce pan, heat milk on medium heat until it comes to gentle boil. As soon as it boils, remove from heat and add chocolate and syrup and mix until well-combined and smooth. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes while it begins to solidify. You may drizzle the ganache on top of the peanut butter filling or cover it completely like I did. I also crushed up some pretzels with my hand and sprinkled it over the top of the ganache while it was still wet. Allow the ganache to set for at least one hour before serving.

Makes 1-12 servings depending on who's watching and if you're sharing.

Whiskey Truffles

I think some celebrations should be extended. Like my birthday. One day is not enough. I need a week, at least. 

And St. Patrick's Day should be St. Patrick's month. Though if you're really Irish, you keep the spirit of the day in your heart all year. Or at least, you find ways to keep whiskey in your belly every day. 

Another thing I like to get in every day? Chocolate. Therefore, whiskey truffles help me to get my daily serving of both of these vital nutrients. I've added them to the "eat every day" list. I don't know how my doctor or my boyfriend will feel about this, but personally I think it's one of the greatest ideas I've ever had. 

Truffles usually are full of things that make my tummy say: "What the hell are you doing to me??" Cream. Lots of cream. And butter, sometimes. But not these truffles. They're vegan, you see. And full of whiskey, which makes my tongue and my tummy say, "Bless ye, ye lovely lass!" These statements are all FACTS. 

If you've been following along at home, you'll know that the CARBOMB cupcakes have a whiskey ganache filling. And these truffles are simply a whiskey ganache, rolled and covered in stuff. Therefore, if you were upset that I didn't post the recipe for those cupcakes, you now have the know-how to make a vital element. Though I'm not going to tell you for certain if this is the same ganache I used in the CARBOMBs. 'Cuz I'm slippery like that. 

Also, a word of caution: make sure your bowls are heat proof if you're going to try a poor-man's version of a double-boiler to melt your chocolate. Don't make my mistake and spend way-too-long chopping up yummy expensive chocolate and mix it with yummy expensive whiskey only to have one of your favorite bowls crack and the bottom fall out entirely and all of that beautiful yummy expensive ganache fall into the water and glass shards underneath. There was cursing that could've made a sailor blush. There were also some tears. (It was mostly for the whiskey). Don't be like me. Check your bowls. In related news, if anyone's thinking of buying me anything anytime soon, I could use a new small-ish glass bowl...

Whiskey Truffles

adapted from SK

4oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (I also sometimes use vegan chocolate chips when I'm feeling lazy. Chopping chocolate is the worst!)

1/3 cup soy creamer (non-dairy creamer will work fine too, though I'm not so sure that it's vegan if that's a concern for you)

1 tbsp Earth Balance vegan butter stick

2 tsp whiskey (OK, OK, I didn't measure. I poured a capful, stirred it in, then kept adding till it tasted right for me. Which is most likely too much whiskey for you. 2 tsp is a safe bet)

Cocoa powder, crushed almonds, pistachios, etc for rolling

In a small sauce pan, heat the creamer over med-low heat and bring to a boil. Place chocolate in a heat-safe bowl. Once creamer reaches a boil, pour over the chocolate and let sit for about a minute. Add butter and stir until smooth. If not all of the chocolate melts, microwave on high for 10 second intervals, stirring in between, until fully melted. Pour in whiskey and stir. Cover, and refrigerate until firm. Once ganache is firm, set up stations with nuts and powders to roll in. Also have a pan or plate with waxed paper. Roll ganache into a small ball, roll in desired topping, and place on waxed paper. If ganache starts to stick, place back in fridge.* Place finished truffles back in fridge to set, and store in an air-tight container in fridge. 

*I'm sure there's some easier/better method that Alton Brown's come up with for rolling truffles, but I haven't seen that episode, and this works for me. If you know a better method, please share!

Also, I'm not sure how many truffles this makes, as I was busy sneaking tastes of chocolate, but it probably would have made at least 20 if I wasn't eating as I went along...

Chocolate-orange Filled Hearts

I don't want to fool you with all these heart shaped items, but February and Valentines day are my LEAST favorite time of year. I've always been the kind of girl that went straight from Christmas/New Year's to thoughts of shamrocks, leprechauns and Irish Whiskey. Okay, okay, it's true, every year up until this one has found me sans-sweetie and occasionally bitter about love. But besides that, I just can't see what's so exciting about forced declarations of love and cheesy pre-packaged gifts to "prove" said love. I'm all for giving and receiving gifts but prefer it to be sweet and spontaneous as opposed to dictated by a date on the calendar. And then last year I met the love of my life. (Simultaneous "awww"s and puking sounds inserted here). And then a few weeks ago I found a set of nesting heart-shaped cookie cutters on sale and some recipes for yummy V-day themed cookies and decided to quit being bitter and just make some god-dammed cookies.

This particular recipe drew me in with the pretty picture, and honestly, who doesn't get excited about anything FILLED WITH CHOCOLATE? The reviews were another story, and proclaimed this cookie to be "tasteless rocks." Because I love a challenge and am cocky enough to think I can fix any recipe, I decided to give these a Voltron kitchen makeover. (Voltron kitchen being the name of the kitchen in my apartment. Just go with it, I'll explain later.) Ken wasn't too excited about them, as orange marmalade is number 3 on the list of foods that he'd nuke out of existence if given a chance (followed behind Pop Tarts at Number 1 and fruit roll-ups at Number 2), but he liked them enough that this cookie is now added to the list of "Baked goods that have not made it out the door before being entirely consumed."

Are these my favorite cookie? Not by any means. Were they as terrible as the reviews said? Judging by the quickness with which they were consumed, obviously not. Could they be made better? Absolutely, and I've got a few ideas about that. Will I continue to ask questions and then answer them myself? I promise this is the last one, for this post at least.

*Note: This recipe starts with Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe and alters it. If you're not familiar with AB's recipe, you can find it here. It's a good standard recipe to build off of. It's not meant to be sweet, as the cookies are meant to be coated with icing, sugar, etc. I recommend generously covering them with sanding sugar before baking if you need your cookies sweet. 

Chocolate-Orange Filled Hearts

adapted from Food Network website

3 c. flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup earth balance vegan butter, softened

1 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

1 egg,  beaten

1 tbsp soymilk

1 tsp vanilla

Scant 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Ghiardelli 84% cacoa bar)

2 heaping tbsp orange marmalade

1 egg white beaten with 1 tsp water

Sanding sugar

Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar until well blended, then add the egg and milk and beat until well incorporated. With the mixer on low, gradually add flour until mix pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic, and chill for 2 hours. 

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Stir together the chocolate and the marmalade. Using confectioner's sugar to cover the surface, roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thickness (mine were probably larger) and cut out hearts. Place about 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, and place 1 tsp chocolate mix in center, spreading out leaving about 1/4 inch from the edge (I definitely used more than 1 tsp, as I only had enough filling for half of the dough). Using the egg wash and a pastry brush, brush around the edges of the cookies, place another cookie on top, and press together. Brush tops lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, or until done. Let cool on the pan and transfer to a rack. 

*I only used 1/2 of the dough, and came up with about 20 cookies. I used the rest of the dough the next day to make sandwich cookies filled with jam, which I'll be sure to tell you about soon.