Friday, November 27, 2009

The day after....

To all of you out there who woke up early to go shopping you are very brave! I'm not one for waking up that early and dealing with the crowds especially when we got home late last night. So i'm drinking some coffee and trying to stay warm.
I hope everyone had a nice visit with their family and friends yesterday. We drove down to the in-laws and had Thanksgiving with them. My sister-in-law, father-in-law and husbands' birthdays fall between Nov. 20-30th so we celebrated them all and had 3 different desserts for them.

Since the main course was not such a compassionate one (you know what I'm talking about)my son and I had a cruelty free Field Roast(below).


When I had asked my mother-in-law to buy a Field Roast I didn't specify a Celebration Roast but we had this Smoked Tomato Field Roast instead. It had plenty of flavor and could actually feed at least 3 people. I made a vegan gravy as well. One of my favorite Field Roast Sausages is the Smokeed Apple Sage.yum!

This was the dessert I made and it turned out perfect! It's a Pumpkin Cheescake and the recipe is from Just the Food blog but is also in the new vegan cookbook 500 Vegan Recipes. I actually baked this in a springform pan and made a pecan shortbread crust. Here is the recipe below with my changes but you can see the original recipe by clicking Just the Food blog . It's pretty rich so you don't really don't need a big slice.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

Ingredients:
Pecan shortbread crust (or any one you choose)
2, 8oz containers of vegan cream cheese
1, 15 oz can of pure pumpkin(organic)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp Cornstarch(I ran out of arrowroot powder)
1 tsp cinnamon (ground)
1/2 tsp ginger (ground)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (ground)
1/4 tsp cloves (ground)

Pecan Shortbread Crust:
1 C. toasted pecans
1 1/3 C. spelt flour (you can use your choice)
1/3 C. organic sugar
1/2 C. Earth Balance

Directions: First preheat oven to 350.

In a 9 inch spring form pan wrap the bottom at least half way up the sides with aluminum foil. (You'll see why you need this when you bake with the filling).

In a food processor add pecans and pulse until coarsely chopped. YOU DON'T want to pulse into a fine meal. You want to make sure you have a nice crunch to the shortbread. Pour into a medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

Next in the food processor add flour, sugar and EB and pulse until a dough forms. Once that happens pour into the pecans and stir together.

Press dough into the spring form pan and bake for about 15 minutes. It will puff slightly but you don't really want it to brown. Take out and let cool for a few minutes.

Directions for the filling:
Beat all ingredients together in a food processor or electric mixer until smooth. Pour into crust. Place a pan or drip pan full of hot water (about 1" deep) in the middle rack of the oven. Place the foil wrapped spring form pan onto the drip pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool, place in refrigerator until ready to serve, and to set even more.


Note*The reason for the foil is so that the water doesn't seep into the cheesecake and wet the crust. The reason for the water is so the top of the cheesecake doesn't crack.



This dessert you see here is my husbands' favorite that he grew up eating. My mother-in-law makes everyones favorite cake or pie that they like for their birthdays. This pie is a pudding pineapple cream cheese pie. I'm not a big fan of it but the rest of the family loves it and she made it vegan this year. Here is the recipe, it's real simple. Would be a great summer dessert.




Pudding pinapple cream cheese pie:
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 lg instant vanilla pudding box
1 lg can crushed pineapple, drained (squeeze out as much liquid as possible)
2 1/4 c. non-dairy milk(soy was used)
1 8 oz. tofutti cream cheese

In a large bowl pour in a packet of instant pudding mix. Next pour in milk and mix until thick. Beat in cream cheese until smooth. Finally stir in crushed pineapple. Once thoroughly combined pour into graham cracker crust, put in refrigerator until set about a day or overnight.

6 comments:

  1. Wow, looks like you had a great day! I am definitely going to make that pumpkin pie cheesecake, I love pumpkin and I love cheesecake so I'm sure I'll be in heaven. Thanks for the recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Field Roast is one of the few faux-meats that I can tolerate, but I really prefer the "deli" slices- Those are great!

    And man, what could beat a pumpkin cheesecake? Sounds so good!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It looks delicious!
    Debra @ Vegan Family Style
    ps please check out the cookbook giveaway on my blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was too tired to shop too! Oh well- it was nice to stay in on a rainy day and eat leftovers from Thanksgiving.

    ReplyDelete
  5. that's so awesome that you got to spend your thanksgiving with so much family & celebrating so many birthdays. so fun! we made joni's pumpkin cheezecake last year & it rocked - but i looooove that you made it in a pecan shortbread crust - brilliant & perfect! mmmmmmmm! i think the pudding pineapple cream cheeze pie sounds like something i might really enjoy as well.

    my sister & mom dragged me (kicking and screaming) out for shopping yesterday. sadface. i'm quite jealousfaced that you got to stay home & relax, but i am doing my relaxing today - thanks goodness!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looks amazing! What a fun Thanksgiving! :)

    ReplyDelete