I had fallen behind posting Sweet Treats for this year’s 52 Project and was worried about catching up. I needed to do some serious baking! Then I heard about Pie Day from Gluten Free Girl. My worries subsided as I love making pie and knew I could make several to help me get back on schedule and participate in Pie Day. I’ve been absolutely giddy about pie for an entire week!
It’s been Pie Central in my kitchen since last Sunday. Here’s the first of several pie recipes I created in the last week.
This recipe features Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, an ingredient suggested by my friend Robert. In hindsight, I could have also used Tia Maria, the coffee liqueur, which uses Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee as its flavor base. This pie is very rich with both chocolate and coffee flavors. I enjoy using a bit of coffee in many chocolate recipes, as it deepens the flavor. The creamy filling in this pie has one of the richest chocolate flavors of anything I have made. It also is gluten-free and vegan. I hope you enjoy it!
Chocolate Sandwich Cookie Crust
2 1/4 cups crushed chocolate sandwiches cookies (I used 1 1/2 packages of K-Toos)
2.5 ounces vegan butter substitute (I used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks)
Crush cookies in food processor. Melt butter substitute. Add melted butter to crushed cookies. Pat into the bottom and sides of pie pan. This quantity will make one 8″ pie pan or 5 to 6-4″ mini pies. I used 4″ pans for mine. Set pie pans in refrigerator to allow butter to harden, firming up the pie crust.
Mochaccino Pie Filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup coconut crystals
3/4 cup Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Spread (the kind in the tub)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 Tablespoon Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee fresh grounds plus a handful of beans
3 oz. baking chocolate (I use Baker’s brand), melted and allowed to cool
1-12 oz. package Mori-Nu Extra Firm Silken Tofu
1 oz. chocolate of your choice for garnish
In bowl of food processor, combine granulated sugar, coconut crystals, Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Spread, vanilla bean paste, coffee grounds, melted baking chocolate and tofu. Blend until smooth.
Pour mixture into pie crust(s). Top with chocolate curls, swirls or shreds and a few coffee beans. Refrigerate overnight to set up. This pie should be stored in the refrigerator until immediately before serving. The crust is very sturdy, so if making smaller pies like the 4″ pies in the photo, you may pop the entire pie out of the pan for serving.
The chocolate swirls on top of my pies were made by melting 1 oz. of 70% cacao chocolate and filling a small ziploc bag with it. I then snipped the corner of the bag just a tiny bit and piped whimsical swirls of chocolate onto parchment paper. I popped them into the freezer (still on the paper) on a cookie sheet to let them harden. Then I gently peeled them off and tucked them into the pudding mixture.
This pie would also make delightful tiny tarts or a pie-in-a-jar. Do you remember those awful little pudding desserts in a cup KFC used to serve? Perhaps they still do. This is like a million times better but I’d like to eat it at the same place as I ate those KFC things, at a picnic in the park or at the beach. No plastic spork, though; I’ll bring a spoon.
This. Looks. Amazing.