Double Layer Pumpkin "Cheese"cake (Vegan)

Up bright and early this morning to make my daughter's favorite Thanksgiving dessert....

The Recipe:

8 oz Toffutti Better than Cream Cheese
12 oz silken firm tofu
1/2 C sugar
2 T. tapioca flour
2 T. lemon juice
1 T. Vanilla
1/2 Vanilla bean (seeds only)

1/2 C pumpkin puree
1/2 t rum extract
3 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/4 t. nutmeg

1 premade graham cracker crust

Put the first set of ingredients in a food processor and blend until completely smooth.

Spread a layer in the bottom of the graham cracker crust, leaving the remaining mixture in the food processor.

Add the next set of ingredients and blend until completely smooth, then carefully layer that mixture over the white layer.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until the center is set.  Remove from the oven to cool, then refrigerate for about 3 hours.

This looks pretty cool when you cut and serve it, I will post those pics later :)

And as promised....my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal...

Gluten

This afternoon's project is Gluten. "Wheat meat"

I am just posting pictures this time, the recipe can be found in the "School Lunch" post.

Mixing the dry ingredients with broth.

 Mixed up.

Up close...

Pull a chunk, stretch it out and cut it...

Close up

Drop them  in the boiling "broth" mixture

Cook until desired texture, the longer you cook the "tougher" the texture.

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

The kitchen smells of cranberry...mmmm....

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

2 packages of fresh cranberries

   2 C sugar

                                                                              2 C water

Dissolve the sugar in the water in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a simmer, add cranberries, and simmer.  

The cranberries will begin to "pop", be careful near the pan, you can get splashed.  Cook at a simmer until all berries have "popped" and to desired thickness.  The sauce will thicken more as it cools.

See the skin popping?

Simmering and popping 

 Almost done...

 Then pour into a bowl to cool

 Then to the fridge until tomorrow :)

Apple Pies

Pumpkin pies out of the oven and cooled.  Apple pies up next:

Same crust recipe, and apples are just peeled, cored, sliced, and then tossed with a sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg mixture (to your own taste, I don't measure)

Apples, Sugar, and Spice...Everything nice : )

Ready for the top crust...

Top Crust, on the first apple pie

 Up close...

 

Top Crust, second apple pie...

And in the oven they go :)

So in about 45-60 minutes, I will add a picture of them "hot out of the oven". 

Here it is...hot out of the oven...smells lovely

Pumpkin Pies

And the baking begins 2 days before Thanksgiving...pie crusts from scratch, just like my mom ;)

The Crust

2 C. unbleached flour

1/2 t salt

3/4 C. butter flavored vegetable shortening

5-6 T. cold water

 

Mix the flour and salt.  Using a pastry cutter, cut shortening into the flour and salt, until it resembles a coarse crumble.  Add water and knead to form a dough.  This recipe is for 2 crusts.

I was feeling ambitious today, so I spent some extra time with the crust edges :)  I think it worked out pretty well for an amature :)

Vegan Pumpkin Pie Filling

1 package Mori-Nu tofu (any type of "firmness" seems to work out)

1 15-16oz can of pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

1/2 t salt

2 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice

1/2 t. cinnamon

3/4 C sugar

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy, pour in prepared pie crust, covering crust edges.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15 min, reduce to 350 degrees and bake an additional 40-50 minutes (until set in the center) uncovering edges 5 min before set.

Ready for the oven

Edges covered and in the oven

Now it's time to clean up that mess and start on some apple pies :)  I will post the finished pie pictures later...Stay tuned :)

Not super impressed with the new silicon crust cover, you can see the edges are more done than I'd like.

My older aluminum crust covers worked better...

School Lunch

Our small church school has volunteers provide yummy lunches everyday; today is my day.  The lunches are required to be vegetarian. I'm doing a fall/Thanksgiving theme.

Gluten
Stuffing
Green Beans
Garlic Potatoes
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Apple Cake

I made the Gluten yesterday afternoon, and then started work on the rest first thing this morning.

Gluten

2 C. Gluten Flour

3/4 C. Unbleached White Flour

2 C. hot Vegetable Broth

Poultry seasoning, sage, and thyme to your tastes

Mix to form a "dough".  This will be an elastic-like dough, very different from bread dough.

Then boil the following ingredients, once boiling drop small chunks of the gluten dough into the water and cook for 20-30 minutes.  The longer it boils the "chewier" the texture.

3 Qts. water

1 onion (quartered)

2 T minced Garlic

3 Ribs of Celery, cut in chunks

4 T soy sauce

1 large can of tomato sauce

 Stuffing

1 14oz. Bag of unseasoned stuffing cubes or crumbs

1 Onion (chopped)

2 Ribs of Celery (chopped)

1 C. Dried Cranberries

3 T Earth Balance "butter"

Sage and Thyme to taste

2 C. Vegetable Broth

Saute onion and celery in the "butter", add broth and season to taste with sage and thyme.  Heat to a boil, remove from heat add stuffing cubes/crumbs and cranberries.  Spread in a 9" baking pan and top with a few pats of butter, bake for 20 minutes or unti golden brown.

Before going in the oven:

Hot out of the oven:

The Green Beans were just 2 bags of frozen, uncut, long green beans, sauteed in 1T earth balance "butter" with some toasted sliced almonds.

Green Beans and Toasted Almonds

Steaming up my camera lens...

Garlic Potatoes

6-8 large potatoes, sliced (unpeeled)

1/2 C. Earth Balance "butter"

Garlic Herb Seasoning and Salt to taste

In a large bowl toss sliced potatoes with butter and seasonings, spread in a 9" X 13" baking pan, Bake at 350 degrees until potatoes are golden brown.

Going into the oven:

Out of the oven:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Apple Cake

Successfully taken into the school and very few leftovers :)  Now to decide what to fix for supper at home...