Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

I must confess that Julie Hasson inspired this dessert with her scrumptious-looking creamy vegan chocolate-crushed vegan "Oreo"-topped pie that she shared at a demo we did together in Portland OR several years ago.  However, it was so popular that I never did  get to taste it! So, I devised a recipe of my own (for my old Vegan Feast subscription newsletter) 10 years ago. I'm going to share the slightly revised and updated recipe with you here.  It makes a fabulous summer celebration dessert-- for a birthday, perhaps?

Printable Copy

BRYANNA'S VEGAN ESPRESSO CHOCOLATE "OREO" ICE CREAM PIE
Serves 12   UPDATED July 31, 2019
I do love "Oreo"type cookies, though we only indulge once or twice a year. And there are vegan (and organic) Oreo-type chocolate sandwich creme cookies on the market that make this possible. This pie is definitely an indulgence, but it's actually very easy to make if you have made the gelato ahead of time, or if you make it with your favorite commercial vegan chocolate and coffee "ice cream".
See Cooking Tips below for  vegan, palm-oil-freebrand of vegan "Oreo" cookies, and vegan graham-type cookies.

CHOCOLATE CRUMB CRUST:
1/2 cup organic dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
1/4 cup vegan butter (see my homemade palm oil-free recipe here)
1 cup vegan graham cracker crumbs (see Cooking Tips below)
1/2 cup finely-chopped nuts of your choice
CHOCOLATE SAUCE:
1 cup full-fat soymilk or nut milk
8 oz organic dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
1 Tbs (2 little packets) espresso powder or use 1 Tbs. instant coffee powder
2 Tbs Kahlua , other coffee liqueur, or 1 Tbs. pure vanilla extract
FILLING AND GARNISH:
2 cups Bryanna's Revised Vegan Chocolate Gelato OR 1 pint commercial vegan chocolate "ice cream" (premium variety)
2 cups Bryanna's Vegan Coffee Gelato (see recipe below) OR 1 pint commercial vegan coffee" ice
cream" (premium variety)
GARNISH: (see Cooking Tips below)
8 organic vegan chocolate sandwich creme cookies, broken up
10 intact vegan chocolate sandwich creme cookies
OPTIONAL:
Your favorite vegan whipped topping



To make the Crust:
Melt the chocolate and vegan together in the top of a small double boiler over simmering water, or in a microwave-proof bowl in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes. Add to the crumbs and nuts in a bowl and mix well. Press into pie pan 1-inch up sides. Chill.

To Make the Chocolate Sauce:
Bring the soymilk to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate; whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in espresso powder and Kahlua or vanilla. Let the sauce cool.

To Fill the Pie:
1.) Microwave the Coffee Gelato  on low setting at 10-second intervals until slightly softened. Spread this evenly over the crust.

2.) Spread 3/4 cup of the Chocolate Sauce over the Coffee Gelato.

The Coffee Gelato spread over the chocolate crumb crust

3.) Sprinkle the sauce-covered gelato evenly with the broken cookies. Freeze until gelato is firm, about 20 minutes.


4.) Arrange the Chocolate Gelato in side-by-side scoops around edge of pie.

5.) Wedge 1 whole cookie between each scoop. Freeze pie until firm (covering it with plastic wrap if it's going to be in the freezer for more than a few hours), at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. Cover and chill the remaining sauce.


To Serve, cut the pie into 12 wedges. Drizzle each serving with a little of the Chocolate Sauce. Add whipped topping, if you want to "gild the lily".

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 588.0 calories; 36% calories from fat; 25.1g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 275.1mg sodium; 183.7mg potassium; 90.9g carbohydrates; 3.5g fiber; 49.5g sugar; 7.2g protein, 13.2 points.

Cooking Tips
VEGAN "OREO"-TYPE COOKIES:
Country Choice Organic Chocolate Sandwich Cookies: This is the brand I use-- it's also Fairtrade Certified and free of palm oil. It is a Canadian brand, owned by Nature's Path. Find Canadian retailers here. Country Choice is also available in the USA http://us.naturespath.com/about/stores (amazon.com carries them, too) and the UK http://naturespath.co.uk/where-buy

VEGAN GRAHAM CRACKERS (without palm oil): (Updated Nov. 27, 2016)

Some bulk graham cracker crumbs are vegan-- check the label on the bin (if it's visible) or ask your grocer to let you see the original bag.

The following crackers are "accidentally vegan" and not made with organic or whole foods ingredients (but no palm oil):
Keebler Original Graham Crackers
Keebler Cinnamon Graham Crackers
NOTE: Sweet & Sara's brand contain palm oil.

Another option I have used is to make crumbs out of "animal" crackers-- here are some vegan ones made with organic and/or healthful ingredients.  They are often easier to find than vegan Graham crackers and usually not expensive:
Barbara's Bakery Snackanimals Animal Cookies 
and
Trader Joe's Organic Animal Crackers
(Both of the above are organic, whole grain, palm-oil-free, HF-corn syrup-free, but they do contain soy lecithin)
Annie's brand Bernie's Animal Farm Cookies

Another option: there are numerous vegan (including GF) graham cracker recipes on the 'Net, if you are into making your own.

BRYANNA'S VEGAN COFFEE GELATO
Serves 8

1 3/4 cup water
1/2 cup corn syrup or brown rice syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup soy, almond or cashew milk
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
(If you are allergic to nuts, use 1/4 cup more  non-dairy milk and 1/4 cup oil.)
1/2 cup light unbleached organic sugar
2 Tbs (4 little packets) instant espresso powder (If you can't find this, use 1 cup liquid espresso or strong brewed coffee instead of 1 cup of the water.)
1 tablespoon Instant Clearjel® OR 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum or guar gum
OPTIONAL: 3 Tbs Kahlua or other coffee-flavored liqueur

Blend all of the ingredients in a blender until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it doesn't feel grainy).

Chill the gelato mixture and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Scoop into a quart plastic container, cover and freeze for several hours before serving.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 220.9 calories; 15% calories from fat; 4.1g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 102.4mg sodium; 108.7mg potassium; 48.1g carbohydrates; 0.4g fiber; 38.6g sugar; 3.2g protein.

Enjoy!

 
Printable Copy

Nutrition Facts

Nutrition (per serving): 182.2 calories; 21% calories from fat; 4.7g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 66.9mg sodium; 79.0mg potassium; 31.0g carbohydrates; 0.2g fiber; 27.9g sugar; 30.8g net carbs; 1.7g protein; 4.0 points. Enjoy!

I can't believe this week has gone by so fast! Sheesh! And here it is Thursday again! We did have a fun few days with DH's stepdaughter from Montreal and her two lovely 12-year-old twin daughters. We had a picnic the beach with some friends and 2 of my granddaughters, the girls having a great time swimming, canoeing, going out on my stepson's motor boat, and getting to know each other. We went to Salt Spring Island for a night, with the "gang" (as DH calls them) to visit more family-- driving in style in a friend's immaculate white 1972 Chevy Caprice. We would have been squished in our little car, with no air conditioning on the hottest weekend of the year, so our friend offered his ride. Very fun, and a big surprise for the Salt Spring relatives when we drove up!

But, along with company, cooking, the ordinary daily running of a house and job, family, and, of course, the Book-- hours of editing-- it's been mostly work and very little serious cooking, I'm afraid!

I did make an interesting recipe yesterday-- Lucuma ice cream (vegan, of course!). Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit and, as many of you may know, my father was Peruvian. I remember lucuma ice cream from my three months in Peru as a six-year-old. Lucuma is a fruit with a quite dry texture, so it isn't eaten as a fruit, per se. Mostly it is used for a delectable, rich ice cream. Lucuma is rather sweet and has a butterscotch-y sort of flavor. When I was in Vancouver last, I found a store with Peruvian foods and bought some frozen lucuma puree-- what a coup, I thought!

Yesterday I worked out a recipe based on my vanilla gelato recipe made with Instant Clearjel®, with the help of a (non-vegan) recipe from the internet. After splattering the kitchen with soy cream after a little accident (Mercury is in retrograde-- what can I say?), I made the mix and tasted it-- WAY too sweet!! I couldn't figure it out! My gelato is not as sweet as most, and I had used less sweetener than the non-vegan recipe called for (in relation to the volume of liquid, etc.). So, I got out my (new, under-used) reading glasses and read the small print on the bag of lucuma puree-- sugar! I had been assuming that it was unsweetened, since the label did not say "sweetened" and the recipes I found online all called for unsweetened puree. My mistake!

I tried diluting it with more soymilk-- still overpoweringly sweet! (I now have about 2 quarts of very sweet milky liquid in the fridge that I have to think of some ways to use!  Any ideas?) So, I started over and used no sweetener at all. It still tasted too sweet to me, but I know that when food is frozen, the sweetness is not as apparent, so there was hope. I stuck it in the freezer and hoped for the best, as I was hoping to take it to a family dinner with my sister and my mother on Friday-- they will remember this treat, too!

Last night I looked for unsweetened lucuma puree in Canada online-- no luck. But I did find lucuma powder. It seems that lucuma is all the rage in the raw foods community and is even used as a natural sweetener. I found some at a good price from this Canadian vendor, and ordered 2 lbs for future experiments!

BTW, lucuma is being called a "superfood", but I think this is somewhat of an exaggeration. It's true that it has lots of fiber and beta carotene, but, then, so do carrots! It is high in natural carbohydrates, so it was used by the Incas to provide energy, and evidently the trees are very prolific-- no wonder it was a popular food. Tasting sweet and butterscotch-y didn't hurt! I just feel that we should not go hog wild over exotic foods that are supposed to provide miraculous nutrients, when, in fact, we have foods at home that are just as good, more available, and much cheaper! For me, his is an exotic treat to relive some childhood memories.

Anyway, that said, we tried a bit of the ice cream when I was photographing it and re-packing it, and it is delicious! Here is the recipe I used with the sweetened puree, but I plan to try it again with the lucuma powder and will report back!


Printable Recipe

Update Aug. 2012: See a recipe for Vegan Lucuma Ice Cream using lucuma powder here. And stay tuned for Take 3!

BRYANNA'S VEGAN LUCUMA ICE CREAM (PERUVIAN), TAKE 1 (WITH SWEETENED LUCUMA PUREE)
Servings: 10
Yield: 5 cups

1 1/2 cups soy creamer (plain)
1 1/2 cups nondairy milk
1 1/2 cups lucuma puree (with sugar)
3/4 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained
(if allergic to nuts, use 1/2 cup more nondairy milk, or soy creamer, and 2 tablespoons oil)
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
3/8 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons Instant Clearjel® (see info below recipe)OR 3/8 tsp. guar gum or xanthan gum

Place the creamer, milk, and lucuma puree into a blender along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).

Mix all of the remaining ingredients, into this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth.

Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Scoop into a quart plastic container, cover and freeze for several hours (preferably 24 hours) before serving.


Keep cool!

An experiment we loved, made with some of the apple bounty from my last post.

Printable Recipe (includes "Amaretti Crumbs" recipe

BRYANNA'S ROASTED APPLESAUCE/AMARETTI VEGAN GELATO
Makes 8/ 1/2-cup servings.
This is really delicious. The brown rice syrup adds a faintly caramel-like flavor that makes the ice cream seem very rich.

2 1/3 cup plain soy milk, or almond milk (such as Almond Breeze Original) or So Delicious Coconut Beverage, Original
1/2 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
1/2 cup light-colored granulated organic sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon Instant Clear-Jel (See about this product and where to get it at this post ) OR 1/4 teaspoon Xanthan gum or Guar gum

ADDITIONS:
1/2 cup Vegan Amaretti Crumbs (see recipe in Cooking Tips) OR, you can simply use chopped toasted almonds instead
1/2 cup Chunky Roasted Applesauce (pictures at end of post)

Place the milk into a blender along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).

Mix all of the remaining ingredients, EXCEPT the Additions, into this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth.

Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Add the Amaretti Crumbs 30 seconds before stopping the machine. Remove the dasher and add the applesauce to the center. Using a small spatula, swirl the applesauce roughly through the ice cream.

Scoop into a quart container, cover and freeze until hard before serving.

Servings: 8
Yield: 1 quart

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/2 cup): 273.7 calories; 18% calories from fat; 5.9g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 131.1mg sodium; 182.5mg potassium; 55.8g carbohydrates; 1.1g fiber; 45.0g sugar; 54.7g net carbs; 5.0g protein; 5.8 points.

Printable Recipe

BRYANNA’S "AMARETTI" CRUMBS (SOY-FREE)
Makes 2 and 1/2 cups
From my book "Nonna's Italian Kitchen".

Italians use crumbled amaretti cookies (almond macaroons) in many desserts (and even in a few savory dishes with Renaissance roots). Since macaroons are made with eggs, we can't use packaged cookies for this purpose.

You can use this easy recipe when you need amaretti crumbs, and do away with the need to have baked amaretti on hand.

Nuts and breadcrumbs can be quickly toasted in your microwave, if you like.. You can grind them easily and quickly in a small electric spice or coffee grinder, or mini-chopper.

1 c. lightly toasted ground almonds
1 c. toasted white or sweet bread crumbs
1/2 c. maple syrup
1 tsp. pure almond extract

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Mix all of the ingredients together well. Spread the mixture on 2 cookie sheets and place in the heated oven.

Toast the mixture for about 15 minutes or until it has dried out a bit, but is still slightly chewy. Cool the mixture, then freeze in rigid plastic containers.

Chunky Roasted Applesauce after 45 minutes in the oven:


Chunky Roasted Applesauce after broiling, before adding sugar:

Enjoy!!

Summer is finally in full swing here, and, just in time, I have a new ice cream maker! I have had a Donvier hand-crank machine for years (the kind that you use with a frozen canister, not ice and salt), and it is great, but it only make a quart, and I wanted one that I could leave to its own devices. I finally decided on the Cuisinart ICE-30BC Pure Indulgence 2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker, which is pretty reasonable in price, got good reviews, and is widely available. Amazon.com carries it, and, here in Canada,they now carry it on amazon.ca .