Sunday, January 3, 2010

Brownie Pie: Vegan Blue Ribbon Edition!

I took four of these pies to the Toronto Vegetarian Association's annual Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake-Off, and I walked away with a blue ribbon for taking the Judge's Pick award, plus the six pounds of organic sugar which were the prize. I may have been bragging about this a lot since then, so here, finally, is my recipe for Vegan Brownie Pie.

Pie:
  • 1 3/4 cup white pastry flour
  • 1 cup barley flour
  • 1/4 tspn salt
  • 1/4 tspn baking powder
  • 200 ml shortening
  • 7 tbsp water
  • 1 tbspn cider vinegar

  • Bronie:
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1/4 cup malt syrup
  • 4 tbsp chocolate soy milk
  • 1/4 vegan cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tspn salt
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup crushed walnuts

  • To assemble the crust, start by combining the water and vinegar and refrigerating them. Then mix the flours, salt, and baking powder, and cut the shortening into tiny dice-sized cubes. Cut the shortening through the flour with two knives or a pastry blender, then sprinkle the water/vinegar over top, tossing the dough lightly until all the flour is wet. Form up into a ball, and refrigerate.

    To start the brownie batter, combine your dry ingredients in one bowl and your wet ingredients in another, and mix each bowl well. Form a well in the dry bowl, pour the wet bowl into the dry, then mix until combined, making sure to scrape up the bottom and sides of the bowl so no pockets of flour remain.

    Take your pastry out of the fridge, and roll your bottom crust and fit it to the pan. Put the brownie batter in the pie crust, then roll your top crust out and cover the pie with it. This dough is a little finicky, so if you get tears, just moisten damage areas with water and patch it up.

    Bake at 350F for an 50 minutes, or until a knife/toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

    While deliciously tempting to eat while still warm, I usually offer this pie cold for ease of serving.

    ENJOY!

    2 comments:

    Rachel said...

    mmm.. I would very much like to make this, but preferably with ingredients I already have. Am I safe to assume that barley flour can be replaced with all-purpose, and that the vegan cream cheese can either not be vegan or be omitted altogether? and wtf is malt syrup (and what can I replace it with?)

    James said...

    Whatever flour can sub in for barley flour. The pastry won't be quite right, so maybe use a little bit less wheat flour than was called for. These volumes are close enough to fudge it, though.
    I don't know about the vegan cream cheese substitution. I encourage you to try with regular cream cheese and tell me how it goes.
    Malt syrup is what you get when you roast malted grain (barley, usually) until it gives you a syrup. My original recipe used no malt syrup and no brown sugar and a half cup of honey instead, but that wasn't fit for the competition as some vegans do honey, some vegans don't.