Vegan Pie for Christmas!

A mere days before they arrived, my dad and stepmom informed me that they were in the initial stages of going vegan. A challenge! So I bought some Earth Balance Vegan Butter Sticks and the parentals supplied the berries, which were on supersale at the co-op. This is the first vegan pie I have ever made and I did not know what to expect, especially when it came to how the crust would handle. Turns out it was more fally-aparty, as evidenced by the above photo. It also emitted a strong popcorn odor while baking in the oven. Surprisingly though, it was not a disaster. It was tasty, though not AS tasty as real butter, and it baked up nice and flaky like a good crust should. If I ever do another vegan crust, I will attempt to do a lattice design with the hopes that the pieces will be easier to handle. Berry Pie recipe is like this one, just remove the cherries and add strawberries and blackberries. All I tweaked with the crust was a direct substitution of vegan butter in place of real butter.

Current Pie Tally: 215

Austrian Christmas Party 2016 Pies

Pictured above are the Apple Crumb and Chocolate Pecan pies I made for the 2016 Austrian Christmas Party at our house, a glorified block party really. I also made a Pumpkin Pie. Here is the photo of that one, even though it is not as aesthetically pleasing:

My favorite of the trio was the Chocolate Pecan topped with vanilla ice cream and homemade caramel. Yum.

Current Pie Tally: 214

Thanksgiving 2016 Banana Cream

The kids won the pie vote for Thanksgiving 2016. They started shouting "Banana Cream!" as I was asking my mother for her pie preference over the phone. She had been hemming and hawing over pecan until the kids chimed in. "Oh yes, let's have Banana Cream," she said. And so it came to be. With chocolate ganache and caramel drizzle to boot. Recipe can be found here. I make mine with a plain graham cracker crust and add caramel when I'm in the mood.

Current Pie Tally: 211