Crunchy Chocolate Truffle Pie

I've noticed once or twice recently that I use a lot of chocolate chips in my day-to--day living. Why this is, I'm not quite sure (except for the fact that a certain individual who's been hanging out at my place a lot lately, and who will remain nameless *COUMCGH*, has some weird chocolate-chip fetish and vacuums down half-bags of chocolate chips with remarkable ease: he is a blackhole of chocolate chips, a vortex of all things chocolatey, one might say). Point is: what's bothersome about my frequent usage of chocolate chips is the fact that NO PLACE WITHIN A TEN-MINUTE RADIUS OF MY APARTMENT SELLS VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIPS. My grocery store used to, but then they started busting out the milkfat into them. One of my friends suggested Target, but they apparently only sell Nestle's brand, which also has milkfat in it. I even checked the dollar store to no avail. So everytime I need chocolate chips, I have to drive ALL the way out to Trader Joe's to get them. And granted, they are a kick-ass deal there: $1.69 for a bag of them, and I usually end up buying between 4 or 6 bags so I can last awhile before I need to make another trip. But seriously: how hard is it to make semi-sweet chocolate chips without throwing in milk? *PET PEEVE*

So, as luck will have it, I was, of course, about 1 tablespoon shy of the necessary chocolate chips to make this recipe on Friday. So, knowing that I was also planning on making a batch of VwaV chocolate chip cookies the next day for a friend's party, I sucked it up and drove all the way out to Trader Joe's for chocolate chips. Needless to say, they are now being stored away behind lock and key so that they last more than 5 minutes.

As for the pie: holy mother of all things peanut-buttery. This was decadent decadent stuff. The filling is *beyond* rich and delicious, and the chocolate-covered-pretzel-topping idea amps that up quite a bit as well. Tasty tasty.

Since it's hard enough trying to find vegan chocolate chips, I didn't even waste my time trying to track down vegan chocolate-covered pretzels. Instead, I sort of just crafted my own. However, although they looked pretty, since I didn't separate the pretzels, it made cutting into the pie extremely difficult and messy, so if you go this route, I suggest not just pouring a ring of chocolatey-pretzelly-goodness around your pie.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips


• 1 12-oz. container firm silken tofu


• 1/2 c. pure maple syrup


• 1 c. creamy peanut butter


• 1 9-inch premade graham cracker crust


• 1/2 c. chopped chocolate-covered pretzels (or alternately: I used 1/3 c. semi-sweet choc chips and 1/3 c. pretzels instead)

DIRECTIONS

Place chocolate chips in microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir chocolate, and heat 30 seconds more. Repeat heating and stirring until chocolate is just melted. Set aside.

Combine tofu and maple syrup in food processor, and blend 3 minutes, or until smooth. Add peanut butter, and process until smooth. Add melted chocolate, and process once more until smooth.

Pour peanut butter-chocolate mixture into pie crust, smoothing the top; refrigerate 20 minutes.

If you are able to find vegan choc-covered pretzels, then just sprinkle them on top, and serve, or refrigerate until ready to eat.

If you aren't able, then melt 1/3 c. semi-sweet choc chips in the microwave and stir in the pretzels. If you don't mind the messiness of trying to saw through choc-pretzel hardness, just drizzle the pretzelly-chocolate decoratively around the pie. Otherwise treat the pretzels like you would if you were making choc-covered pretzels, allow them to harden before placing them on the pie, and then crumble as you see fit on top. Serve, or refrigerate until ready to eat.

(from the Vegetarian Times)

Mocha Vegan-Mousse Pie

I was gonna do a re-run of my Orange You Glad They're Double-Chocolate Cookies for my mom this weekend as well but then decided to hold off and save those for a cookout instead on Sunday (that way my sibs could try them as well). So instead, I decided to whip up a vegan-mousse pie.

Mishaps ensued when I realized that my Mori-Nu tofu had an expiration date of 04/08/2006, so I ran it back up to the market to exchange it. The woman only had expired tofu but told me that Mori-Nu is so very vacuum-sealed that it lasts months and months after its expiration date. I was doubtful at first and explained to her that I'd prefer not to kill my mom on her mother's day celebration and/or give her food-poisoning, but the woman just looked at me and said, "Do you think I'd tell you to eat it if I thought it would make you sick, seeing as I *want* you coming back as a customer?" The logic made sense. Plus, she gave me the tofu for a $1. So I took it. I am a cheap whore.

Anyways, we lived through the weekend, you will be happy to know.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cube of Mori-Nu firm silken tofu
1 1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c. brewed coffee
1 T. maple syrup
1 graham cracker crust*

Throw the tofu into a food processer and blend. Melt your chocolate chips whatever way you see fit (I just do it in a pot on the stove--you don't need double-boilers and all that as long as you continuously stir and keep your eye on it), and brew your coffee. Throw the melted chocolate, coffee, and maple syrup into the food processer and pulse until fully mixed. The mixture will seem soupy at first, but it stiffens up in the fridge. Toss the tofu mixture into your pie crust and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.

My mom a) hates tofu and b) loves chocolate mousse, and she ate two slices of this and remarked that you'd never guess it was tofu. So high-marks on the faking-it front.

I was pleased with the taste as well, seeing as I wolfed all of the left-over pie down in just two days.

VERDICT: A for filling; C for crust

Oh yeah, and I decorated it with toasted almonds, in case you were wondering what the hell was going on. Perty perty.

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*I used the graham cracker crust from The Garden of Vegan, but it was disastrously mushy, despite the fact that I used the low-range of liquid ingredients listed in the recipe--I ended up having to add more and more graham crackers and it STILL never solidified quite the way it should've been. Your best bet is just grinding up a couple cups of graham crackers and then gradually adding a bit of margarine or oil to it until it's *JUST* damp enough to stick together. I also recommend adding a bit of almond extract to the mixture for a bit of flare.