Be vewy vewy quiet, we’re hunting banantelopes.

Phew! I was sitting here with no idea what to call this post and it occurred to me that I might have already used up my alloted number of bad puns for the day, but clearly I’ve still got it thanks in part to a little help from Elmer Fudd. I do hope that this reference to hunting doesn’t upset any fellow vegans though. It didn’t occur to me when I grabbed my little zebra plate from the cupboard, but once I saw the little tartelette sitting on top from behind my camera, it became so obvious how much my little chocolate adornments looked like antlers. And thus the banantelope was born.

Meet Mr. Bantantalope. Check out the horns on this guy!

The only original recipe I came up with for these was the peanut butter crust so my other creative juices went into the presentaton. I’d actually never had banana chips before and after eating close to half a bag for dinner the other night, I’ve concluded that, while quite addictive, they actually don’t taste much like banana. They make for good decorations though.

Marshalltown Plastic Notched Spreader

The coolest part of the decorating was that the little comb I used to make the chocolate squqqles came from the hardware store and only cost me 69 cents. If you check out the link from the photo here, you’ll see that I was actually totally ripped off since the thing is only 34 cents online, but I guess it’s a wash since I didn’t have to pay for shipping and handling and I like the guys at my local hardware store so it’s all good.

Regardless, it was definitely a lot less than the combs made specifically for cakes that will set you back $4 at least. It was sooo much fun to play with too. It’s amazing the various designs you can come up with when you get into it and throw some funky wrist action into the mix. And if you decide that your designs suck, you can always melt them and start over.

Or you can eat them.

I like to eat my messed up squqqles.

Anyway, I suppose I should get onto the actual making of the tartelettes. The recipe for the peanut butter crusts follows below. Once baked and cooled, I spread some melted chocolate on the bottom of each crust, and once the chocolate was set and dry, the tarts were filled with pastry cream a la The Joy of Vegan Baking with an added quarter cup of brown sugar and two extra bananas mashed in. (The book says it’s optional to add one banana, which I did, so that’s three total.) This was topped with Tofu Whipped Topping from the same book. I’ve got to admit though that this was my first time making it and it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I’m not sure if I made some error with the recipe but it was a lot more runny and less light and fluffy than I expected. Had I been inclined I would have tried to thicken it up, but I wasn’t up for that and it worked in the end. Chopped peanuts were then sprinkled on top, to be followed by the careful insertion of a chocolate dipped banana chip and two chocolate antlers into the tartelette center.

Watch out for the herd!

Peanut Butter Crusts

 (Sorry for the ounce measurements here. I used my scale when I made these and I’m just too darn tired/lazy to convert everything over right now.)

 

8 oz natural, crunchy peanut butter (I used Natural Directions because it doesn’t get all separated and oily on top and hard as a rock on the bottom. I hate that!)

8 oz whole wheat pastry flour

3 oz powdered sugar

4 T soy milk

2 T maple syrup

1. Mix all ingredients until combined and the dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened.
2. Press into mini tart pans. (This made ten really small tartelette crusts plus two three-inch crusts.)
3. Bake @ 325* until gently browned and fragrant. (In other words, I forgot to write the time down, so do your best!)

Give Yams a Chance!

Terrible title, I know. I’ll be the first to admit that the word ‘yam’ is less than inspiring, but yams still need to be given their due respect and admiration. My boyfriend doesn’t really like yams or their sweet potato cousins prepared in savory dishes, but mixed with a bit of sugar and spice, pureed yams are easily transformed to taste just like pumpkin pie filling, and my boyfriend sure loved these pies.

mini pies

I happen to adore sweet potatoes and yams and love to eat them whipped up like mashed potatoes. I also like yams as a pumpkin replacement because they’re easier to prepare and puree if you don’t want to buy canned pumpkin, and no one can really tell the difference anyway.

I did have issues deciding what exactly what I was making from this recipe (hence the options listed in the title below). First I was going to make bars or squares, but I had no foil or parchment on hand to line my pan and I figured I might not get this stuff out of the pan without it. The only pan I’ve got with a removable bottom is my tart pan so that’s what I used. When it came out of the oven it did look nice as a tart but I though that little rounds would make for a better presentation. In my world anything made smaller is always cuter.

Yam n’ Pecan Pies (or Bars/Squares or Pie or Tart)
Partially inspired and adapted from the Maple Pecan Squares recipe from Essentials of Baking

Crust:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup sucanat

1/4 t salt

1 stick Earth Balance vegan margarine, cut into cubes

1. Mix, flour, sucanat and salt.
2. Cut margarine into the flour mixture or pulse all ingredients in a food processor until nice crumbs are formed.
3. Press dough into the bottom of an 8×8′ square pan or a 9×9′ round. (Preferrably a pan with a removable bottom or, if not, lined with foil or parchment.)
4. Bake @ 350* F for 12 to 15 minutes.

Yam Filling:

2 cups yam puree (I peeled and sliced 4 large yams, sprinkled them with almond oil and salt, baked them in my oven @ 350* until fork tender, and put them in the food processor. Boiling them should do just as well.)

4 oz silken tofu (I used the non-refrigerated kind.)

4 T maple syrup

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1/4 t ground ginger

1. Mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined and smooth. (I used the paddle on my kitchen aid and mixed for probably 4 minutes.)
2. Spread filling over pre-baked crust.

Pecan Topping:

1 1/4 chopped pecans

3 oz Earth Balance vegan margarine

1/2 cup sucanat

3 oz maple syrup

3 T soy milk

1. Combine Earth Balance butter, sucanat, and syrup into a sauce pan over medium heat.
2. Once butter is melted, bring mix to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
3. Remove from heat and stir in soy mik and pecans.
4. Pour over yam mixture and bake @ 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. (I recommend baking this on a cookie sheet as the pecan topping is likely to bouble and may boil over the edges a bit or leak through your removable-bottomed pan.)
5. Be sure to cool it thoroughly and keep it in the fridge until serving.
6. You can slice or cut into bars to serve. To make the mini pies you see here, you’ll need to cut out rounds with a large cookie cutter and you’ll have to find something to do with the scraps. That’s not difficult though. It’s seems that every time I open my refrigerator I find that my refrigerator gnomes have stolen more of the leftovers, and the rest, if you want to be bad for breakfast, is quite nice stirred into your morning oatmeal.

tastes just like pumpkin