Sunday, February 16, 2014

Seriously Simple Vegan Chocolate Pies (that you can show off with)

If you have picked up anything from my blog it's that I do love chocolate and baking. So it's a Saturday afternoon and I have some spare time to try out a couple recipes. I was in the middle of making brownies (will write about these too) when I noticed I had a pack of firm tofu in the fridge. I also noticed I had some chocolate and those pastry cases in the press were crying out to be used. The dream of combining all of these together turned out to be something incredible. To think I spent absolute hours cooking vegan silken tortes (vegan cheese cake) when these really just taste as good and take a fraction of the time.

Out came the handy food processer and in went the flour, icing sugar and margarine. After it delivered a solid pastry dough, out came the chocolate and tofu. In those went and out came a seriously silky and creamy chocolate ganache like mouse. All done within less than 10 minutes. The end result was some really impressive looking chocolate pies that didn't take that much effort. All that was missing were some raspberries topped with icing sugar to complete the look. These little pies would be great served individually at a dinner party or something fancy like that!

So if you're impressed, check out this REALLY easy recipe for vegan chocolate pies.

1. Preparing the Vegan Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

This was just enough for 2 small pastry cases but double it up if you're making one large pie.
  • 125g/4½oz plain flour
  • 55g/2oz icing sugar
  • 55g/2oz soya margarine
  • A drop of soya milk/water
1. Throw it all into a food processor until combined/Or work up a sweat and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour/sugar until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. Then just bring it all together to form a dough.
2. Wrap it in cling film and place in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

2. Baking the Pastry

I used little pastry dishes to make mine but you can get creative and use something else. Or if you're making one large pie, use that pie dish!

1. Butter your pastry dish.
2. Roll out your pastry until flat. Don't worry if it breaks, I just mush it all into other pieces once in the dish.
3. Place into the pastry dishes.
4. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or just until done.

3. Making the Vegan Chocolate Ganache 

Now you can make the best part, the silkiest, smoothest vegan chocolate ganache. 
  • 1 packet of film silken tofu (drained).
  • As much chocolate as you want really!
1. Melt the chocolate
2. Pour into a food processor with the silken tofu and blend until smooth and silky.

Once your pasty cases have cooked and cooled, pour the chocolate mixture in and leave to set in a cool area.