Tag Archives: piecrust

Vegetarian Taco Pie

06 Friday Apr 2012

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Vegetarian Taco Pie

Since I had a pie crust in the freezer and some vegan taco meat from earlier in the week, I made an Entirely From-Scratch Vegetarian Taco Pie. Homemade salsa, fresh guacamole, even the vegetable stock for the seitan was homemade. Not only could you taste the love, you could hear the mix tape that it made for you playing in the background.

If I don’t have vegan taco meat already made next time, I’ll try substituting refried beans and Spanish rice, which will cut down significantly on the prep time. I might work in some tomatoes, but I digress. What I’m trying to say is, taco pie, I love you, and I’m looking forward to a lifetime together.

Vegetarian Taco Pie Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 1 9” Pie Crust
  • 1.5 cups Vegan Taco Meat (or bean substitute)
  • 1 cup Shredded Cheese (recommend sharp cheddar)
  • 1 Onion, diced
  • 4-6 Garlic Cloves, diced
  • 1 cup Mushrooms, sliced
  • .5 tsp Cumin Powder
  • .5 tsp Paprika
  • .5 tsp Chili Powder
  • 2 tbsp Grape Seed Oil
  • Sour Cream
  • Guacamole
  • Salsa

Vegetarian Taco Pie Layers

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Prep crust in a 9” pie dish. Not a bad idea to pre-bake it for a few minutes, but I didn’t and it was fine.
  3. In a pan, heat the oil over medium and add the powdered spices for a few minutes to season the oil. Then add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes. Finally, add the mushrooms and sauté for another 5 minutes.
  4. Layer ingredients in the pie crust: taco meat first, then mushroom and onion mix, topped with cheese.
  5. Bake for 30-45 minutes until crust and cheese are golden brown.
  6. Serve with salsa, sour cream, and fresh guacamole (I just mush up an avocado with a couple sprinkles of chili powder and garlic salt).

Vegetarian Taco Pie

Hearty Mushroom Quiche

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

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Hearty Mushroom Quiche

Another savory pie in the countdown to Pi Day. Quiche is like the risotto of pie crust: once you get the basic formula down, you can put almost anything in it and something wonderful will come out of the oven!

Most quiche recipes call for a significant amount of milk or cream mixed with the egg to form custard. I don’t do a lot of milk so I just increased the number of eggs and the result was great – less on the fluffy side, more on the hearty side. Perfect for dinner.

Hearty Mushroom Quiche Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 1 9” pie crust
  • 2 cups sliced mushrooms – I used baby Portobello
  • .5 cups finely chopped onion – I had a couple small scallions and some green onions left over so in went a blend of those
  • .5 cups diced red bell pepper
  • 3 cloves finely chopped garlic
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme
  • .5 tsp fresh ground black pepper + more to taste
  • .5 tsp kosher or Celtic sea salt + more to taste
  • 1 tbsp grape seed oil
  • .5 cups shredded Parmigiano Reggiano
  • 5 eggs, lightly beaten with a tablespoon of water

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400° and prebake the pie crust for 10-15 minutes while the oven heats up.
  2. In a pan over medium heat, sauté the garlic and thyme, salt and pepper for 3 minutes. Add the onion for 2 minutes, then the pepper for another 2. Finally, add the mushroom and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring consistently so that the juices can reduce as much as possible.
  3. Put the mushroom mixture in the crust, top evenly with the cheese, then pour the egg on top.
  4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

So yum. If you have a favorite quiche filling, please share!

Basic Homemade Pie Crust

07 Wednesday Mar 2012

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Basic Homemade Pie Crust

I’m not much of a baker, but with Pi Day in a week I’m occupied with…bad puns, evidently. But also pies!

And while I may still be refining my technique for perfectly flaky crusts, I do have the theory down. The way to a flaky crust is to allow pockets of air to form in the dough while it bakes. This happens when small pieces of butter melt and the 20% of butter that’s actually water forms steam.

So to get flakiness you need chunks of butter, not a dough where the butter is fully incorporated. And two things support this: how much you mix it (or how little, as the case may be) and maintaining a cold temperature so the butter stays hard.

This basic recipe will yield enough for one pie with a top and bottom crust, or two pies with open tops.

Basic Pie Crust Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 2.5 cups flour
  • 1 cup butter, cubed and chilled
  • 1 tsp salt
  • .5 cups ice water

Instructions:

  1. Mix the flour and salt
  2. Slice in the butter – some people use knives or pastry blenders, some use food processors – the trick is to stop when you have tiny butter balls coated with flour
  3. Add the ice water (not the ice…) 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together when you pinch it
  4. Shape the dough into 2 balls, wrap in plastic and let sit in your refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days
  5. Sprinkle a clean surface with flour and use a rolling pin to flatten the dough into a 12” circle

Note: I used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1.5 cups unbleached white flour – probably a better choice for the crust of savory pies than for sweet pies.