Vegan banana cream pie with toasted coconutty crust

Being away from my family during Thanksgiving was particularly hard. I decided, in order to make it a little more bearable for all of us, to embark on a recipe hunt that I thought would be impossibly simple to find, maybe a little harder to make. I was wrong. I have a cashew allergy, so the wonder that apparently is cashew cream will not be mine, and most of the recipes I found involved cashews in some way or another.

Mine doesn't.

I tried adapting a couple of recipes for banana pudding, but it just wasn't doing it. The resulting creations were edible but not really the essence of banana cream pie. I hit on one that was almost there, but the filling was just a little too tart, and the whole pie was the absolute wrong color for banana cream. I wanted something almost white, evocative of fresh bananas - not brown. Brown pie and the word banana just start everything off on the wrong foot.

So, here's what I've got! This banana-rich concoction elicited cries of "Yum!" from all three family members who were allowed to taste the filling.

Totally vegan, and NO cashews!

Ingredients:

Crust
2 cups sweetened coconut flakes
1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
Dash salt
5 tablespoons coconut oil, melted.

Filling
5 bananas
1 package (12.3 oz, 439 grams) firm silken tofu, preferably chilled
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup safflower oil

Instructions for the crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray or otherwise oil a 9-inch pie plate.
Mix all dry ingredients together well, pour the coconut oil over and mix with fork until thoroughly moistened.
Press coconut mixture into pie plate, using the back of a fork to get it up on the sides. This is the most time-consuming part of the entire recipe, but it's still not much.
Bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned, then let cool completely. The crust will become crispier when it is cool.

For filling:

Slice 1 1/2 of the bananas into thin slices and then spread them over the completely cooled crust, propping some along the sides. You do not want your crust warm at all. Cooked bananas = bleh.

Like this.

Put the remainder of the bananas and all the other ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the filling over the bananas in the crust, then give the blender and a spatula to someone you like a lot to clean.

Chill several hours until time to serve. If you're really feeling festive, some vegan whip would make a nice topping.

Awesome bread of deliciousness

I love this bread. It is beyond fabulous. I make 2 loaves a little more than once a week, for the four of us to enjoy as toast or sandwiches. I finally seem to have perfectly perfected it. It's only a little bit fussy and it rises to be huge and fluffy.

If you have a bread machine, you can make the dough in that, but it completely fills up the pan in mine and I have to stand there and prod at it with a spatula the entire time to get it to mix properly. It's worth it for me though as hand-kneading hurts me quite a bit.

A stand mixer would take care of it too of course, but I don't have one. And naturally, if you want to go ahead and do it by hand, by all means do it.


Ingredients:
3 cups warm water
3 tablespoons active dry yeast
1-2 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons sugar

3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups bread flour +more for dusting/adding
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup flax meal
3 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup cooked corn grits, or polenta if you're in a place that doesn't have grits
1/2 cup safflower oil
3 tablespoons sunflower seeds (optional)

2 9x5 loaf pans - you DO NOT WANT smaller pans. If that's all you have, you may need to make 3..maybe 4 loaves.
Spray oil

I've already noted that I use my bread machine to mix the dough, but I will assume a large mixing bowl with parenthetical notations for the bread machine.

Pour the water and the sugar and molasses into a large mixing bowl, stir until dissolved. Sprinkle the yeast over the liquid, and stir. Let this sit in a warm place until the yeast begins to look like a monster (in the bread machine it has completely covered the paddle).

While the yeast is multiplying, mix all the dry ingredients (not the sunflower seeds, not the grits) together in another bowl and mix thoroughly. Once the yeast has grown to horrific proportions - probably 5-10 minutes - toss in the grits and stir until well mixed. (I run the bread machine for just a moment).

Now scoop 4 cups of your dry mix into the wet, stir until moistened, (I just start the bread machine's dough cycle now and then keep adding) and then add the safflower oil, stir, and then add the rest of the dry ingredients. It will be sticky at this point. Sprinkle flour on the counter and turn your dough out onto it. You'll need to add more flour until the dough is just-almost sticky. Knead this for 10 minutes or so. (I let the bread machine run while I help it along with a spatula and add the needed extra flour once I pull the dough out for it to rise) Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a cloth, and leave it to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare 2 loaf pans by spraying them with spray oil. Turn the risen dough onto the counter and divide it in two. I like to toss one half in the bread machine and knead the other half by hand at this point. Knead each half for about 3 minutes, working toward shaping a loaf by turning the ends under over and over. I also like to knead some sunflower seeds in at this point. Drop shaped loaves into oiled pans, and cover with a cloth. Leave to rise until doubled, about 20-30 minutes.

Pop those beautiful things into the oven and bake for 32 minutes.

When they come out, butter the tops with earth balance while they're still in the pans, then transfer to a rack for cooling.