As American As..........

You guessed it, Apple Pie. Today we finally got our chance to cast a vote in this seemingly never ending Democratic Presidential Primary. So, in honor of performing our patriotic duty, we had an All American dinner. We'll get to that in a minute though. Let's start with how we finished our All American dinner........with what else than an All American Apple Pie.


This pie was so good. I love pie (actually, I love pie crust). The bottom crust was so "buttery" and moist, and the top crust was so sweet and crunchy. YUM, just perfect!!

Pie Crust

(veganized from Martha Stewart's Pâte Brisée recipe)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp white sugar

1/2 lb (or 2 sticks) Earth Balance, cut into small pieces and kept very cold

Place flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of your food processor, and pulse to combine. Add Earth Balance and process until mixture resembles coarse meal. With machine running, add ice cold water in a steady stream, through feed tube just until dough holds together. Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Vegan Apple Pie

1 recipe for pie crust (from above)

1/2 cup (or 1 stick) Earth Balance

3 Tbs all purpose flour

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup unrefined sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp nutmeg

7 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

Preheat oven to 425. Melt Earth Balance in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water and sugars and bring to a boil. Add spices, stir to combine, and reduce heat to simmer.

Line your 9-10 inch pie plate with the bottom crust. Fill with apples, mounded and pressed down firmly. Pour about 3/4 of hot caramel mixture over apples. Cover with top crust (either a full top with slits cut in, or a lattice work). Pour remaining caramel mixture over top crust.

Bake for 15 minutes in preheated oven. Reduce heat to 350 and continue to bake for 35 minutes, until apples are soft.

I also made some vanilla non dairy ice cream to go alongside the pie. I haven't had much luck with the consistency of my vanilla ice cream in the past, but this time I used Silk Creamer, rather than regular soy milk, and it turned out nice and creamy (the closest yet to real ice cream).

OK, so, we didn't eat our dessert first. Before we enjoyed the apple pie we chowed on the All American meal of burgers and fries. Our burgers were Original Sunshine Burgers, cooked on the grill and topped with all the fixin's. And, I just baked some crinkle cut fries from WFM. I wanted to try some of the new Amy's burgers that The Chocolate Covered Vegan blogged about not too long ago. However, I couldn't find any of this particular Amy's brand, and the only one's they had at my store all contained nuts, so they weren't an option. Sunshine Burgers were the only other veggie burgers I could find that were vegan and didn't contain nuts. They turned out to be very good, even the girls really liked them!!

It still remains to be seen what the results of our vote will be..........go "hopes and dreams"!!!