Vegan Apple Pie

10.16.16

So, it’s apple season and last week we went apple picking in Caledon and found some Granny Smith apples to make some vegan apple pie! This was my second time making apple pie from scratch and I definitely thought it tasted delicious and learned quite a bit which I will be sharing today.

Generally people think that Granny Smith apples are perfect for apple pies, however, I thought they were a bit sour and would recommend a sweeter apple like Jonagold or Honeycrisp. We were going to get these, however, these apples at the farm were quite sour. Regardless, Granny Smith apples also taste great if you season them well with sugar and cinnamon.

Okay, so let’s get started. The first thing that needs to be done is making the pie dough, which also happens to be the hardest part about making apple pie, or so I’m told. In this post, I will focus on the actual apple pie. The recipe on how to make a vegan apple pie crust will come shortly. So look out for that.

To make the filling for your vegan apple pie, you will need to peel and slice 8 cups worth of apples, which was around 6 medium sized apples for me. Then you will mix in some fresh lemon juice which will prevent the apples from browning too much. Next, you will toss in your sugars, cinnamon and other spices (if preferred) and salt.

Normally this is the filling that is used for apple pies, however, I have read that this can cause the apple pie to get soggy because the apples have their own juice which gets released as they bake. So, what you will do instead, is let the apples sit at room temperature for a half hour or so until they release their juices BEFORE baking, and use this juice to make a caramel apple sauce for your pie instead, which will also add an additional flavor to your pie.

What you do is drain the juice from the apples and add some vegan butter (or regular butter which also works perfectly) and microwave it for a few minutes until a thick caramel like sauce is made. Then mix this into your apple pie filling along with some cornstarch and fill your apple pie crust.

Now take out your pre-chilled top pie dough (blog post to follow soon) and place it on top of the pie pan that contains your apple pie filling. This top crust should be an inch wider than your pie pan. So, when you place it on top of the pie filling, you should have some dough to tuck under the bottom crust. Do this for the entire diameter of the pie to seal the edges. This also causes you to have a thick pie crust, which I personally love. I used a technique called fluting to seal the outside edge. Then take a sharp knife to make some slits into your pie crust. This allows the steam to escape as the apples bake. Bake your pie and it will be ready to serve, along with some ice cream of course.

INGREDIENTS

8 cups sliced apples (1/2 cm slices)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp vegan butter

1 tbsp corn starch

DIRECTIONS

Mix together sliced apples along with the sugars, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes until the juices from the apples have collected.

Place a strainer on top of another bowl and let the apple juices drain into the bowl for 10 minutes.

Add the butter to the juice and microwave for 5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

Add this sauce back into the apple mixture along with the cornstarch and mix well.

Place the mixture into your pie crust and put the top crust on as well. Bake at 425’F for 45-50 min or until golden brown at the top.

Enjoy!

Kamfy Living

DIY Bedside Table Makover – Distressed Side Table

10.10.16

One of the first projects we did in our bedroom (that was featured in Apartment Therapy and SMP Living) was a DIY bedside table makeover of my husband’s previous bedside tables. They were this deep red wood color and matched his old bed. I didn’t want to purchase new side tables that would match our new bed because side tables can be expensive! These tables were good quality and just needed a makeover and I was ready for my first DIY bedside table project. I was originally thinking to do the ever so popular Pinterest IKEA hack of the RAST dresser which costs $50 Cdn each, but these side tables were just as good and I would save the $100 to buy new tables for the project.

To remove the old paint and glaze from the side table, I read several articles on the best way to do it. Some suggested using stain removers to take off the top coat and glaze, however, we decided to go with the sanding method, which worked very well for us.

We used the same primer and paint that we bought for painting our room because I wanted the side tables to be an off white colour so they would match our room and the dresser we bought. So, all we needed to purchase was a sander, hardware, and the top coat. I had a hard time finding brass or gold colored hardware, so we bought some spray paint and some silver hardware in the style I liked and it gave the same look as gold/brass hardware.

We had three options for the sander: 1. We could rent it from Home Depot, 2. we could buy a brand new sander from Home Depot, 3. or we could search on Kijiji or Craigslist for a sander. Even though we wanted to save some money, we decided to spend the money and get a brand new sander from Home Depot. We got the Milwaukee orbit sander and it is perfect! An investment into our future projects as well!!

I did some research for top coats for DIY bedside tables because I always find that when I go to Home Depot, no one is available to help or no one knows enough to be of help. So I just did some research online and decided to use Varathane Clear Finish as the top coat mostly because it is water based, safe to use and premium quality so we hope the side tables last a long time!

SUPPLIES

Sander

Primer

Paint of choice

Gold Hardware – I got mine from Home Depot

Spray paint – if you want to change colour of hardware

Top coat

DIRECTIONS – DIY bedside table

Remove all hardware from old side table and remove the drawers as well. Place the side table onto a good working surface. Sand down the table using an orbit sander until you get down to the wood layer. Wipe down the table with an old cloth before painting.

First, do a primer coat, and then paint one or two layers of your paint of choice once the primer has dried.

Once the paint has dried, use sandpaper to give the furniture a distressed look. We sandpapered until we could see some of the wood and we loved this look. But it is your call to make as to how much you want to distress. Now apply your top coat and let it dry.

Spray paint your hardware if necessary and put together the drawers and hardware.

Your new DIY bedside table is ready!! If you want to see how we styled it in our bedroom, check out our bedroom reveal 🙂

Kamfort Food

Hampton Creek – Vegan Cookie Dough Review

10.02.16

A couple of weeks ago, my friend came down from Ohio and brought me some Hampton Creek Just Vegan Cookie Dough. Apparently, you can only purchase it from the states, although sometimes certain Costco stores carry Hampton Creek products as well.

Hampton Creek – Vegan Cookie Dough Review

So, a little background on Hampton Creek: it is a San Francisco-based company and their goal is to make the egg completely unnecessary by replacing it with plants. The company used to be called Beyond Eggs at first, and I still can’t figure out why they changed their name: but I do know that their first product was a mayo called Beyond Eggs. The fact that this company’s goal is to create healthier and more sustainable food using plants is amazing and I’m so happy that the product tastes amazing as well! I’ve never tried any of their products but some of my friends have raved about their Just Mayo which is apparently way better than Vegenaise. And as a Vegenaise lover, that’s a bold statement to make!!

Anyways, she brought the Just Cookie Dough for me to try and I’m so happy with how they turned out!!! You can eat the dough out of the container or bake them like regular cookies. I tried both ways, but the little extra effort in baking the cookies is definitely worth it!

Using my handy dandy ice cream scoop I got from Powell’s bookstore in Portland to scoop 9 cookie dough balls onto a greased cookie tray (which was the entire container), however, you may make fewer cookies and make a fresh batch when you get that sugar craving.

I baked these cookies for 12 minutes in our oven and they turned out amazing! Half way through baking I patted down the cookie dough balls using a measuring cup so that the cookies turned out nice and thin. This is a neat little trick I learned while working at a cafe.

Mmmm… We let them cool a couple of minutes and ate them while they were nice and warm and fresh. They were moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. Just what I love in a cookie.

We made the entire batch of cookies, however, I recommend making them fresh when you have a craving because they do get crispier as the days pass. Which is fine because they still taste delicious, but I really do love the moist inside of the cookie when they are made fresh!

If you want to get your hands on Hampton Creek products, you can buy some online at Amazon.ca. I’ve contacted the company and havn’t gotten a reply about when they plan on selling products in Canada but will update as soon as I get any information. The cookie dough is must try!!

INGREDIENTS

1 tub Hampton Creek Vegan Cookie Dough

DIRECTIONS

Scoop out 1 tablespoon of the vegan cookie dough using an ice cream scoop onto a greased baking tray. Bake cookies at 350F for 10 minutes. Half way through baking, pat down cookies using a measuring cup to achieve a thin and crispy cookie.

Now enjoy with a cup of plant based milk!

If you’re up for more baking, check out this post for a delicious vegan sugar cookie recipe.