Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Veganize the Waitress Pies

My friend Pj, over at Vegan CineGrub posted a contest a few weeks ago, asking people to nominate their favorite movies that they wanted to see her blog about and make movie inspired menus from. The nominations would then be voted on and the winner would have their movie chosen and receive a piece of art inspired by the movie, made by PJ herself.

It took me all of 3 seconds to nominate the movie Waitress. I absolutely love this movie and have been wanting to veganize some of the pie creations from it for some time now. So imagine my excitement when I found out that my movie won. Weeeeeee! Yummy vegan pies here I come! To make it more exciting, if that's even possible, Pj and I decided to BOTH veganize a pie and BOTH do blog posts about them. :)




For those of you who havent seen the movie Waitress, I highly recommend it. It stars the beautiful and talented Keri Russell (who I faithfully watched on Felicity when I was young), Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Adrienne Shelly, and Andy Griffith. :) It follows a young woman named Jenna, who is stuck in a marriage with a husband she hates, pregnant with a child she wants to hide from him, and works as a waitress in a small town diner for a boss who is an ass. The only way she finds relief is by day dreaming and artistically creating pies which she names things such as "I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie", "I Hate My Husband Pie", "Pregnant Miserable Self Pitting Loser Pie", Falling in Love Pie, and so forth... and by planning to win a pie making contest so she can leave her husband.

I don't think it's possible to watch this movie without wanting to make a pie... or three. So without further ado, I bring to you my interpretation of Jenna's Marshmallow Mermaid Pie, which does stray quite a bit from the original recipe that is posted online, but my first marshmallow filled test pie failed miserably... and well, vegan marshmallows aren't cheap, so I came up with what I think is a yummy easy to make vegan version that most people can handle. But don't you worry, I will try to master a veganized version of the original recipe again one day when I have more money to blow. I also have a sneak peak of Pjs version of the Falling in Love Pie. All Veganized of course. :)



Marshmallow Mermaid Pie
Said to be "Biblically Good".






My Vegan Marshmallow Mermaid Pie Recipe
*Note: There is some prep work involved. Please read before starting. :)

Crust
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine 2 cups graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes, and 1/2 cup pecans in a food processor to finely chop and mix together. Put the graham cracker/coconut/pecan mixture into a bowl with about 1/2 cup melted vegan margarine or butter and mix well. Press to bottom and side of a pie pan. Bake for about 10 minutes or until browned to your liking. Set aside.

Filling
*Refrigerate 1 can of Coconut milk over night.
*Put mixing bowl in freezer for a few hours or over night.
Open the chilled can of coconut milk and drain out the liquid part into a bowl. (save the liquid for another use or drink it!) Scrape out the solid or "fat" part of the coconut milk left behind into your cold mixing bowl. Mix until creamy. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and continue mixing until fluffy. Add 1 container of vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti brand) and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and continue mixing until well combined and fluffy. Grate a small portion of a vegan dark chocolate bar into the mixture and continue to beat until well combined. (I only used 1 of the squares of the chocolate bar) Pour mixture into the prepared pie crust.

Topping
Decorate with vegan marshmallows (I used cut up Dandies!) and any other of the following:
rainbow sprinkles, vegan white chocolate chips (if you are lucky enough to find them), and/or maraschino cherries.
Refrigerate or freeze (It's pretty awesome frozen)
I topped mine with cut up marshmallows, rainbow sprinkles and then served the slices with Soyatoo Whipped Topping and cherries.
Eat and be happy! :)



Pjs Falling in Love Pie!
Find the recipe on her blog, Vegan CineGrub




Have you seen the movie Waitress?

Did you like it?

Has it inspired you to make one of Jenna's pies or create your own pie?


I really enjoyed this little pie venture and I don't see it as being over yet, so come back and visit me again soon to see what other pies I have come up with. Or drop me a line and tell me what you made. :)

Thanks for stopping by!