Everything We Ate: Sweet
This is Part Two of everything we ate for Friendsgiving, because everything was so damn good and should make it onto holiday tables for the rest of the winter. Read Part One here.
What all of our Thanksgiving desserts had in common was they felt light enough to eat after a big meal. The matcha roll was fluffy and airy, the coconut pudding and mango pie both seemed to slip in very easily around packed stomachs, and even the cranberry pie was sour enough that it didn’t feel cloying in the way that sweet things can after dinner. When you set out to make a dessert, it can be hard to visualize how you’ll feel when you get around to eating it, but I can recommend all of these options as perfect post-meal treats.
Matcha Swiss Roll with Smetana
This dessert was probably the most aesthetic, like everything Phoebe makes, and had the perfect balance of airiness from the cake and rich smetana filling. It wasn’t too sweet, so you could really taste the matcha. The Swiss Roll recipe is here, but then Phoebe made her own filling with homemade smetana (from a mix of greek yogurt and propagated labne culture), heavy whipping cream (good grassfed stuff, not ultra-pasteurized!), and a bit of molasses-like African honey.
Coconut pudding with latik and chipotle mango nectar
I loved Petra and Gabriel’s coconut pudding. It was based on Haupia, which is basically just coconut milk simmered with a cornstarch and sugar slurry, and can be cooked into a jelly or left at more of a custard/pudding stage. They made a sauce to spoon over it by reducing mango nectar and mixing in some chipotle. The crunchy topping was Filipino latik, made by cooking down unsweetened coconut cream until the curds separated and began to fry. (I tried this recently and it's magical to see the coconut milk transform from a milky white emulsion to crunchy bits frying in their own oil.) The result was a dessert that was refreshing, a little sweet, and felt light even though it was full of coconut.
Cranberry sage pie
Thor’s cranberry pie recipe came from Four and Twenty Blackbirds, as does the pistachio crust below, which is starting to make me think I should get the cookbook. I found the tartness of the cranberries to be more way more satisfying than something sweeter like apples or pumpkin. The crust was sturdy enough to hold up the wet filling. The sage is what really made it interesting, and it sounds like you could play around with thyme or other herbs as well. Thor also added that you can substitute cornstarch for arrowroot powder.
Vegan Mango Pie with Pistachio or Graham Cracker crust
In my request for everyone’s recipes or cooking tips, my friend Alex wrote up an entire recipe (three, really), so I decided to include them in full below. This pie was so light and airy with a satisfying sweet crust — I had a test version the week before, a little more at the end of the Thanksgiving meal, and then she and her partner came over on Friday to pick up dishes and together we polished off about 3/4 of a remaining one. I want to convince Alex to leave tech and bake pies professionally, so if you try this recipe and have good things to pass along, I’ll make sure she hears them.
This is actually two pie recipes — a choose your own crust adventure. I first made a vegan mango pie with a graham cracker crust before I realized that I was supposed to make a pie that was both vegan and gluten free. The second pie swaps the crust for one made of pistachio and coconut crust. Both versions are equally delicious.
Graham Cracker Crust
Ingredients
1 ¼ cups (140 grams) finely ground (vegan if desired) graham-cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom
1 pinch sea salt
4.5 tablespoons (64 grams) melted unsalted butter, vegan butter or coconut oil
Method
Stir graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cardamom, and salt together in a medium bowl.
Add butter and stir until evenly combined.
Pour crumb mixture into a 9-inch metal pie pan. Compact the crumbs as much as possible up the sides and along the bottom. Feel free to use a flat-bottomed cup or measuring spoon to help flatten the bottom.
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Place crust in freezer and chill for at least 15 minutes.
Bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Pistachio Coconut Crust
from The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book
Kate’s note: it seems like this crust is best to make soon before eating, because it can get a little wet from the filling if it sits in the fridge for a day.
Ingredients
1 cup + 1 tablespoon raw pistachios, shelled and unsalted
1 cup + 1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut flakes
3 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Method
In a dry medium-sized skillet, toast pistachios over medium heat, stirring/shaking frequently to prevent burning, until fragrant, about 7-9 minutes.
Pour into a wide dish to cool for at least 10 minutes.
In the same pan over medium-low heat, toast coconut until lightly golden and fragrant, 2-3 minutes.
Place in the same dish as the pistachios to cool.
Once cool, place into a food processor or blender and process until pistachios are finely chopped and the mixture looks homogenous, scraping the sides down if necessary; the crumbs will stick together slightly when ready.
Pour crumb mixture into an ungreased 9-inch metal pie pan. Spread crumbs evenly over the bottom, then create a circle about 1 inch in to separate the crumbs for the sides from the crumbs for the bottom. Start pressing the outer ring of crumbs evenly up the sides and into the corner (where the side meets the bottom) of the pan. Press the remaining crumbs evenly over the bottom to meet the sides; feel free to use a flat-bottomed cup or measuring spoon to help smooth out the bumps..
Place the crust in the freezer and chill until solid, at least 10 minutes, before filling.
Vegan Mango Pie Filling
Ingredients
15 oz. (½ of a 30-oz can) of Alphonso mango purée.
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp lime juice
1 can (14 fl. oz.) full fat coconut milk
2 tablespoons tapioca flour or potato starch
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons agar agar powder
Method
In a blender, food processor, or bowl, combine mango puree, maple syrup, coconut milk, tapioca flour, lime juice, and vanilla and blend/process/beat until smooth. Set aside.
Place water and agar agar powder in a saucepan. Whisk.
Bring to a boil, then gently simmer for 1-2 minutes.
Whisk mango mixture into simmering agar-agar.
Return to boil and gently simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened (1-2 minutes).
Pour hot pie filling into the prepared dish.
Refrigerate until firm and set, 3-5 hours.
Serve chilled or at room temperature.