A vegan s'mores cream pie: all of the goodness of s'mores in pie form.
The Atlanta Vegan Bake Sale is coming up, and I wanted to do something a little bit different for it. This Vegan S'mores Cream Pie is one of my contributions to the sale, which is raising money for Atlanta Veg Fest. The sale is this weekend: Sunday, April 24 from 11am to 2pm at the Cabbagetown Community Center.
Read a little bit about last year's Atlanta Veg Fest here!
Veg Fest is one of my favorite events of the year. I always leave with kind of a high after a whole day surrounded by fellow vegans, so if a little Vegan S'mores Cream Pie can help them cover expenses, I'm down.
Plus, it was an excuse to see whether my go-to vegan cheesecake recipe would translate to a full-on, chocolate cake/pie situation. Spoiler: it did!
This pie has three parts:
- a homemade, crunchy, vegan graham cracker crust - I've made the crust below with conventional and gluten free graham crackers, and both worked great! You can also use a store-bought vegan graham cracker crust. A lot of the mainstream ones are accidentally vegan. Just look out for honey, eggs, and whey in the ingredients list.
- a fudgy layer of chocolate cashew creamy goodness
- sweet, pillowy-yet-crispy, toasted vegan marshmallows
I KNOW. Basically heaven. Sliceable, creamy, marshmallowy heaven.
Vegan S'mores Cream Pie
Ingredients
For the Pie
- ⅓ cup pitted dates
- 1 ½ cups raw cashews
- ½ cup vegan margarine - softened
- ¼ cup water
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt - (Only add salt if you used shortening. Skip it, if you used margarine.)
- 5 ounces vegan mini marshmallows - half of a 10-ounce bag
For the Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 ½ cups vegan graham crackers crumbs - (You can make them by putting vegan graham crackers in the blender. Watch out for honey and whey on the graham cracker label. From what I saw at the store, the cheaper ones tend to be vegan.)
- 6 tablespoons vegetable shortening
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Instructions
Make the Pie
- Combine the dates and cashews in a large bowl, and cover with boiling water. Let them soak for 20 minutes, then drain.
- Transfer the dates, cashews, margarine, water, cocoa powder, and vanilla into your blender. Puree until you have a really nice, smooth mixture. A high speed blender with a tamping tool to push everything down toward the blade is really ideal for this recipe. You can use a regular blender, but you have to really stick with it. Blend, scrape down the sides, and repeat until you get a nice, smooth mixture.
- Spread the chocolate mixture into the graham cracker crust, and arrange the marshmallows all over the top, patting the marshmallows gently, so they get a little bit stuck in the chocolate filling.
- Stick the whole thing into the freezer for two hours or refrigerate overnight – your choice!
- At this point, you have three options:Option 1: Serve now, with the marshmallows as-is. This is totally respectable.Option 2: Use a kitchen torch to brown the marshmallows for extra melty, s’mores-y goodness. Let the pie cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.Option 3: Use your oven’s broiler to brown your vegan s’mores cream pie. If you use the broiler, keep the oven door open, and watch those marshmallows like a hawk. I set one s’mores pie on fire in my broiler, and it was not fun. Don’t be like me! Supervise, and as soon as you see some browning, turn off the oven, and pull out your pie. Cool completely before serving.
Make the Graham Cracker Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- If you bought whole graham crackers, stick 12 of them in the blender until they become crumbs. Definitely break them up a bit before putting them into the blender. Whole sheets of graham cracker took FOREVER to blend, but broken pieces were much faster.
- In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, margarine, and brown sugar. Use a fork or an electric mixer on medium speed to combine until you have a sticky dough.
- Dump the dough into a 9" pie tin, and press it down, making sure it goes up the sides. You want to get it as even as you can. I found that covering the pan and dough in wax or parchment paper, then pressing the paper down worked best. No dough sticking to your fingers, and you get a nice, smooth result.
- Bake for 14 minutes on the middle oven rack, then pull it out to cool. Make sure it’s completely cooled before you add the chocolate filling. You can even make it the night before and refrigerate, covered in foil, overnight.
swathi
Love this, I can take it anytime, thanks for sharing with Hearth and soul blog hop, pinning and tweeting.
Jeanee @ Finely Crafted
Oooh, this looks delightful! I love that the marshmallows are different sizes. You've done it again, my friend.
Becky Striepe
Aw I'm so glad someone noticed! It was fun to arrange them just so!