s'mores pie

you know those weeks when you're too broke to go grocery shopping and can only make meals from what's in the house? that's going on right now, and I've actually ended up making more creative meals than I probably ever have. such as:

• s'mores pie (yep, i have vegan marshmallows in the house but not onions or garlic.)
• gluten-free almond cupcakes with vanilla buttercream
• lentil-rice burgers (loosely based on this recipe) made from a leftover lentils and rice dish topped with dreena burton's almonnaise
• gluten-free banana pancakes (these actually bombed, but the dogs had a special sunday morning breakfast!)
• split pea skordalia (surprisingly really good!)
• papa john's pizza (ok, not creative and not even made in my kitchen. the cooler weather has made me nostalgic for my college days and i had papa john's on speed dial back then.)

i almost caved and bought nutritional yeast and pasta in order to make the vegan cheese sauce i found on your vegan mom (after spending my whole vegan mofo morning looking through her recipes, currently on october '08), but this has now become a challenge i'm enjoying (as is dyl, currently on his second piece of s'mores pie). he just pointed out that we've been eating a lot of new dishes since this challenge started. i think i'll continue even after the paychecks come waddling in.

sorry for the photo-quality. dyl was very impatient to eat his pie and refused to let me take a photo of the perfectly triangular slice on his plate.

s'mores pie:
recipe adapted from old-fashioned chocolate pudding pie from vegan pie in the sky

for the crust:*
1 3/4 cups finely ground graham crackers
3 tablespoons liquid sweetener (maple syrup or agave nectar)
4 tablespoons canola oil

for the filling:
1.5 cups almond milk
1/4 cup tapioca starch (may sub. with cornstarch)
1/3 cup hot cocoa mix (store-bought -- mine is from kalamazoo coffee comapany -- or you could make your own and use the leftovers for, um, hot cocoa.)
1 tbsp. liquid sweetener (maple syrup or agave nectar)
big pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the topping:
vegan marshmallows (i used dandies and they rock.)

assemble the crust: preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9-inch pie pan. combine ground graham crackers, liquid sweetener of choice and canola oil in a bowl. combine with a spoon (or simply your hands). press into greased pie pan. bake for 10 minutes. let cool.

prepare the filling: combine almond milk and tapioca starch in a small saucepan. whisk well until tapioca starch is completely dissolved. add the remaining ingredients (except for vanilla extract) and bring to a boil, whisking occasionally. once mixture boils, reduce heat and simmer, while whisking, for about 7 minutes or until thickened. once thickened, turn off heat and add vanilla extract. pour into prepared pie crust. cool in the refrigerator for three hours.

toast the marshmallows: once the pie has cooled, arrange marshmallows in a circle around the edge of the pan with two layers (see picture above) or however you'd like to arrange them. place pie under broiler (you'll want to move the rack to the highest rung) and toast the marshmallows until lightly brown. watch closely, this will happen fast (and you don't want the filling to melt). serve immediately. store leftovers (if you have any) in the refrigerator.

*which ended up being my favorite part of the pie! i never knew how much i loved graham crackers.