Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

It’s pie season for sure!  I made this for Thanksgiving with my family, and considering I was kinda making it up as I went along, it came out pretty good.  Next time I will probably use less chocolate, as the chocolate flavor ended up being more pronounced than the pumpkin and I really wanted it the other way around.  I wanted pumpkin pie with a bit of chocolate, but I forgot how overpowering even the smallest amount of chocolate can be, especially with a delicate flavor like pumpkin.  Feel free to reduce the chocolate in the recipe and see how you like it.  Or if you are more of a chocolate person, leave it as it is!

I’m in love with these premade pie shells from Wholly Wholesome.  Really, it’s not difficlut to make your own cookie pie crust, but especially around the holidays, and really all the time, I love shortcuts! These are the only ones I’ve found that are vegan as well.  Maybe someone knows of other ones, but I’ve looked around and almost all premade graham cracker or chocolate pie crusts have honey in them :(.

[for anyone wondering, because this is a common question I get, a simple (I hope) explanation of why I choose not to eat honey as a vegan.  A definition first though: The Vegan Society’s definition of veganism: “a way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practical—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals.”  So first, bees are living creatures and I am against purposefully hurting any living creature (yes, of course, it does happen, I step on ants without knowing, insects have died at my  hand, I just try to the best of my ability not to needlessly harm or kill or steal from them).  Second, taking honey from a bee is the same to me as taking milk from a cow.  Cows produce milk for their own young, not for human young; bees produce honey to feed themselves, not humans.  Taking honey is stealing food, regardless of whether they “have enough” or not.  Think of it this way.  Someone comes into your house and sees you have a cabinet full of food. And they also see you have a refrigerator full of food.  Without asking, they take everything that is in your cabinets because you “have enough food” already, and they say it’s ok because they didn’t take what was in the refrigerator, thereby leaving you with enough food, according to them.  

And lastly, bees do die in the mass ‘production/farming’ of honey.  So when that person is coming and taking all the food out of your cabinets, maybe a couple of your kids are crushed in the process, but you have lots more, so it’s “ok”.  Many will say insects don’t have feelings or even feel pain and so all my points are invalid and silly.  We used to say that about whales.  And dolphins.  And even elephants.  Maybe the real truth is that we just haven’t developed a way to detect their emotions yet.  We assume we know because we are more “advanced” but I doubt we know everything and I prefer to err on the side of caution and empathy.]  **these are my thoughts.  not all vegans feel or think this way.  i am not passing judgement or trying to be better than, i am simply explaining my own decisions and rationale behind them.  

I hope everyone in the States had a nice thanksgiving celebration, whether with family or friends!!

Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

• 1 premade chocolate pie crust (I used Wholly Wholesome’s)
• 1 12 oz package firm silken tofu
  1 15oz can pumpkin puree
  2/3 cup vegan chocolate chips, melted
  1/3 cup maple syrup
  4 tablespoons light brown sugar
  2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  1/4-1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a food processor, puree the tofu until completely smooth.
3. Add all the other ingredients and blend until all combined.
4. Pour pumpkin chocolate filling into pie crust.
5. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 350F and bake for 40 minutes.
6. For reference: Pie is done when the middle “jiggles like jello”
7. Let cool completely, then refrigerate for a minimum of one hour.
8. Slice and serve with dairy-free whipped cream.