Two Tarts: Mini Apple and Honeybush

Two tarts, one easier to make than the other. I made mini apple pie tarts week before last on request.  The crust was the double crust recipe from Vegan Pie in the Sky and the filling was a stovetop version of my roasted apple pie filling.





I baked the tiny pies for 40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Brushing the crusts with a little melted Earth Balance would've browned them more, but meh, aesthetics.

Odd amount of leftover crust bits and filling, and I had extra filling to freeze.



Lot of brown food again... (curry in the background: chickpea on the left and chicken on the right)



The Honeybush Tart features Numi Honeybush tea and leftover kourabiedes as the crust.  Like rooibos tea, honeybush comes from South Africa and tastes like a less "red" tea (i.e., less hibiscus-y, but more floral).  If you don't like rooibos (popularized by Starbucks a few years back), then you won't like this mild tart. Like many vegan and gluten-free foods, it's brown and looks almost chocolate, but fooled ya!  There's no chocolate here. 



The consistency of the filling is like unbaked pecan pie filling right off the stove: pudding.  I'm glad I used six bags of tea instead of the two recommended in the recipe off the tea box; two bags would have made a very "nothing" pie.



Yes, that's a bottle of Campari in the background; TC got some for the liquor shelf for when his dad comes to visit.

[yumprint-recipe id='24'] Again, this is a mysterious vegan and gluten-free dessert.  I may have out-weirded myself.  As the back-of-the-box recipe suggested, I think this would have done well with some pistachios and bits on top.



 

Speaking of bits in pie, OMFGIH (oh my fucking god in heaven--say it with me!), Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant in Boulder is sooooooo gooooooood. I went there for biznass happy hour with the author of the upcoming guest post here on GG. We both had the beet carrot juice, and I got the avocado tartare:



Now, I used to eat quite a bit of raw meat and fish before I was made (jeez, I am writing a lot of vampire story since I thought "was made" instead of "became vegetarian/vegan").  I had steak tartare once and it was very tasty, albeit slimy. But hey, avocados do a damn good job of imitating raw animal flesh, and topped with dark savory bits (mushrooms), it was delicious. So delicious I smeared some on my compy (hey, it was a business thing).



Then I got dessert; this is where "bits in pie" comes into play.  I enjoyed a beautiful slice of vegan and gluten-free peanut butter chocolate cheezecake made with cacao nibs in the crust. I was so "high" on raw foods and good conversation afterwards.

Then I caught my thigh on the edge of a planter in front of the ill-lit Whole Foods on Pearl in Boulder.  To use emotional reasoning, clearly I shouldn't go to Whole Foods anymore, if the huge bruise and scrape on my upper left quad is any indication.  Also, I really had to bite my tongue not to ask the cashier, after the chick in front of me took her groceries and left, how many entitled bitches who act too good to bag their own groceries he had to deal with on a daily basis. As I recall in humble ol' Arlington, VA, most customers didn't bag their own purchases (barring express, where they couldn't).  What is this societal laziness--or was I raised by a particularly industrious woman and thus my perception is skewed?