A Chocolate Cream Pie That's Gluten-Free AND Vegan

At a holiday party last month, I met a woman who told me of learning she had celiac. I had brought these fantastic gluten-free red velvet cupcakes, made from a recipe found at Gluten Free Cooking School. But when she found out they contained brown rice flour, she wouldn’t eat them. All she could say was "Gritty! When I’ve eaten gluten-free cakes with brown rice flour in them, they’ve been gritty and tasted terrible!”

(BTW, these cupcakes are moist and delicious, and dare I say – better than wheat flour cupcakes!)

I’m the last person to recommend people eat gluten-free cakes. They have less nutritional value than ones made with wheat flour (or than flourless chocolate cakes, for that matter). But it really gets to me that people who have not done their homework just put any old brown rice flour into any recipe and feed it to unsuspecting celiacs, giving gluten-free baking a bad name.

I can’t deny that what happened to her has happened to us. We’ve driven out of our way to try baked goods at places recommended on gluten-free blogs, only to find they were dry, pasty and flavorless. And, early on in my gluten-free baking days, Saveur.com provided a link to a blog post that they claimed had delicious gluten-free recipes for the holidays. The blogger was a photographer and her cakes were indeed beautiful. But I had to throw the results into the garbage and brush the grit out of my teeth. I am not exaggerating. (To Saveur’s credit they did not feature her recipes in the magazine, but I am still shocked that a magazine which is so reliable would post a link to recipes they hadn’t tried or tested.)

It’s incidents like these that give gluten-free baked goods a bad name. Especially considering that in reality, gluten-free starches are a long-time secret to light Italian and Sicilian cookies and cakes. Some things even have a much better texture and crumb when gluten-free, like scones and pancakes—both light and whole grain.

But there is a caveat—if you want gluten-free cakes to work out right and not end up pasty or gritty, it’s better not to go vegan. If you insist on gluten-free AND vegan baked goods, you will have to stick to fruit crisps, tofu or nut creams, and limited number of bread and cookie recipes. The vast majority of the rest require butter, eggs and/or other dairy such as milk or yogurt, buttermilk and sour cream for optimum deliciousness.

Here is a tried-and-true recipe that is both gluten-free AND vegan. It is an old chestnut from the health-food world, originally from the Sunspire Chocolate Chips package, combined with a favorite cookie-crust recipe of mine. It is an elegant Chocolate Tofu-Cream Pie. You can make it in a normal sized 9” pie plate or in a fluted 10” or 11” tart pan.

It really is “easy as pie”—all you have to do is bake a cookie crust with oats and nuts, and then fill with the tofu cream. With this crust, it’s also a complete protein so you could theoretically eat a slice for a snack or breakfast. The type of chocolate chips you use will determine the type of sweetener and how much. Sunspire and Rapunzel make organic chocolate sweetened with healthier sweeteners, if you want to go that route. Personally, I prefer Guittard chocolate chips, but they truly are decadent.

Chocolate Tofu-Cream Pie

Adapted from Sunspire

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup oat flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup walnut halves, ground in food processor fitted with metal blade

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

Wet Ingredients:

¼ cup + 1 tablespoon safflower or other no-taste oil

¼ cup + 1 tablespoon grade B maple syrup

2 tablespoons water

Tofu Cream:

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 lb. silken tofu

1 tsp. vanilla

Chocolate shavings for serving (optional)

Place rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 375F. Mix together dry ingredients well. Whisk wet ingredients and add to dry, combining completely. Cover a one-cup measuring cup with saran wrap and use to press crust dough into bottom and up sides of a greased 9” pie plate or 10 1/2” tart pan with removable bottom.

Bake for 18-20 minutes on middle rack of oven, until lightly browned. While crust bakes, wash food processor bowl, blade and top. Place silken tofu and vanilla into clean food processor bowl fitted with metal blade.

While crust is cooling, melt chocolate in microwave or on top of a double boiler until just melted. When melting the chocolate chips: it’s a good idea to heat until two-thirds or so are melted, and then remove from heat and mix together with a spatula or spoon until all are melted, only placing over heat briefly to get the last pieces. This way you aren’t likely to burn the chocolate accidentally. 

Once melted, quickly pour chocolate over tofu and vanilla in food processor bowl, and process until smooth. Pour filling into crust, spreading quickly. It is important to work quickly because the minute the chocolate hits the cold tofu, it begins to harden. Also, it is important to spread into the pie plate quickly to achieve a smooth, shiny top.

Refrigerate for at least one hour, until cold and stiff enough to be sliced. When ready to serve, garnish with shaved chocolate if desired.

A note about tasting this pie before it’s ready: The great thing about soy oil and tofu is, they absorb other flavors easily so that you can’t taste the soy after they become completely infused. (This is why garlic bread is even more garlicky if it’s made with soy margarine instead of butter or olive oil.) Until the filling is completely cooled, however, it might have a slight tofu-ey flavor. This is because it takes a little while for the tofu to be infused with the chocolate oils and lose this. So, just follow the directions and don’t serve it until ready, and it will be perfectly chocolatey!