COOK FOR GOODNESS SAKE! Praise for Maple Pie and the French

by Linda Garrettson

I thought I had the perfect November recipe, consistent with my celebration of America, who we are and what we eat on the occasion of the nation’s 250th anniversary. To me, the essence of November in America is Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving means pie, and pie means apple. Alas, dear readers, Marie-Chris-tine’s apple galette in the October issue is a tough act to follow. Two apple recipes in a row, is one too many. Besides, one should never try to outdo the French when it comes to desserts. Food and liberty connected our two countries many years ago. The French played an important part in our revolution. What would we have done without the Marquise de Lafayette, the same Lafayette who is buried in dirt from Bunker Hill? Our stars and stripes hung over his grave during the entire Nazi occupation of Paris. At Monticello, Thomas Jefferson imported many French delicacies. Benjamin Franklin did not seem to be in any hurry to come home from France, perhaps because the delectable Parisian cuisine made campaigning for funds for our revolution more palatable, pun intended. So forget the apple pie, but now what?

I looked around for inspiration. Autumn leaves were falling. Maple leaves, especially sugar maples, caught my attention. Soon I was thinking about maple syrup, something that is nearly synonymous with Norfolk. It’s hard to find better maple syrup than that which is made from generations of trees and by local families.

So now what? I needed a really-maple pie recipe. Could it replace an apple pie?

I will let you be the judge. I was never good at chemistry; therefore baking is not my strong suit. I need some help when creating a dessert recipe that requires a pastry. No idea is completely original after all. A maple pie recipe from a macrobiotic dessert cookbook got me excited. The chef, whom I’ve met, is extraordinary, squelching any idea that desserts can’t be delicious if they are plant-based. I decided to try it with a few revisions.

Praise goes to Eric Lechasseur and his vegan, macrobiotic, dessert cookbook, “Love Eric,” the inspiration for this recipe. While I’m at it, hats off to the French Canadians who were his inspiration for this pie, hats off to the French and hats off to Norfolk maple syrup. Hug your maple trees, hug the local maple syrup and the people who make it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Eat pie!

NORFOLK MAPLE PIE

Ingredients

For the crust

• 1-1/2 cups pastry flour
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• Pinch sea salt
• 1/4 cup safflower or other mild plant oil
• 1/3 cup cold water

For the filling

• 1 10.9 oz package Mori-Nu Silken Tofu
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp agar flakes
• 3 tbsp arrowroot

Method

For the crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add oil and water, knead into a ball, rest for 15-20 mins. Roll the dough into a circle, large enough to fit in an 8-inch pie pan. Press the dough gently into the pie pan, trim off the excess and crimp the edges.Roll out excess dough and cut into maple leaf shapes for decoration.

Place pie shell and maple shapes on a baking sheet in the oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is lightly browned, remove from oven and cool.

For the filling

Whisk filling ingredients together in a saucepan. Boil over medium heat for 5 or more minutes. Continue to whisk until the agar is dissolved and the filling thickens. Pour into cooled pie shell, add maple shapes and cool

Chef’s note: The quality of the maple syrup makes a big difference. Be sure it’s 100 percent pure maple syrup, has no corn syrup or other fillers and buy local. Keeping sugar levels at a steady level is beneficial to our health. The Glycemic Index (GI) compares how sweeteners raise our glucose levels compared to pure sugar. Stevia and monk fruit have little affect and occur naturally. Honey and maple syrup are in the moderate range, the benefit being that they come from nature and have other advantages. The original filling recipe called for Amazake, a sweet Japanese rice drink that can be hard to find. The Mor-iNu tofu substituted well. Try the soft silken variety.