Puttanesca, Kittee's Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

Apparently, this means "prostitute's pasta" because it was served in brothels back in the day. So good! It's from Bryanna Clark Grogan's Nonna's Italian Kitchen.



And Kittee's Peanut Butter Pie. Basically 5 ingredients. Basically impressive and awesome.

Mini Pumpkin Pie

I am so glad these mini-pies came out well. With help from PPKers, I found a crust and method that works. These are the newest addition to the cafe where I work. I hope our customers enjoy them!







Crust is from vegweb.com

1 1/2 cups flour (see note below)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 tablespoons soy milk

Mix dry ingredients. Add liquids and mix with a fork. Pat into 9-inch pan with fingers. If pre-baked crust is needed, bake at 425 degrees F, 10-12 minutes.


Filling

3/4 lb tofu
15-16 oz pumpkin puree (1 can)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/3 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 c brown sugar

Do not press tofu, especially if using firm. (I used firm Chinese style tofu and this recipe still worked). Crumble tofu really well with your hands. Add all ingredients. Blend until very, very smooth. You may need to start out with a food processor then move to a blender. Scrape down sides of blender occasionally.

Topping
Recipe is from Recipezaar.

1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
2 cups roughly chopped walnuts

*Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a large, heavy saucepan and place over medium heat.
*Stir until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is clear.
*Boil for 2 minutes without stirring.
*Add the walnuts, bring back to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
*Remove from heat and allow to cool.
*Serve and store at room temperature.
*Stir well before using.
*Note- Sauce will thicken upon cooling. Overcooking can lead to making a very hard walnut mixture.


Directions:

Chill dough while you are making filling. (2x recipe dough will equal 12 mini pies with a little dough left over. 1x pumpkin filling will make about 16 mini-pies.)
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.
*Spray a cupcake pan well with nonstick spray. Flatten and pat dough into each cupcake well, keeping it a little higher on the sides (you will need the sides slightly high- you will be removing these from the pan, and it makes them look really home-made.)
*Bake dough about 10 min, until "set". Will not be golden, just not doughy.
*Fill each mini-pie with pumpkin filling and return to oven.
*Bake 10-20 minutes more, checking at 10 and 15 minutes. Pumpkin will not be jiggly and will come out mostly clean when done.
*Let cool, remove from pan by carefully slipping a knife down into each well, and gently pop out pie.
*Make walnut topping and put a small amount on each mini-pie.
*Serve