I adapted the recipe from Dog Hill Kitchen‘s Cherry Pocket Pies. I generally dislike rolling out pie pastries and such, but this dough was really easy to work with, and also totally easy to make. My filling is not very sweet, so this recipe makes snack style pocket pies, but with more sugar these would be a nice portable dessert as well.

The Filling:

• about 10 dl chopped apples
• about 1 dl water (or more)
• 4 tablespoons muscovado sugar (or more)
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons potato (or corn) starch, mixed with a bit of water

It’s best to start making the filling an hour or so before baking, so it’ll have time to cool down.

I rinsed and cored the apples, and cut them in small cubes. Then I placed them in a sauce pan with the water, and simmered them on medium to medium high heat until they started to soften and mush up. I added the sweeteners and the spices (muscovado through salt), and cooked until I had a nice saucy consistency with a few apple pieces here and there. Then I mixed the potato starch with a little bit of water, and poured the slurry in the apple pot, stirring all the time to ensure it wouldn’t form lumps. This thickened my filling almost instantly. I removed the pot from heat and let the filling cool down before assembling the pies.

You might need more water or less potato starch, all depending on the fruit you use. Our apples were kind of floury.

The Dough:

• 5 and 1/2 dl whole spelt flour
• 2 dl soy milk
• 5 tablespoons margarine
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

I mixed the flour with the baking soda and salt, and then added the cold margarine in the bowl. Now, I used a fork to incorporate the margarine in the dry mixture. When it looked uniformly crumbly all over, I added the soy milk, and kneaded for a few minutes. The dough should come together nicely, so if it is sticky at this point, you might need to add a little bit more flour.

Now I set the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Then I divided the dough in 12 equal portions, shaped each into a ball, and rolled them out into circles. The pocket shells were about 15 cm in diameter.

To assemble, I placed about 2 heaping tablespoons of the filling in the center of each dough circle, folded the sides together, and sealed them with the spikes of a fork. Now, I covered two baking sheets with baking parchment, placed the pies on the sheets, brushed them with some soy milk, and scored them thrice with a knife to make air vents.

Then I baked my little pockets, for 25 minutes, one baking sheet at a time, until they were a little brown around the edges and on the bottom side.

The tartlets were quite yummy on the day of making, but they actually got even more delicious after a night in the fridge: the crusts absorbed some moisture from the filling, which made it creamier and more flavorful.

The Crust:

• 2 and 1/2 dl hazelnut flour (hazelnuts finely ground)
• 2 dl wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 dl sugar
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer powder (we have No Egg – can be replaced with corn/potato starch for example)
• 1/2 dl canola oil
• 3/4 dl plain soy yogurt

I mixed the dry ingredients – hazelnut, flour, salt, sugar, and egg replacer – with a fork until combined. Then I added the oil and the soy yogurt and mixed until the dough came together. I divided it in 12 parts and placed them in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Then I greased and floured our muffin tin, and preheated the oven to 175 degrees. I rolled each portion of the dough into a ball, flattened with my hands, and then pressed in the muffin tins. I tried to make the shells as high as possible without making them too thin, and they didn’t quite reach the upper rim of the muffin cups.

Now, I baked the shells 15 minutes on the middle rack of our oven, when they had browned a bit and started to come off the sides of the muffin cups. I let them cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then removed to cool on a rack.

The Filling:

• 2 dl unsweetened, plain soy yogurt
• 3/4 dl plain soy milk
• 1 teaspoon agar powder (not flakes)
• 1/2 dl sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• grated zest of one lemon
• 1 tablespoon canola oil

I let the soy yogurt come to room temperature before starting with the mousse. This way, it won’t cool down the agar mixture as quickly as cold soy yogurt would, and there’s more time to work with it before it starts to set.

First, I whisked together the soy yogurt, sugar, vanilla sugar, canola oil, and lemon zest. Then I heated the soy milk in a small sauce pan on medium heat until it started to bubble, and then whisked in the agar agar powder. I kept on whisking for half a minute or so until the agar had dissolved, and the mixture started to get very foamy.

Then I quickly poured the agar mixture in the yogurt bowl while whisking it vigorously, and when everything was all combined, I immediately poured the filling in the cooled shells. It settled quite quickly in room temperature, but I popped the tartlets in the refrigerator at this point as we were about to have dinner.

Right before serving, we decorated the tartlets with fresh raspberries.

Waiting for the raspberries.

Rhubarb is very tart, hence the generous amount of sugar in the filling. I also recommend drinking a glass of calcium-enriched vegan milk with this pie, since rhubarb might steal the calcium from your body if you don’t. This recipe makes a lot of cake, enough for 10 helpings I’d say.

The Filling:

• 4 large rhubard stalks (about 6-7 dl sliced rhubarb)
• 4-5 dl (frozen) strawberries
• 2 dl sugar
• 3 and 1/2 tablespoons potato starch
• grated zest of 1 lemon

The Cake:

• 200 g margarine
• 2 dl sugar
• 2 and 1/2 dl soy yogurt
• 5 and 1/2 dl wheat flour
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

The Crumb Topping:

• 1 dl rolled oats
• 1 dl wheat flour
• 1/2 dl sugar
• 1/2 dl liquid margarine

First, I prepped the rhubarb: peeled the skin and sliced it very thinly. Then I mixed all the filling ingredients and set aside while making the cake and the batter.

For the cake, I first whisked together the soy yogurt, margarine, and sugar. The result will be grainy, but that’s okay. Then I mixed the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, added this to the wet, and stirred with a fork until combined. The batter is relatively stiff as far as cake batters go.

Then I proceeded to make the topping by mixing everything together with a fork.

Now, I covered our (20 X 30 cm) baking dish with parchment paper, making sure there was enough paper to cover the sides of the dish as well, because this cake will rise a lot in the oven. Then I spread the cake batter in the bottom of the pan, poured the fruit filling over it, and sprinkled the crumbles on top.

Then I baked in 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted came out clean, and the crumb topping had browned nicely. We served the cake with vanilla soy ice cream.