Roasted Pear + Salted Caramel Cheesecake Bites with Speculoos Cookie Crust {vegan}

Thanksgiving is coming! I have to be honest, normally Thanksgiving gets me super stressed. It's the ultimate foodie holiday, and when you're a person whose known by family and friends for cooking, people have expectations. Nate and I normally plan for weeks, I decorated a pinterest-inspired table with gords and pretty votives, and we food prep together for at least a solid week. 

Thanksgiving is sort of our holiday. We've spent every thanksgiving together since we met and this will be our 8th. Every year it seems like we spend it with different people in a different place, and we love that about the holiday. We love everything this holiday stands for: inclusiveness, good food, and gratitude. 

But this year we're going low-stress, simple. I've pulled too many all-nighters and written to many papers in the past two weeks to stress about a holiday! 

One thing I know is I will be eating these little beauties. They are the creamiest, tastiest cheese cake bites that will please vegans and non-vegans alike. The crust is made from crushed up speculoos cookies the cheese cake base is a date sweetened blend of coconut milk and toasted cashews with spiced roasted pear, all topped with salted caramel. Guys, I had no idea vegan caramel was possible, let alone this good! 

Roasted Pear + Salted Caramel Cheesecake Bites with Speculoos Cookie Crust
makes 18 cheesecake bites

For the crust: 
1 1/2 cups speculoos cookie crumbs, (or sub graham cracker)
1/4 cup coconut oil

For the filling: 
1 cup raw cashews
8 dates, pitted
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 can full-fat coconut milk
1 medium d'anjou pear, (relatively firm) 
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the caramel
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 can full-fat coconut milk
fluer de sel for finishing

Make the crust. Preheat the oven to 350. Fill muffin tins with 18 wrappers. In food processor, blend cookies into crumbs. Stir in melted coconut oil until evenly coated, then divide the crumbs among muffin tins. Press the crumbs down to form a crust - a shot glass works great for this. Bake for 8-10 minutes until fragrant and golden brown. 

Make the filling. With the oven still on, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and top with cashews. Cook for 8-10 minutes, rotating halfway through, until just slightly brown and very fragrant. 

In in the bowl of a food processor with a blade attachment, or blender, add cashews and dates and blend for about a minute. With the food processor running, slowly pour in the coconut oil, followed by the coconut milk. (Make sure to do it in this order. If you put it all in at once the liquid will splash everywhere and make a huge mess. I know from experience.) 

Peel, core, and dice the pear. Combine pears, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt into a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the juices begin to release and the mixture looks gooey like jam. Pour the pear mixture into the cheesecake mixture and stir to combine. 

Divide the filling among the muffin tins and refrigerate for at least two hours. 

Meanwhile, make the caramel. Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 30-40 minutes. The mixture will bubble up slightly, darken in color, and eventually thicken and reduce to the consistency of caramel. Keep cooking until it has reduced to about 1 1/4 cups. Transfer to a jar. 

Just before serving top the cheesecakes with caramel, you will have extra, and sprinkle liberally with chunky sea salt. 
 

Simple Smoky Baba Ghanoush

My life has become completely consumed by school. Literally I stay up until 2am every night of the week reading and writing, I go to sleep exhausted and then wake up and do it all again. I love what I'm studying, I really do. I know this because the thought that so often fills my mind is that in less than five years "I get to be a psychologist". How lucky am I? But that doesn't make it easy.

Last night I came home from class, and watched the Daily Show, something Nate and I watched together nightly before we moved. No laptop, no reading. Just me my dog and the tv. Despite having a different host, the stories, the soundtrack and co-hosts were the same. Then I turned on my favorite pandora station, the one I used to bake to every afternoon in California, and I caught up on reading my favorite food blogs. I was taken back to our apartment in Calabasas. To life as a full-time yoga teacher, with an achy low back from all the hours I spent in the car driving from class to private to class. To long, full days, and evenings filled with teaching in the absolute best way possible. To a husband who I got to come home to, eat dinner with, go to bed too late with in our little apartment surrounded by neighbors we knew in a life that felt comfortable. And my heart ached. 

Nate has been away for four weeks now on a ship in the great lakes. I'm making friends, studying my ass off, barely teaching or making it to class myself. Having enough time to cook myself dinner, let alone spend an entire afternoon playing with ingredients in the kitchen, is a rarity. And by rarity I mean it has been months. And it makes me just so sad. 

Sometimes I wish I could live consecutive lives because there's just not time to be all I want to be. Does anyone else feel this way? And right now all I want to do is blast ingrid michaelson and bake vegan cinnamon apple cheesecake bites while I wait for this new life to feel comfortable.

Simple Smoky Baba Ghanoush
makes about 1.5 cups
adapted from Smitten Kitchen 

Notes: Smokiness requires a gas stove, something I no longer have. So I broiled the hell out of the eggplants instead. The result? They weren't even a little smoky. Fail. Insert liquid smoke. I won't tell if you don't! 

2 small eggplants
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup tahini
2 garlic cloves, minced
juice of 1 lemon, ~ 4 teaspoons
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons parsley, plus more for serving
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment. Slice the eggplants in half length wise, drizzle liberally with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place cut size down on the baking sheet and cook for 1 hour until the skins are dark and shriveled and the center looks brown and slightly caramelized. Remove from oven and let cool. 

Using a spoon, scape out the centers of the eggplant and discard the skins. Combine eggplant, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, liquid smoke, salt, and parsley in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until completely incorporated. Adjust to taste. 

To serve top drizzle with olive oil, and top with parsley and sesame seeds. Serve with pita chips or vegetables. 

Apple, Rosemary, & Sharp Cheddar Galette with Caramelized Shallots in a Buttery Parmesan Crust

Guys, less than a week till Christmas. Are you ready? Maybe you're Jewish and don't celebrate Christmas. If that's you, let me say first Happy 4th night of Hanukkah, and second, I have recently developed a crazy intense love for latkes, and for a non-jew the amount of them I've managed to get my hands on in the last week is pretty remarkable. Seriously making me question my catholic upbringing. But anyway, chances are regardless of what holiday you celebrate, you'll probably be attending some festive gatherings in the next two weeks. Lucky for you, I've got the perfect dish. 

I've had a long time fascination with sweet and savory things that don't seem like they'd fit together, but surprisingly pair quite fantastically, making you question everything you thought you knew. For me this is sharp cheddar and apples. Sure they could work together on a cheese plate, but what about all stewed up nice and steamy in a rustic galette? Even better.

For those of you who've never had the opportunity to throw together a galette, or who might not know what it is, it's basically a rustic, no-fuss, much easier version of a pie. No crimping the edges, no rolling out perfectly round measured circles, no covering the crust with tin foil (ain't no body got time for that), and no nervous transferring of a crust to a pie dish. You just mix up your dough, roll it out (and seriously the more imperfect the better here) and throw whatever kind of fillings you like inside. Fold up the edges, again imperfections here add to the rustic-ness, and pop it in the oven. No fuss. The result is handmade and charming. 

And the apples and cheddar? They make quite the dynamic duo. And along with toasty caramelized shallots and winter herbs this thing comes out of the oven smelling super cozy. But even though the filling is great, I still think this crust is my favorite part. It's flakey, buttery, with just a the perfect hint of pepper and parmesan. So far this season I've cooked it up for Thanksgiving, a weeknight dinner, and the holiday potluck we had last weekend. 

Apple, Rosemary, & Sharp Cheddar Galette with Caramelized Shallots in a Buttery Parmesan Crust
Serves 6 as an appetizer 

For the dough:
1 stick unsalted butter, cubed and frozen for 15 minutes
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
4-5 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the filling: 
3-4 shallots, sliced
1/4 tsp thyme
1 tbsp rosemary
1/4 tsp salt
1 giant, or 2 regular size Honeycrisp apples, peeled & sliced
1 heaping cup grated extra sharp cheddar
1 egg

Make the dough. Pulse flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper and parmesan in a food processor until combined. Add frozen butter chunks and parmesan and pulse until butter breaks up to the size of peas. Add 1/2 the water, pulse, add the other half, pulse, then add the olive oil and pulse until cohesive dough forms. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead 2-3 times, form into a disc, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes and up to two days. 

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a small skillet, sauté shallots over medium low heat for 10-15 minutes until soft and golden brown. Set aside. Finely shop thyme and rosemary and mix with salt, set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Assemble the galette. Cover a flat work surface with a large piece of parchment and lightly dust with flour. Roll out the dough to a 14" imperfect circle - seriously, keeping it a little uneven, with jagged edges adds to the rustic feel. Top with cheddar, leaving about 1/2 inch boarder on all sides. Top cheddar with shallots and 1/2 of the herb salt mixture. Top with apples - I layered mine in two overlapping rows but you could do any design you'd like. Sprinkle with remaining herbs. Using a bench scraper, fold uncovered edges of the galette over. Whisk egg and brush crust with a liberal amount of egg wash. Drizzle entire galette with olive oil, freshly grated parmesan, and salt & pepper. 

Transfer galette, keeping it on the parchment paper, to a large baking sheet. And cook for 50-60 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Let cool about 10 minutes and serve. 

Notes: 

• Photos updated November 2016
• The galette is just as great at room temperature as it is warm. 
• Reheats best in the toaster oven.