Vegan Vanilla Peach Pie Cupcakes

Portland. It is hot. It is really, really hot. I have been spending every summer day slumped on my stoop in short-shorts while pouring cold beer on my head and moving the minimal amount possible so as to keep cool. I call shenanigans on this entire city. I mean, I moved AWAY from California to escape the heat, damnit!
Okay, so maybe 85 degrees isn’t THAT hot. But I’m sensitive, man.
Anywho, whenever my body goes into temperature shock, it craves fruit- and lots of it. So naturally, I decided to bake something involving my favorite, the king of all that is delicious, the cream of that sugary crop: peaches! Unfortunately, I forgot this involved me being crammed into a small space with a giant machine that blasts 425 degree heat in my face. Ugh.
Okay, so, my friend Kirby and I did some research, and we decided to veganize some Vanilla Peach Pie Cupcakes that we found through Bakingdom. The original recipe can be found here: http://bakingdom.com/2011/09/vanilla-peach-piecakes-with-ginger-whipped-cream.html
We reduced the baking time by a large percent, omitted the ginger whipped cream, simplified the recipe to a certain extent, and skipped that whole terrible process of weaving fragile strips of dough together. And y’know what? It turned out as straight up MAGIC. I mean it. Maaaaaaagic.
P.S. I will forever now use the term piecakes in daily life. Because it is fun to say. Plus, the term invokes so much silly happiness in me for some very inexplicable reason.

I am drooling beyond both belief and attractiveness

Ingredients:
Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons shortening, cold
1/2 cup vegan butter, cold
6-8 tablespoons cold water
Cake:
1 brown banana
1/4 cup vanilla rice milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons vegan butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Peach filling:
4 peaches, peeled, pitted, quartered, and sliced thin
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons corn starch


Directions:
1. Okay, so I didn’t have a food processor, meaning I did this all by hand. So you will, too! To make the crust: In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Prepare to get good and messy. Use your hands to squish in the shortening.

I honestly love squishing things into other things.

♥ Do this until the mixture looks like wet sand. Then, squish in the vegan butter. Do so until you have pea-sized pieces.

It should look sorta like this.

2. Add about 6 tablespoons of cold water. Using a spatula, mix it all up by folding it from bottom to top and pressing down with each fold. Add more water if it seems too dry.
3. Once the mixture has just formed a dough, plop it onto a very lightly floured surface. As quickly as possible, knead it by hand until a soft but firm consistency has been formed. Make sure not to overwork the dough, though! That’s the biggest no-no, like, ever.
4. Divide the dough in half and shape each into two disks that are roughly 4 inches across. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours or over night. But, uh, who really has time for that? Not I, certainly. I only refrigerated it for how long it took me to make the cake batter, so 2 hours really isn’t necessary unless you have the time and/or patience for it.
5. Okay, cake filling time! Lightly coat the piecake tin with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
6. Mash up the banana with the rice milk and the vanilla in a small bowl. Set it aside for now. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Beat in the vegan butter on low speed until there are no large chunks of butter or streaks of dry flour. Add the banana mixture slowly. Beat on low until it has mixed completely. It may be a bit chunky from the banana, and that is totally fine.

That fork is there because I was eating straight batter. No shame.

♥ Scrape the bowl down and mix for another 15 seconds or so. Set aside while you prepare the peach filling.
7. For the peach filling: Combine the peach slices, sugars, and spices in a medium bowl. Toss it up nice n’ good to coat the peaches thoroughly. Stir in the lemon juice and the cornstarch until it’s well combined. Set aside while you prepare the piecrusts.

I ate soooooo many spoonfuls of this ambrosia.


A sexy close up

8. Now is the time to scream in pure excitement and ecstasy over how TASTY EVERYTHING IS. 
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!


Yelling at the peaches for being TOO tasty

9. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
10. Remove one of your disks of pie dough from the refrigerator and roll it out a little less than 1/4-inch thick. Cut several 4 to 5-inch circles out of the dough. I used the rim of a large wine glass to cut out the circles.

See? You didn’t believe me.
 
♥ Re-roll the remaining dough and repeat until you have converted all the dough into little circles. Each disc should yield at least 6 circles. Place each circle into a cup of the prepared piecake tin and form little cups from ‘em.

♥ Make sure to press the corners in gently. Bake for 7 minutes.



11. Remove the pie crusts from the oven and immediately fill each cup with 1 tablespoon of the cake batter.
12. Bake the filled piecrusts for 5 minutes.
13. Remove the piecakes from the oven and place a spoonful of the peach filling on each. Return to the oven and bake for 5 more minutes. Make sure they are rotated from the last time they were in the oven. You want them to be evenly baked!
14. Last but not least, FEAST! Have as many as you want; they’re vegan, so they can’t be bad for you, right? There are two different fruits in here, and no butter, and so much love that it HAS to be heart-healthy, right?


♥ ENJOY! ♥