Happy Pi (π) Day!!

Sweet maple apples baked in a pie with a smoky, salty cruelty-free bac*n topping…does life get any better?!

I’ve been eating this for breakfast for days (fruit & protein, breakfast of champions!). I ended up making four of them. Recipe testing the different bacon substitutes out there and finding which one pairs best with apples was a ton of fun. Well, there were some not fun moments too. Like when I tasted one of the bacon subs – argh, gross, this is why vegan food gets a bad rap!

Thankfully, there were two brands that were good and that contrasted with the apples beautifully. Sadly, neither of them looks exactly like bacon – you can totally tell they’re substitutes, but flavor wise they were the best.

Sweet Earth Benevolent Bacon – Hickory & Sage flavored, deep smoky flavor, really comes through and balances the sweetness of the apples. Thin-ish slices, sorta looks like bacon. Doesn’t really get crispy, more like strips of soft thin-sliced protein. (oh yeah, 10g of protein per serving! 4 servings per pkg) Tofurky Maple Tempeh Bacon – Great maple smoky flavor, thicker than the Sweet Earth, very non-bacon look and texture. Tempeh just can’t emulate bacon consistency-wise. But, it tastes yummy! Offsets the sweet apples beautifully. (12g protein per serving. 2.5 servings per pkg.)

Brands I would AVOID for this recipe: Lightlife Smart Bacon, Upton Naturals Bacon Seitan and Yves Veggie Bacon. All of these LOOK a lot more like bacon, which makes them look more like the pie from Loveless Cafe, but holy jeez the flavors are way off. I’ll have LVB test kitchen post soon about all the vegan bacon choices. Look for that coming up!

Tempeh Maple Bac*n Apple Pie

Benevolent Bac*n Apple Pie

I hope you have some fun pies planned for this pi day. I’d love to hear how you celebrated!

This recipe was completely inspired by the Bacon Apple Pie from Loveless Cafe.

Step by Step

Cook the bac*n Apples. Apples mixed with spices and maple. Apples loaded in pie crust. Benevolent bacon topping. Smoky Maple Tempeh topping. PIE!





Share this: Facebook

Pinterest

Reddit

Twitter

Email

