Cafe Hey appears on FoodFash frequently. It’s almost exactly halfway between my house and my office. They have the most vegan options in town. They don’t cringe when I butcher their VLT cause I don’t do T. I love it there.
And since I compulsively refresh Facebook newsfeed throughout the day and Cafe Hey updates their status almost as often as I refresh, we have a pretty solid virtual friendship as well. Typically, their updates include info on daily soups, grain salads, and quiche, but yesterday… I noticed they were hosting a vegan pumpkin pie cooking class for Tampa Freeskool. Hurrah! I signed up.
As soon as everyone arrived, we got friendly in the kitchen. We learned that a pumpkin is a gourd, a calabaza is a sweet Caribbean squash, and that you could use either of these in a pumpkin pie and they would taste equally, if not more, delightful than your run-of-the-mill Libby’s.
Soon after, we stood in a circle, utilitarian bowls in hand, and waited as the ingredients were portioned. At that point, I think Anne, the owner, was concerned that we weren’t getting enough hands-on time with the ingredients. What she didn’t know? Measuring is my least favorite part of baking and she was doing this cook a tremendous favor!
We mixed and mixed and splattered and mixed until the pumpkin-ness was ready to be poured into our ginger and molasses crust.
And then we parted ways, carefully so as not to spill our pies, rushing home to bake our creations.
An hour later… The pie turned out A+ and I have to believe that’s largely due to how much fresh ginger was both in the crust and filling. The crust puffed up nicely, like a soft cookie, and complimented the creaminess and the spice of the filling nicely.
Thanks a million Cafe Hey and Tampa Freeskool for reeling in such good company to make delicious community pies!