ROOT BEER CREAM PIE

When it feels like everything’s a ceiling and you wish you could spend every single day of the next at least eleven years of your life hanging out in the sun in a café on Fraser Street eating vegan cheesecake and sipping cream soda (although caffè & panettone with James is also fine):

ROOT BEER MARSHMALLOW FLUFF PIE.

ROOT BEER CREAM PIE




Crust:

300g (10.6oz) vegan digestive biscuits

120g (1/2 cup) margarine

Root beer cream filling:

500ml (17.5 fl oz) root beer

1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons cake flour

1 tablespoon cornflour

2 tablespoons margarine

1 tablespoon sugar

Root beer marshmallow fluff topping:

1. Root beer cream:

200ml (7 fl oz) root beer

2 teaspoons cake flour

1½ teaspoons cornflour

2 tablespoons margarine

1 tablespoon sugar

2. Marshmallow fluff:

120ml (1/2 cup) water from a can of chickpeas

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

60g (1/2 cup) icing sugar

Start with the root beer cream filling. In a small bowl, mix together cake flour, cornflour and ¼ of the root beer (100ml), making sure there are no lumps. In a pan over low heat melt the margarine in the remaining 400ml of root beer, then add the sugar. When it starts simmering, pour in the root beer and flour mixture. Cook for about 3 minutes, whisking constantly. Transfer to a bowl, cover with cling film and let cool.

Next make the crust – blitz the biscuits in a processor until finely ground. Melt the margarine, then mix with the ground biscuits until combined. Place the mixture into a 22cm/9” pie dish, pressing evenly and firmly to cover the base and edges. Place in the fridge whilst you make the marshmallow fluff.

If you’re making root beer flavoured fluff, prepare the root beer cream to be added to the marshmallow fluff following the same process as the root beer cream for the filling.

For the marshmallow fluff, combine chickpea brine, xanthan gum and cream of tartar in a large bowl and beat with electric whisks for about two minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy, the texture of beaten egg whites. Add icing sugar and vanilla extract and whisk on high for five minutes, until the mixture gets stiff and sticky. If you’re going the root beer fluff way, slowly pour the cooled root beer cream into the bowl of fluff, and keep whisking until stiff. I reserved about a tablespoon of cream to drizzle over the fluff.

To assemble the pie, pour the root beer cream into the pie crust and place in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.
Just before serving, top with the marshmallow fluff and some crushed digestive biscuits.

Serve with root beer for the most comforting root beer overdose.

Notes: I’ve lost my mind after Canada (although someone pointed out I’d lost it looong before that) so that’s why I’ve made root beer flavoured everything. If you can’t be bothered to make the extra root beer cream to be incorporated into the marshmallow fluff, just skip the first bit of the topping recipe and use plain marshmallow fluff.
However: no pain no gain (and no root beer).