Thursday, November 13, 2008

A Seedy Experiment

I've been freezer-diving again. There is so much STUFF that I've made months ago in anticipation of some huge baking spree (though I don't know what I was thinking... who has the time for all that jazz??) and I knew I would have to crack some of it open soon or lose it to the freezer-burn Gods.

So, what do you do when you have a whack of pumpkin puree, tons of the Summer's sunflower seeds, thick, rich homemade applesauce and your Halloween Jack O' Lantern's leftover roasted seeds sitting in your freezer? Well, throw in some spur of the moment creativity and sick day boredom, and you have this crunchy-crusted, gluten-free pumpkin pie! The nuts and seeds are so delicious-smelling from the oven that I could honestly use it as a cookie... forget the pie! I never liked pumpkin pie anyways... but the family does, so it gets made. I picked the version I made last year as the base of the one I made this time, though I definitely changed it up... in retrospect I'd probably up the tofu content and make the filling a bit thicker next time. Ah well, we learn, don't we?

Happy Thanksgiving to all the American foodies out there - and to all the other ones, happy Fall!

Gluten Free Double - Pumpkin Pie
Serves 10
1/2 cup toasted, chopped almonds
2/3 cup toasted, unshelled sunflower seeds
2/3 cup toasted, in-shell pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tbsp cold water
5 oz lite silken tofu (Mori-Nu is GF)
1 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup apple butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 fl oz evaporated skim milk
  1. Preheat oven to 375F, grease the sides of a 9" springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Place pan onto a baking sheet and set aside.
  2. In a food processor, combine almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sugar. Process to a fine mealy crumb.
  3. Stream in the melted butter, pulsing to combine.
  4. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the springform pan.
  5. Bake 12-15 minutes, set aside to cool while preparing filling.
  6. Preheat oven to 425F.
  7. Mix tapioca starch and water in a small bowl, set aside.
  8. In the clean bowl of a food processor, puree tofu with the tapioca slurry until completely smooth.
  9. Add pumpkin, apple butter, brown sugar, spice and evaporated milk, pureeing completely.
    Pour into the cooled base.
  10. Bake 20 minutes, then cover the springform pan with foil and return to the oven for a further 25 minutes.
  11. Cool completely in the pan, then chill in the refrigerator before unmoulding and serving.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 212.8
Total Fat: 10.4 g
Cholesterol: 6.9 mg
Sodium: 84.3 mg
Total Carbs: 25.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.9 g
Protein: 6.6 g

3 comments :

  1. The crust sounds fantastic!

    I love pumpkin pie but this year I'm browsing food blogs too much and it's going to be tough deciding what kind to make. Thannks for the idea and recipe!

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  2. Love the sound of that crust! I have a pumpkin filling recipe that's similar, and it does use a bigger tofu-to-pumpkin ratio. But then again, pumpkin is better for you!

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  3. Oh boy, I'm afraid to go check what's in the freezer in the garage. Hoffa may be in there. But now that you've reminded me, I need to go through it this weekend to make room for stuff that will be done for the holidays. Shudder.

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Thanks for the feedback!