Four Ingredient Pumpkin Pie - Simple Vegan & Gluten Free

A simple recipe post today ~ Vegan & Gluten Free

Four Ingredient Pumpkin Pie

 

Pumpkin Pie with Coconut Whipped Crème

1 1/4 cups raw soaked cashews

1 cup maple syrup
1 can organic pumpkin puree (16 ounces) (or use fresh puree)
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  

Blend all together until smooth.

 

Bake with or without crust - 400º for 15 minutes, then reduce to 350º bake for about 35 minutes more.

 

OR: Don't bake at all and scoop into small serving bowls and call it Mousse.

  

**You can buy Pumpkin Pie Spice or use a combination of: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, & cloves. Omit anything you don't like. Remember this is an "easy" recipe.

Here's a quick and tasty crust.

Pie Crust

 

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup pitted dates (packed)

1/3 cup almond butter

2 tablespoons nondairy milk

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

 

For the crust, use a food processor to process the rolled oats and dates into a fine, crumbly texture. Add the almond butter and process for about a minute. Add the nondairy milk and salt. Pulse until the mixture comes together without crumbling. If it’s not holding together, add more nondairy milk, 1 teaspoon at a time. Transfer to a pie plate. Press mixture into pie plate evenly around the base and up the sides. Set aside.

 

 

Coconut Whipped Cream

 

1 14 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk (use top firm part only)

1/3 cup organic powdered sugar, maple syrup or agave may be substituted, texture might be thinner, but just as delicious

¼ cup raw cashews, soaked two hours in filtered water and drained well

1 tsp Vanilla bean (scrape inside) or 1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Place can of coconut milk into refrigerator for 4 hours.  Open and remove thick part on top to use in recipes.  Reserve rest for other uses.

In high speed blender, blend cashews and coconut to smooth, add powdered sugar, blend to thick and fluffy, stir in vanilla.

Chill 2 hours or overnight.

Use within 2 days

 

 

 

 

 

Orange Spice Cookies - Light, Vegan, & Gluten Free

VegFest was a couple weeks ago and I had the pleasure of helping Laurie Sadowski set up her demo and 200+ samples each for two gluten free baking demos. Today, I thought I'd look through her cookbook I picked up at Vegfest  "The Allergy Free Cook Bakes Cakes & Cookies".  I found a recipe for Orange Spice Cookies that looked nice and I had most of the ingredients.  As usual, I scanned the ingredients and decided what I was going to use for the ingredients I didn't have on hand.  It's Sunday and very cold. I went for a nice long walk today, but I'm not going to the grocery store. I'm sure I have what it takes to make these cookies with ingredients I already have in the kitchen. That's one of the purposes of this blog, to help myself and others get through some of these recipe hurdles.  I always suggest to my cooking students to use recipes as a template and change the components to suit their tastes or availability of ingredients.  Then I need to remember to write down what I did so I can to repeat the recipe again.  It's been very helpfull to have my recipes stored here.

This is Laurie's recipe as it's printed in her book, "Orange Spice Cookies".  It's a good recipe, free of most allergens, but I need to make some changes since I don't have the specific flours suggested and I want to avoid the oil.

1/4 cup unrefined cane sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 TB freshly squeezed orange juice (zest orange before squeezing)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sorghum flour
1/4 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 TB finely grated orange zest

One of the first ingredients I noticed I would have to substitute was unrefined cane sugar. I have some coconut sugar, but no cane sugar available. Then I noticed 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened.  Although this is a pretty healthy recipe, as is, I still want to avoid processed oils as much as possible, that includes coconut oil.  I decided I had a nice ripe avocado, but didn't want to overpower the flavor so I replaced half the suggested amount coconut oil with ripe mashed avocado and used fresh applesauce to make up the rest of the coconut oil. I have quite a bit of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix in the kitchen, so I used that instead of sorghum flour and tapioca flour. Bob's Red Mill's blend is a combination of sorghum flour, tapioca flour, potato, garbanzo bean, and fava bean. I probably could have substituted all the flour with the BRM blend, but I thought I'd like to use the quinoa flour as suggested in Laurie's recipe. It should add a richer flavor as well as a bit of protein. Quinoa flour pretty easy to make a small amount. Just wipe out your coffee grinder and grind some whole quinoa.

This is what happened to the same recipe in my kitchen:

1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup mashed ripe avocado (not too ripe)
1/4 cup applesauce (just core and apple and throw in the blender)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 TB freshly squeezed orange juice
seeds from one half vanilla bean
1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour
1/4 cup quinoa flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon pink Himalaya sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.

Put the sugar, avocado, applesauce, maple syrup, orange juice, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Using the paddle attachment, or a large bowl and hand mixer, beat on medium=high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Mix the flours, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, and spices in a medium bowl. I like to sift my flours and spices together in a sifter or mesh strainer. Add the orange zest and mix together.

With mixer on low speed, gradually add dry ingredients to the wet until combined and a soft dough forms.

Scoop out a rounded tablespoon of dough and place on lined baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies.

I topped half of my cookies with a few pecan pieces then baked for 10 - 12 minutes.

These cookies are delightful!  Light and full of flavor.  They are the perfect light snack that might also be good served with a little jam.
 

Vegan, Gluten, & Oil Free Pumpkin Spice Cake

It's about time I catch up on my blogging.  I've been so busy the last couple months and there are a few dishes I've made that I would like to be able to look up again and make.  September and October are busy, stressful months at work.  I am sure if you checked out a blog from this time last year, I probably mentioned the same thing.  My day job is pretty pleasant for the most part, but we do some pretty heavy number crunching in the fall preparing the plan for the next year.  I call it an accounting marathon.  I also had the great pleasure of heading up the kitchen at the VegFest in Portland, OR.  That took a bit of commitment too.  Things are settling back to the normal chaos, I'm coming up for air now, and have time to catch up on some great recipes.

I've been keeping my cooking classes not only plant based, but gluten free.  I am not gluten intolerant, that I know of, but I'm meeting more and more people who are.  I've been out with some friends who have celiacs disease and many times they can only have lettuce or raw carrots in a restaurant.  In all the presentations I attend and articles I read, it's a good idea for all of us to moderate our gluten intake.  It's not been difficult to make some great gluten free meals. 

This cake took some work because I also wanted to make it oil free. It took a few tries, but I managed to come up with a recipe that works every time.  My husband was a little disappointed I figured it out because it meant I wasn't going to make a cake every three days trying to get it right.  Here it is for you to try.  If you don't mind using wheat flour, just leave out the xanthum gum.

Here's one of my first attempts.  It was good, but still a little too moist in the middle for my tastes.

I went to so much trouble to make this cake healthy, I chose not to frost it at my cooking class.  I lightly sprinkled it with a mixture of organic powdered sugar and a dash each of cinnamon and nutmeg.  I thought it was a bit dry for some so I added just a little dollop of some pre-made rice whipping cream and garnished with a couple nice dried cranberries.

Vegan & Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake

               By Debbie Kay

Two eight inch layers or one 9”x 11” baking pan, or 24 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce (1 large or two small apples with 2 TB filtered water puréed in high speed blender)
• 1 teaspoons cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon each cloves & ginger
• 1&1/2 cups organic Sucanat, coconut sugar, or brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 egg replacements, (I like ENERG egg replacer for this cake, 1 TB egg replacer with 2 TB water = one egg replacer)
• 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose flour
  Unbleached all purpose flour can be used, omit the Xanthum Gum
• 1 teaspoon Xantham Gum
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

To make the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 375º
2. Cream vegan margarine or applesauce with the sugar.
3. Mix the powdered egg replacement with water as directed on the package.
4. Add the liquid egg replacements to the creamed vegan margarine and brown sugar.
5. Mix the pumpkin puree and vanilla to the creamed margarine mixture.
6. Sift the flour in a large mixing bowl, add the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger and mix well.
7. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and blend well.
8. Pour the batter into parchment lined baking pans.
9. Bake for 55 min. to 1 hour. Test with toothpick, toothpick should come out clean
10. Cool on a rack before removing from the pan for five minutes.

Sprinkle warm cake with mixture of organic powdered sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Or, frost with your favorite vegan frosting after completely cooling.

Here's a quick buttercream frosting if you prefer a frosted cake.  Add a tablespoon of lemon juice for a cream cheese taste.

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup softened Earth Balance or other vegan butter

1 cup palm oil shortening

3- 4 cups pound sifted organic powdered sugar

½ tsp Vanilla or seeds from ½ Vanilla bean

In the bowl of a standing mixer or food processor cream together the Earth Balance and the palm oil on medium to high speed until completely combined.  Turn the speed down to low and slowly add in the sifted powdered sugar one cup at a time, allowing it to blend thoroughly before adding more.  Add in the vanilla and continue to blend until the mixture looks creamy.