Crustless, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie

October 26, 2009 · Filed Under Slightly Indulgent, breakfast, crustless, dessert, easy, pumpkin, recipe, treats · 90 Comments 

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This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Mondays (featuring Linda from The Gluten-Free Homemaker and offering a giveaway—subscription to Eating Well magazine!), Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free (pumpkin treats!), Friday Foodie Fix—Pumpkin, and Love the Pie! Party.

Sue is an active and enthusiastic member of a neighboring support group. She loves to bake. Several years ago, my good friend and former co-leader of my support group, Donna, had just been introduced to Sue. She couldn’t say enough nice things about her. Donna, in turn, connected the two of us. Sue and I had a nice long chat on the phone. That wasn’t hard to do since we both live to bake. We talked flour mixes. We talked cookies and cakes. Then Sue said, “You know about the trick of adding ¼ cup of flour to a pie to make it crustless, don’t you?” What??!! “No,” I answered. “Tell me more.” She laughed and said, “That’s all there is to it!” She went on to tell me that if you add ¼ cup of gluten-free flour to most pie recipes, like pumpkin, coconut, and such, you end up with a wonderful, crustless pie. I immediately pulled out my pie plate and ingredients for pumpkin pie, a family favorite. I added ¼ cup of gluten-free flour to my classic pumpkin pie recipe sans crust, loved the results, and I’ve never looked back. I don’t think you will either. Oh, and, you’ve probably already said to yourself … that’s gluten free easily—gfe!

I make this pumpkin pie for holiday gatherings, support group meetings, work functions, girlfriend dinners … you name it! Nobody even notices this pie has no crust. When I purposely ask individuals if they noticed that there was no crust, they are surprised and honestly say they didn’t. This recipe is perfect for Mr. GFE and Son because they always left their crust on the plate anyway. They just never liked crusts. So, no more sad, empty crusts left behind in my house. It’s all about the pumpkin custard flavor in this one, baby. You don’t even taste the small amount of flour added; it just holds the custard together nicely. Enjoy!

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Crustless, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

2 eggs
1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin or 2 cups cooked fresh pumpkin (I used fresh pumpkin, hence, the lighter color and fresh pumpkin also provides a much lighter taste in my opinion)
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 2/3 cups evaporated milk (one regular-sized can)
¼ cup gluten-free flour (your choice—your favorite single flour or a mix; sift if needed)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease pie plate and set aside. In large bowl, beat eggs slightly; mix in remaining ingredients. Place pie plate on oven rack; pour in filling. (I never do this, but it makes sense. Personally, I’m in the “hum” or “count as you carry the pie to the oven” school of thinking to ensure the pie plate contents do not spill. Hey, it works for me!) Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake until knife or toothpick comes out clean, about 45 minutes longer. (Pies made with fresh pumpkin may take slightly longer to bake due to higher moisture content.)

Adapted from Betty Crocker with thanks to Sue!

Note that this particular crustless method will not work for pies that contain heavier ingredients, like fruit. But, be sure to check out my recipe for Crustless Apple Pie.

If you want to make this pie dairy-free, a dairy-free milk like coconut milk should work just fine. In fact, Diane made gluten-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free pumpkin pudding just the other day. I’m betting that sweet treat could easily become a full-fledged pie with the addition of ¼ cup of gluten-free flour!

Not gluten-free? Use 1/4 cup of your all-purpose flour.

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Looking for other ways to use pumpkin? Fantastic recipes abound. Check out the following:

Melissa’s Pumpkin Coconut Custard

Brian’s Pumpkin Cheesecake (with a luscious topping)

Amy’s Mini-Pumpkin Spice Cheesecakes or her Gluten-Free Pumpkin Dog Biscuits (yes, even our pets don’t do well with gluten and deserve a safe treat)

Ali’s Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies (gluten-free and vegan)

Ellen’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini-Bundt Cakes

Lauren’s Pumpkin Cupcakes

Linda’s Pumpkin Recipes, including Traditional Pumpkin Pie with Crust

Still want more? There’s a whole roundup over at The W.H.O.L.E. Gang’s Friday Foodie Fix and Heather of life, gluten free now has the Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free carnival up. Theme? what else? pumpkin treats! You can also check out Heather’s Pumpkin Spice Cake.

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

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Mom and Apple Pie

May 10, 2009 · Filed Under Friday Foodie Fix, breakfast, crustless, dessert, easy, gluten free, recipe, treats · 65 Comments 

basket-of-applesWe actually made our Mother’s Day visits yesterday. I baked pies for both my mother and my mother-in-law and I wanted to deliver them while they were still warm. Neither complained. They were happy to start celebrating a little early and both will still get plenty of attention today. My sister and her family will be visiting my mom this afternoon. And, my mother-in-law is being taken out to lunch and visited later by my husband’s siblings and their families. I’ll get to have my own day doing whatever I decide. My son won’t be home today, but we spent several hours together last weekend, so I’m okay with that. For the most part, we, moms, are an understanding, reasonable bunch. :-)

When I think of paying tribute to my mom on this day, I have to pause. No matter what I write about her, the words will fall way short of the wonderful mom she is. I think about all the special things she’s done for me through the years, how she’s always been there for me and I am extremely humbled. I try to be the same kind of mom for my own son, but I’m pretty sure I’m not as patient or as understanding as mom has been for me throughout my life. Thinking back on all mom has done for me, seemingly random things pop into my head. There was the time she surprised me with a new dress for a dance when I was in the 8th grade (multicolored large flowers and a very big bow—I can see that dress so clearly—-oh, my goodness, it seems garish now, but it was right for the day and I loved it!). There was the time when I was a teenager in misery from an infection on Christmas Eve. She raced to the pharmacy a half hour away to get my prescription. She got her one and only speeding ticket that evening, but we didn’t find out about it until years later. There were the letters she sent me when I was homesick my first semester of college. Written on notebook paper and sharing what was going on back home, they meant the world to me. I eagerly traipsed across campus to the post office each day hoping to find one of those letters. Often there were also packages of Mom-made goodies—the best (I get my baking gene honestly). It was not that long ago that my sister told me that my mom suffered greatly during that time, too. Her words were “I didn’t know if she was going to make it.” The mom-child bond runs deep. 

Mom continues mothering me even as an adult. If I get sick, she calls to check on me and offers to run errands or bring over a meal. I’m lucky she and dad live only 8 miles away and we call whenever the mood strikes either of us. It’s okay if our conversation lasts 5 or 40 minutes. Mom makes life easy that way. As a grandmother, she’s top notch, too. She’s genuinely interested in her three grandchildren, and more recently her new granddaughter-in-law. When my son was upset with my decisions as a youngster, he’d go to my mom and vent. She was always willing to just listen, but when he wanted advice, she’d offer it. Sometime he wrote letters to me at her urging and they helped us have discussions that would not have been as productive if we’d tried to barge into them without contemplation. Mom remembers her grandchildren throughout the year and always makes them feel special. That is what everyone wants in a grandmother and she’s beloved by all her grandchildren.

So how can you adequately thank a mom like that on Mother’s Day? The answer is you can’t, really. So, you do something that you think will make them smile or provide a little happiness, and, of course, that’s all moms really want or need. Good moms are usually very easy to please.

My mom has pretty much everything she needs and wants. Still I picked up a few small things I knew she’d enjoy and decided to bake an apple pie for her. I’ve been making this apple pie for a long time, but hadn’t shared it with mom yet and she’s an apple pie fan. My sweet friend, Claudia, had passed on the recipe to me. It’s another “regular” recipe that I easily adapted to be gluten free. The crust is not made in the traditional sense, so I usually refer to it as my crustless apple pie. That tends to confuse people a bit though because as you are eating it, it has a crust. The fact is the crust is poured over the apple mixture and oozes down between them to make a pie that has a bottom and a top crust, without all the work.

UPDATE: Oops, I forgot to share in my original post the added incentive for making this particular pie for mom yesterday … this month’s Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free blog carnival. This wonderful blog carnival was originated by clever and lovely Naomi of Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried. Each month has a different theme and a different host. Emilia of the beautiful and inspiring Gluten Free Day is hosting for May and the theme is fruit desserts. Check out info here if you’d like to participate. It’s a lot of fun and fabulous recipes are always shared, so please join in. We all need some new gf fruit dessert recipes for summer, right?

I make this apple pie with whatever type of apples I have on hand. Yesterday, I used half Pink Lady and half Golden Delicious. Previously, I’ve used all Golden Delicious apples, some Golden Delicious with Gala, some Rome, some Red Delicious, some Jonathan, some Ginger Gold, and so on. Others have used Granny Smith and various combinations. When I posted this recipe on the celiac listserv, folks told me about all the different apple combinations they had used for best flavor and juiciness. Most importantly, they all gave the recipe glowing reviews. One of our gfe friends/readers, Brenda, stated that she didn’t even like apple pie before she made this recipe, but now she’s a convert! (BTW, I hope Brenda will weigh in because she also makes her version dairy free and reduces the sugar a bit. Oh, she also leaves the skins on her apples for extra fiber and nutrition.) UPDATE:  Brenda stopped by and graciously shared her version—gluten free, dairy free, lower sugar, and more fiber. Check it out in her comment below!

Mom and Dad really enjoyed their pieces of pie yesterday evening. I had taken pictures of the whole pie before we left, but wanted a picture of a slice, so I was snapping photos left and right. It was a little challenging to get a perfectly cut piece because the pie was still very warm. Mom was puzzled at all my picture taking. She asked if I was entering the pie in a contest or something. I reminded her about my website. Mom doesn’t have a computer and has no interest in getting one, but when I explained that I had to try different settings to get the best picture, she joined in the fun. The photo of the partial whole pie and the piece in the pie stand was actually mom’s idea. She also had me placing the pie near her collection of teapots, on different dishes, etc. I told mom she was a natural food stylist. Hubby agreed and piped in that I should hire her. Mom laughed, but beamed. When we finally got to the eating part, Mom absolutely loved the pie. It was a really nice Mother’s Day visit. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom—I love you!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers reading who do their best day in and day out! I hope someone makes your day special and thanks you for all you do. Maybe you’ll even get a special homemade treat like this one … if not, make your own. You’ll be glad.

Easy, “Crustless” Apple Pie
(Click here for a printable version of this recipe.)

deep-dish 9-inch pie plate, greased
5 to 6 apples, peeled and cut up (4 ½ to 5 cups)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar
¾ cup butter, melted
1 cup gluten-free flour*
½ tsp xanthan gum (omit, if using a flour mix that already contains xanthan gum)
1 cup sugar
1 egg (I used a jumbo brown egg)

Put apples in greased pie plate and sprinkle with cinnamon and one tablespoon of sugar.

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In a bowl, mix one cup of sugar, flour, xanthan gum, and butter. Blend in unbeaten egg and pinch of salt. Mix well and pour over apples. (This mixture will be thick, so you’ll have to spread it with a spatula to cover all the apples.)

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Sprinkle more cinnamon over top. (I confess … I forget this final step often—the pie still turns out great.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

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*I used Jules gluten-free flour mix. However, another very economical option is the gluten-free flour mix that I use most of the time. It consists of three parts Asian white rice flour (much more finely ground that typical white rice flour) and two parts cornstarch. I make 5 lbs of this mix at a time. I use three 1-lb bags of Asian white rice flour and two 1-lb boxes of Argo cornstarch. Mix well, but gently in a very large bowl and then transfer to airtight storage containers (like Tupperware).

Shirley’s Notes: I’m sure you could make this in an 8-inch square casserole dish or something similar if you don’t have a deep-dish pie plate. I used 4 1/2 apples yesterday–that’s all that was needed to fill my pie plate, yet leave enough room to pour over the crust. Also, for you folks who don’t use gums, I’ve made it without xanthan gum successfully as well.

UPDATE: If you are looking for other gluten-free apple recipes, be sure to check out the Friday Foodie Fix over at The W.H.O.L.E Gang. Diane is always rounding up the best recipes each week with the focus on a “secret” ingredient. You can see all the apple recipes that so many terrific bloggers submitted here.

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

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About Me

Shirley BradenGluten free since June 2003, I lead a celiac/gluten intolerance group in Virginia. My passion is educating folks on gluten issues and showing how eating gluten free can be easy if you focus on “real” foods versus processed and specialty foods.

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GFE's Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, but rather a volunteer sharing my experiences. Consult your physician for medical guidance. To the best of my knowledge, all ingredients/products that I use are gluten-free (even if I do not indicate that each and every time I mention them; e.g., if I refer to "soy sauce," it's a gluten-free soy sauce). However, I take no responsibility for the accuracy of that information. Always read labels and verify the gluten-free status of any ingredients/products to your own comfort level.

Not just gf, but gfe!