Basic Pantry Recipes 1

With my back and neck acting up I've had to find something indoors to keep me moving.  Add to that the addition of lots of pumpkins and I decided to explore finding pie recipes that are Munchkin safe. 

The first challenge was the old staple - pumpkin pie.  To get started I needed to make safe versions of evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.

To be honest, while both took most of a day to make, they were very easy to make.  And next time I'll pull out the small crockpots which will free up my stove.

For evaporated milk, I took 3 cups of the So Delicious Coconut Milk and put it in a small pot on the stovetop.  I started with the temp at 4 and when it heated enough that I could see the heat coming off I turned it down to three.  I stirred it at random throughout the day to keep it from separating.

For the sweetened condensed milk I used 4 cups of the So Delicious Coconut Milk along with a 3/4 cup of sugar.   I mixed those together in another small pot and followed the same temperature and stirring guidelines.  When it was done I added 1 tsp of vanilla.  This seemed to come out a little thin but after sitting in the fridge it thickened.

And the final ingredient was a new one.  I made vanilla paste.  I used the recipe at the link below.  At first I wasn't impressed.  Now that it's had a week in the cabinet and thickened, well I'm impressed.  It has worked well in all the recipes I tried it in.  I will still be making vanilla extract but I will make this each time I use up a bottle.  The paste will definitely be used in a few recipes.  The only change I'm considering is making the new batches with honey instead of agave.
http://dessertswithbenefits.com/homemade-vanilla-bean-paste/

So with all the basics on hand, I pulled out the Libby's pie recipe and started experimenting.  Since I was making all of the ingredients I split the recipe into quarters.  And I had four failures.  It seems that while Egg Replacer is good in a lot of recipes, pumpkin pie is one of those recipes that it doesn't do much for.  In all but one the batter tasted wonderful but it just didn't set up.  In the one I had added tapioca flour and it set up better but the body was still "wet".

So I checked the website for Egg Replacer custards, a lot of them had thickeners added.  So I went searching for GF, DF pumpkin pie recipes.  Google can be a great friend when recipe hunting.

Oh my there are definitely a variety of recipes out there.  I found three that had a lot of high ratings.  And after years of running across weird tasting duds that only one or two folks like, I look for lots of ratings.  Anyways, given what I had on hand, I went with the recipe from Karina at Gluten Free Goddess.  Not to mention that I also haven't had a fail yet from her recipes.  Here's the link:  http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2008/10/vegan-pumpkin-pie-worthy-of.html

I used sorghum flour and my own pumpkin spice mix.  Oh, and I used the So Delicious Coconut Milk, not canned milk.  And lastly, I used arrowroot starch rather than tapioca starch.  That's just a personal preference.  It came out perfect.  No crust needed and it tasted as good as any we've had.  I can taste the sorghum but it blends so well with the pumpkin that it actually just tastes like a pie with crust.  A good, non smooshy, crust.

Unfortunately, Munchkin doesn't like the texture.  Well, unfortunately for him and for my diet.  The texture is no different that regular pumpkin pie, it's just a Munchkin issue.  So I'll be stashing this recipe back to try again next year to see if he changes his mind.  Meanwhile, I have pumpkin pie to eat.  And it lets me stick with his diet, which is just fine.