Two Amber Cakes of Grain: Quinoa and Semolina Couscous

Who wouldn’t like crispy crunchy little “pancakes” that are good for you? Shaped like mini-burgers, they are based on nutritious cooked grains like quinoa or semolina or millet or …. All the ones I’ve made have “special” ingredients that make them sing: tangy feta cheese is at the top of the list, but currants and chopped herbs are right up there.  The couscous cakes are infused with saffron, which gives them a golden color. These cakes are great topped with smoked fish as an appetizer, served with a vegetable stew for supper, pocketed for breakfast, or packed for lunch on a trip.  They’re more substantial than the mini vegetable frittatas that bake in muffin tins so they’re good for the road. And you can make them any size: mine were under 2 inches in diameter so they were basically finger food.

The quinoa version, the way I made it, is gluten-free. The semolina version is obviously wheat-based. Since I’m working on my own recipes, I might not have posted these two – one from Becky Selengut’s Good Fish, and the other from Yotam Ottolenghi’s column in the Guardian – but I had so many requests that I couldn’t resist sharing this discovery. I made Selengut’s quinoa cakes the way the recipe was written. Ottolenghi used barberries, which we don’t have here, so I substituted lemon-soaked currants as he suggested. I also halved the Ottolenghi recipe and converted it to American measurements. Because of the characteristics of semolina couscous, those cakes were drier and denser than the quinoa version.

When I first served the quinoa cakes, I topped them with smoked trout, sour cream and chives. The second time, when they accompanied the couscous cakes, I used that amazing Moroccan tomato jam from last summer. I also served the couscous cakes with an aromatic root vegetable stew.

Quinoa Cakes adapted from Becky Selengut, Good Fish

2/3 c quinoa, rinsed and drained

1 1/3 c water

Salt

¼ c minced shallots

1 tsp olive oil

¼ c flour – all-purpose or superfine brown rice or white rice flour

¼ c tangy feta cheese, crumbled

¼ c finely chopped Italian parsley, or a combination of parsley and chives

1 egg and 1 egg yolk (or use 2 eggs)

Freshly ground black pepper or a little red pepper sauce

Vegetable oil for frying

Selengut’s garnishes: smoked trout flakes, sour cream or Greek yogurt, chives

Cook the quinoa and set it aside to cool. (To cook quinoa, place the rinsed grains, water and a little salt in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, cover the pot and let cook for 10-15 minutes.)

Cook the shallots in the olive oil until translucent and set them aside to cool.

Combine the quinoa, shallots, flour, feta and egg and add a little additional salt and the pepper. Form into small cakes (wet your hands if the grains stick) and fry them lightly in the vegetable oil over medium-high heat, until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes, turning them once.

Crispy Couscous and Saffron Cakes adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi, The Guardian

¼ tsp saffron threads

1 c boiling water

¾ c semolina couscous

1 tbsp dried currants

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sugar

1/3 c Greek yogurt or sour cream

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tbsp chopped chives

¼ c crumbled feta cheese

Salt and black pepper

Butter and vegetable oil for frying

Place the saffron in a heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Let is infuse for a few minutes and stir in the couscous. Cover the bowl and let it stand for about 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, soak the currants in lemon juice for 20 minutes.

Fluff up the couscous with a fork and combine with the other ingredients.

Form into small cakes (wet your hands if the grains stick) and fry them lightly in the butter and vegetable oil over medium-high heat, until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes, turning them once.

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All-American Orange Pound Cake — Gluten-Free

It’s your birthday and I made you a cake. This would be a cinch in most families, but we live in the land of the gluten-free or dairy-free, and sometimes both. Not by choice so there’s no room for mistakes. I am developing a pretty good repertoire of cakes, and even some bread, which use almond meal as well as alternative flours, from quinoa to brown rice. I tend to like recipes that use the “other” flours for what they are and not simply as a substitute for white wheat. However, I’ve been considering how to make a gluten-free citrus pound cake, one that will support a pile of strawberries when they return to season in a couple of months.

One of my long-time favorites is Dorie Greenspan’s yogurt cake but I recently spied an orange loaf cake on the Lottie and Doof blog, adapted from the new baking book, Piece of Cake, Home Baking Made Simple, by David Muniz and David Lesniak. A pair of Americans, the Davids moved to London to establish a bakery specializing in American cookies and cakes.  Their smart-aleck humor results in “Snickers” brownies and “Nut Job” cookies, blending classic American baked goods with American slang in both recipe and language.  Since one of the Davids is from Mississippi, I figured he’d make a good pound cake. Besides, March 4 is national pound cake day in the U.S. (Who knew?) 

This was the perfect opportunity to use the gluten-free flour mix called Cup 4 Cup, which was developed by Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame. I haven’t been a big fan of pre-mixed GF flour mixes until now. Given the ingredients of this particular cake, I thought it might work. There’s something magical that sour cream, buttermilk and yogurt do to batter when combined with baking soda. Orange peel, like cooked pumpkin, has a similar effect.This cake was amazing. It rose a mile high and had great crumb. I baked it in two medium loaf pans and halved the glaze since I thought it would benefit from a little crunch on top but didn’t need more sugar.  So when the strawberries arrive, I’m going to make two versions, GF and conventional, just for fun.  And because I am as nerdy about food experiments as America’s Test Kitchen.

Side note: you can use larger or smaller pans and adjust the baking time as I indicate in the recipe.

Orange Pound Cake, adapted from Muniz and Lesniak, Piece of Cake

2¼ c all-purpose flour or “Cup 4 Cup” gluten-free flour

2¼ tsp aluminum-free baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

1 tsp Kosher salt (or less if using table salt)

¾ c sour cream

¼ c freshly squeezed orange juice (plus 1 tbsp more for glaze)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Cointreau, optional

1 c granulated sugar

3 tbsp orange zest (from about 3 oranges)

1½ sticks (3/4 c) softened unsalted butter

3 large eggs at room temperature (soak in warm water 5 minutes if not set out earlier)

Glaze:

¾ c sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two medium loaf pans (approximately 7 x 4 x 2½ inches), and line with parchment paper. (I lined them in both directions, leaving the paper long enough on the sides to hoist the cakes from the pans.)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

Thoroughly mix together the sour cream, orange juice, vanilla, and orange liqueur if using, and set aside.

Place the sugar and orange zest in the bowl of an electric stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a medium-large bowl if you are using an electric hand mixer, and beat the sugar-orange mixture on low speed until well combined.  Drop in the butter, about 2 tbsp at a time, until well combined. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and cream the mixture until it is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Do not shorten this step or your cake could be a little flat and dense.)  On low speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Finish preparing the batter by hand by alternately folding in the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. (Fold in 1/3 of flour, then ½ of sour cream and repeat, ending with flour.)

Spread in prepared pans, smoothing the top. The mixture made with gluten-free flour may seem quite thick.

Bake the loaves for about 40 minutes until the tops are brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (If using a 9 x 5 loaf pan, the cooking time will be 45-60 minutes. If using mini loaf pans, probably 25 minutes.)

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before removing it to a rack to finish cooling.

While the cake is cooling, make the glaze by combining the confectioners’ sugar and orange juice in a small pan. Bring it to a boil, stirring, lower the heat and simmer it for 2 minutes. Brush or pour the glaze over the cakes and cool them completely before serving.

Makes 2 medium loaf cakes (or 1 large one or 8 minis).

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Cook the Books: Dorie Greenspan’s Chicken in a Pot

A cooking challenge organized by Meg of Grow and Resist and Briggs of Oh Briggsy in which we explore a featured cookbook each month.

Phew. I was getting bored without a cooking challenge. Thanks to Meg and Briggs for putting this together. What I mean by challenge is the focus of researching, creating, considering, and commenting, not the challenge of the actual cooking. However, the latter is exactly what led me recently to embrace Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table, literally on my knees, very grateful. 

You see, we had three Christmas celebrations this year, two planned and one spontaneous, which nearly threw me for a loop. The second planned one, which I’ve written about before, involved a portable feast for 24, which was prepared at our house in New Jersey and carted to Maryland, to be cooked and served midday. This would have been routine for me except for the spontaneous Christmas the night before. My two most favorite women in the world decided to visit, on a Thursday night, and bring their new beaux, one we’d scarcely met and the other not at all. Obviously, I couldn’t say no, so dinner and Christmas stockings it would be. Yikes.

Normally, some trusty communal dish would come to mind, but given that the meal necessarily had to be gluten-free and dairy-free and assembled in between intermittent meetings at my office, I was scratching my head. On top of that, our dishwasher broke, the kitchen flooded, the dog chewed the floor, and I started to panic. Enter Dorie.

I’ve owned Around my French Table since it was published. While it’s not a cookbook that I immediately wanted to cook my way through (I save that for the more esoteric ones like Jasper White’s 50 Chowders, ha), I dip into it now and again when I want a reliable recipe I don’t have time to test. The same goes with her Baking from my Home to Yours, which saved the day when I was baking muffins for 75 and needed an immediate infusion of foolproof ideas.

For the spontaneous Christmas dinner, I had in mind a Moroccan chicken dish, but was worried about the accompanying grain. Couscous was allergy material, rice was risky given one fussy attendee, and quinoa would have been fine but I couldn’t face it. Consulting Dorie, I came across “the garlic and lemon version” of chicken in a pot (page 206 and the cover image). Perfect, an all-in-one dish that didn’t need any accompaniment and that I could make with all local organic ingredients: whole shallots, whole garlic cloves, sliced carrots and sweet potatoes from our CSA, chicken and white wine from local farms, and herbs from my pot garden. I had excellent homemade chicken stock in the freezer and a jar of preserved lemons that I made a couple of months ago. I had a giant Dutch oven with a terra cotta lid, so I didn’t need the dough strip to seal it (though I added a couple of layers of foil between the base and the lid to make the seal). Virtually no shopping, whoo hoo.

My analysis of the recipe before I cooked it is that the lovely lemony broth would benefit from the flavor of chicken on the bone and some modicum of chicken skin, but that the skin would turn the liquid unctuous and oily. I therefore wanted to make the dish early enough to degrease it, which turned out to be necessary, and also to remove the skin before serving. In addition, I was skeptical of cooking cut-up chicken and veggies for 55 minutes at 450 degrees in my spun aluminum and terra cotta Dutch oven, so I started the oven at 450 for 10 minutes, turned it down to 350 for 40 minutes, and then to 300 for the balance. (I made this again this weekend, and I was right on all counts.)

Dorie’s introduction to the book characterizes the recipes as a “mix of old and new, traditional and exotic, store-bought and homemade, simple and complex,” and this one proves her right. What I loved the most was that I could serve the chicken stew in soup bowls with crunchy bread (yes, some gluten-free, sigh) that the guests could spread with the whole roasted garlic in the stew and use to mop up the delicious liquid. A large bowl of escarole and avocado topped with Dorie’s orange and olive salad (page 117) occupied the middle of our table. And we all sat around, with this delicious “elbows-on-the-table food,” accompanied by excellent wine and even better conversation. We had a grand time. Now I know why she called the book, Around my French Table.  It fulfills the promise, trust me.

Now I want to cook more from this book.

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Mushroom Quinoa Soup

An aromatic, hearty soup for a cold spring day. A gluten-free version of mushroom barley soup, made with carrots and leeks and garnished with flavorful lovage. I used homemade beef stock but chicken stock or vegetable or mushroom broth would work also. This was a delicious antidote for the snappish weather during a break from preparing the gardens for spring planting.

Mushroom Quinoa Soup

1 lb (more or less) cremini or Portobello mushrooms (or a mixture of several kinds)

2 tsp (or more) butter or vegetable oil

1 leek, washed, trimmed and minced (white and light green sections

2 carrots, peeled and diced into ¼-inch cubes

4 c good quality chicken or beef stock or vegetable or mushroom broth

Salt and pepper to taste (or use a splash of wheat-free soy sauce)

1/3 c red quinoa

Lovage or parsley, torn into small pieces

Clean the mushrooms and chop them into small pieces, about 1/3-inch. Working in batches, heat about a teaspoon of butter or oil in a wide pan over medium-high heat. Add enough mushrooms to cover the bottom of the pan without overcrowding and let them cook undisturbed for a few minutes until they exude their juices. Stir and cook until tender. Remove them to a bowl, wipe out the pan and repeat with the remaining mushrooms.

Heat another teaspoon or two of butter in a soup pot and stir in the leeks and carrots, stirring to coat with the oil. Cook until the leek is just transparent. Add the mushrooms and stock or broth and cook at a simmer for about 5 minutes until the mixture feels well combined. Add the quinoa and simmer until the quinoa is cooked, about 20 minutes. Add chopped herbs to the soup and let it sit for a few minutes before serving with additional herb garnish.

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Brown Rice with Chard Stems and Preserved Lemon

The chard that I’m able to get at this time of year has wide stems that I can sometimes cook and serve with the leaves but occasionally reserve for another day. Here I braised the stems in some lovely chicken broth just made from a roasted bird, then used the remainder of the broth as the cooking liquid for brown rice. Resembling a risotto, the rice was creamy but still nutty from the hulls of the grains, and the chard stems offered a terrific counterpoint. Since the dish was already pretty rich, I decided to “cut it” with a dab of the unctuous liquid from a jar of preserved lemons that I had put up a couple of months ago and keep stored in the fridge. The preserved lemons are salty (so don’t add any other salt to the dish) but create a flavorful kick. Tossed with snipped herbs from the pot garden and served alongside the first asparagus of the season, this was a wonderful, flavorful and comforting, but also refreshing early spring meal.

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Tomato and Pumpkin Soup

Continuing to eat out of the pantry before the spring growing season, I roasted the remaining cheese pumpkin from the late fall harvest, which had kept surprisingly well, and combined it with a home-canned tomato soup base that was stretching its viable shelf life. Our local CSA farm grows several heirloom varieties for canning, with names like Federale and Amish Paste. When I can those in the normal way, I find that their high water content creates a flavorful but watery mix. So rather than worrying that it won’t thicken into a sauce, I process it in a water bath into a loose, liquid puree, perfect as a base for soup and stew.

For this soup, I first I seeded the pumpkin and cut it into segments to roast in the oven over high heat. The pumpkin, while flavorful, was watery, so I added an orange sweet potato (or yam) to the soup, along with onion, celery, paprika, and chili powder. Pureed, this had a wonderful flavor, creamy texture, and a beautiful color reminiscent of Romesco sauce. Instead of the pepper, I could have used thyme and rosemary. I served the soup with a dollop of sour cream, chopped lovage (though I could have used parsley, chives or cilantro) and homemade oven-crisped croutons, but it holds its own just plain. Although I felt my way through the process for the first time, this could become one of my favorite soups.  The ingredients are flexible so I’m sure it will come out a new way the next time based on what’s in the pantry.  This soup improved with a day of aging, but was also great fresh off the stove.

Tomato and Pumpkin Soup (6 servings)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine

1 stalk celery, chopped fine

1 large orange sweet potato or yam

Vegetable or olive oil

1 tbsp sweet paprika

1 tsp chili powder (mine had ground chili pepper plus a tad of nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon)

3 cups roasted pumpkin flesh (see below)

4 cups canned tomato soup base (or use a quart of home-canned whole tomatoes or a large purchased can, buzzing the tomatoes and the liquid in a food processor)

Water if necessary

Optional: a touch of smoked paprika or pimenton

Salt and pepper to taste

Garnishes: optional sour cream, herbs, croutons, hot pepper flakes

Saute the onion and celery in oil over low heat until soft. Add yam or sweet potato and stir to coat, cooking the ingredients without browning for about 5 minutes. Add paprika and chili powder and stir to combine. Add pumpkin and tomatoes and cook at a simmer, covered for 45-50 minutes, until everything is soft and thoroughly cooked.  Add water if the soup is too thick.  Puree in food processor and taste for seasoning. Serve hot with optional garnishes.

Roasted pumpkin

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash the pumpkin then cut in half and remove the seeds. Cut into chunks, brush with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt, then roast skin side up for about 40-50 minutes, or until soft. Cool, then remove the flesh to a bowl.

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Risotto with Escarole

Escarole is one of the more reliably good winter greens around here and, when I find a head with clear, soft leaves, I use it as the basis for a green salad. A member of the endive family, escarole has a hearty texture and flavor, which makes it excellent for braising. It is the basis for a great pie that my Italian neighbors used to make at Easter as well a chicken-based soup with white beans and/or rice.  Knowing how much I like that soup, I decided to take that less-than-perfect head of escarole in the refrigerator and use it in a risotto. This is almost identical to the risotto with radicchio that I made a while ago, but a little lighter.

Risotto with escarole

½ medium onion, diced

Olive oil and/or butter (about 1 tbsp combined)

I medium head escarole, well washed and sliced into 1/2-inch ribbons crosswise (3 cups or so)

1 cup Arborio rice

¼ cup white wine

4-5 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Squeeze of lemon (optional)

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (or to taste)

Salt to taste

Saute the onion slowly in the oil and/or butter. Add the escarole and stir to coat, turning the heat up to medium-high to start it cooking (browning a little is okay). Add the rice and stir to coat. Add the white wine and stir to allow it to evaporate and also instill the ingredients with flavor. Add 1/3 cup of stock, turn the heat to medium low or low (so it just simmers) and stir until the stock is absorbed. The liquid from the vegetables will start to express, so the process of adding stock may be slower than in other risottos. When the liquid is absorbed, add another 1/3 cup of stock, wait until it’s absorbed, stirring occasionally, and then repeat until the rice is tender but still al dente. This process will take about 20-25 minutes. Taste and add salt and a squeeze of lemon if it needs the spark. Add grated cheese, check seasoning and serve warm.

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Gluten-free Dairy-free Cornbread Stuffing for a Turkey

The first year that we decided to be gluten-free and dairy-free for Thanksgiving, I gave up my longstanding tradition of making bread stuffing for the turkey and moved over to a more Southern approach based on cornbread. I had been researching gluten-free baking, so I knew cornbread would be a good option. I used the typical ingredients of celery, onion, thyme, sage, salt and liberal amounts of black pepper, and also added browned sausage. It was bound together by turkey stock that I had made a few days earlier from necks and backs. Some of the stuffing was cooked inside the bird and the rest in its own pan in the oven.  One of the tricks I discovered this year was to mix the stuffing a couple of hours in advance and let it sit, which allows the flavors to get acquainted. (Refrigerate it if the time’s lengthy.)

Gluten-free Dairy-free Cornbread Stuffing

12 cups dried cubed gluten-free dairy-free cornbread (see below)

1 ½ pounds mild or spicy bulk pork or turkey sausage

Olive oil and vegan spread (like Earth Balance, which has no dairy or gluten)

2 cups chopped onion

2 cups chopped celery

½-3/4 cup chopped celery leaves

½ cup chopped parsley

2 tbsp or more dried sage (leafy, not ground)

1 tbsp or more dried thyme

2 tsp or more ground black pepper

Salt to taste

1-2 cups turkey stock

Make the corn bread a day or so in advance so that it dries out. Cut it into 1-inch cubes and dry them in a low (275-degree) oven for 20-30 minutes or until quite dry and almost brittle. Break up the sausage into 1-inch chunks and sauté over medium high heat (so that it browns slightly) until cooked through. Remove and drain off excess fat. Melt some vegan spread with olive oil and sauté the onions and celery until softened.

Combine the cornbread, sausage and vegetables in a large mixing bowl, add the celery leaves, parsley, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Add turkey broth, a little at a time, until the mixture is moist but not soggy, being careful not to break up the cornbread too much (some will crumble, but you will want some cubes to stay whole). Taste and add more seasonings if needed. Let sit for a couple of hours before stuffing the turkey.

This made enough to stuff a 15-pound turkey and to fill a 7-inch shallow baking dish. I added extra turkey stock to the dish (since it wouldn’t get the basting from the turkey) and baked it at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Gluten-free Dairy-free Cornbread (based on a recipe by Gluten-free Girl)

¼ cup sorghum flour

¼ cup tapioca flour

¼ cup potato starch

¼ cup sweet rice flour

4 tsp aluminum-free baking powder

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp salt

¼ cup sugar (omit if making it for stuffing)

¼ cup vegan spread (like Earth Balance, or use Crisco)

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup lactose-free milk (or use rice milk)

1 cup fine yellow cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 7 x 10 ½-inch (or 9×9-inch) pan. Sift the dry ingredients (other than cornmeal) so combine them well. Cut in the shortening like you were making a pie, until it reaches a sandy texture. Combine the slightly beaten eggs and milk and pour into the dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. Then quickly stir in cornmeal and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

One recipe makes about 8 cups of cubed cornbread. I made two of these, one with sugar and one without and reserved half of the one with sugar for another use.

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Something for Everyone: Thank Goodness, Thanksgiving

We’ve always come together as a family around the table. Dinners whenever more than one is home, breakfasts on Sundays mostly, lunches on holidays or weekends when we find ourselves in the same place. We’ve shared our lives over many a meal, the meal being a means to bring us together as individuals and as a unit. That’s why we have a round table… no hierarchy… everyone face-to-face.

When kids are little, parents choose the meals and we chose balanced, organic, local produce, but also dealt with the green phobia (nothing green please), the white obsession (only pasta please), and all of the other picky practices. Then, as time goes on and people disperse, get exposed to new influences, develop their own habits, bring in friends and lovers, the diversity of pet peeves and personal preferences explodes. My family is now a cast of characters when it comes to food. We have the meat lovers, the vegetarians, the wheat-free and dairy-free, those who want to lose weight and those who want to gain, those who like things mixed up and those who zone the food on their plates, those who like things cooked and those who prefer things raw, plus the dogs who like everything, anywhere, anytime.

My goal in cooking a multi-dish meal such as the Thanksgiving feast, a holiday lunch for our extended family, a reception for a crowd (think post-game tailgate) is to create a menu that hangs together, even though the individual pieces may cater to one person/preference or another. All diners should find several dishes to their liking and the groupings should make an interesting meal, with tastes, textures and colors that work together. Everyone should feel as if that meal were made just for him or her.

So, this year, like last, we have a gluten-free, dairy-free base with only one dish off limits — conventional apple pie — which she doesn’t like anyway.  And the vegetarian has plenty of choices. All the others are on their own. This rant is not really about recipes but more about menu planning, so this is what we ate. The leftovers created some interesting opportunities, as we’ll see in the coming posts.

Roasted organic free-range tom turkey from a nearby farm

Homemade gluten-free cornbread and sausage stuffing

Gluten-free gravy (use rice flour and pre-made homemade turkey stock)

Mashed white potatoes (lactose-free)

Roasted roots (sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, rutabagas)

Roasted Brussels sprouts (minis, from our mini-garden, a garnish amount)

Balsamic-glazed cipollini onions (also a garnish amount)

Cranberry sauce (simple, a preference)

Steamed broccoli with lemon and olive oil

Radicchio salad with oranges and pomegranate seeds

Gluten-free dairy-free pumpkin pie in a gingersnap crust

Apple pie

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Gluten-free Dairy-free Pumpkin Pie, so who said it had to be pretty too

Figuring out how to make a pumpkin pie dairy-free is not hard, given the possibility of using soymilk or unsweetened coconut milk as a substitute for cream or half-and-half. Figuring out a compatible crust is harder. The piecrust that I made last Thanksgiving emulated a whole-wheat crust but was crumbly to the point where I felt it belonged on the beach. It tasted like that too. I was about to repeat the mistake this year when, in the midst of baking the apple pie that was to precede Mr. Pumpkin in the oven, E reminded me that I had had aspirations to make a gluten-free gingersnap crust. So she ran out to the only open grocery store and picked up a bag of gluten-free cookies. We tossed together the new crust and pre-baked it, not losing much oven time on a busy day. It wasn’t the prettiest of pies, but it was good, and a good start for future experiments. Next time, I will think ahead and make my own gingersnaps.

As for the pumpkin, I used a good quality organic canned pumpkin puree. The sugar pumpkin that I had on hand would have been watery despite roasting it to concentrate the flavors. The other alternative would have been to roast a cheese pumpkin or sweet potatoes, both of which have more body. That too will wait until next time. The cheese pumpkin on our counter is just too gorgeous to give up.

Gluten-free Dairy-free Pumpkin Pie

1 ½ cups pumpkin puree (1 15 oz can)

½ cup brown sugar or ¾ cup granulated white sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground allspice

¼ tsp ground cloves

Fresh grated nutmeg

1 tsp salt

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (not light)

3 large eggs

1 pre-baked gingersnap piecrust (see below)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Stir the sugar, spices and salt into the pumpkin puree.  Stir the coconut milk thoroughly to eliminate any lumps and combine with the pumpkin. Slightly beat the eggs and add to the puree, until just combined. Pour into the pre-baked and cooled piecrust and bake for approximately 50 minutes.  The edges should be set and the center somewhat jiggly. It will set up as it cools.

Gingersnap Pie Crust

8 oz gingersnaps, or about 30 small cookies, 2 cups when pulverized

2 tbsp white sugar

1/3 cup dairy-free shortening (I used Earth Balance)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulverize the gingersnaps in a food processor, to yield 2 cups. Add sugar and shortening and process until the mixture holds together and is clumpy. Pat the mixture evenly into a 9-inch pie pan and bake for 8-10 minutes until set but not overly brown. Set aside to cool before filling and baking.

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