Tag: Nut Crusts

Low Carb Pumpkin PieTartlettes and the Art of baking

Pumpkin Tartlette
Hand sculpted like a piece of art!

HI Your Fit Day Friends!

I Love Art! It’s no wonder since I grew up with an abundance of art and music in my home; from an opera singer mom to an impressionist painting dad, as well as my brothers, sister and myself playing our various instruments and doing our own crafty things. And during those years I  was drawn to jewelry making, knitting, claymation, ceramics, cooking, tile making,photography, painting t-shirts, terrarium building and landscape gardening, to name just a few!
So of course I would classify myself as the creative type, possibly a diva!

But like most of us life got in the way, and it was hard to keep up with my crafting. And as I got older I found myself not doing much more than making Holiday cards and cookies! Then about 14 years ago, after a tragic event in our family, once again I had this sudden urgent creative itch, which ran deep.

At  first this resulted in the medium of painting;. However, it didn’t take me long to realize I would never be Renoir or Van Gough. I can barley draw a line, let alone a circle. No, I was painting pots. You know, the red clay ones you buy at the garden store.  I bought a few, went to the art store, stocked up on color and started painting away; which only resulted in a bunch of pots in my house that reminded me of my 5th grade art class.  The passion was there but I needed more authenticity in its expression.

It didn’t take me long to realize that I should be building the pots I was going to paint, not buying them. I needed to get down and dirty in some clay; really make something… or attempt to anyway. So I found a ceramics studio in Oakland-near my apartment and conveniently right next door to my pool-signed up for a class, and fell in love with the art of building and molding things out of clay.

After a couple years of this, and a house full of eclectic pieces, I considered myself an artist and was energized by the thought of just going to class. I dreamed about pottery as much as I did about lifting weights!

But then, tragically, the studio closed down for renovation. Unfortunately I couldn’t find another suitable place to do my craft, since they were too expensive or too far a drive. And when the City of Oakland’s Studio One finally did open it’s doors again, in it’s swanky new building, the price for a session had nearly tripled. While my tax dollars had supported the building of a new art studio my budget was unable to support taking a class. So my art fell to the wayside.

Well, kind of. Fitness has allowed me to sculpt not only my own body but those of 100’s of others’. But with my recent two surgeries, one on my hip in October of 2011, and another on my shoulder in May 2012, it’s been hard training clients, do art, or even garden (and won’t be able to garden for several months). But that craving to create has never ceased. And it’s getting stronger.

Fast forward 12 years later

My passion for creativity has surfaced again and it’s like a tsunami! But now I have found a new art medium:  the art of baking. And so here we are, at my fitness blog, drooling over pumpkins, pies and nutty crusts, and who knows what else that lies ahead!

What I really love about baking is that, just like working with clay, I can dream up anything; and using all my senses I can bring it to life. My hands now work again as they did with clay: I mold and shape the dough,  I mix the ingredients into batter, and  I fire, or now bake, what was once raw. And just as I did with my clay pieces, I hope my baked ‘piece’ turns out as intended. Sometimes it doesn’t because ovens, as with kilns, can be testy and temperamental,  having their own intentions. And sometimes I end up with a flop! But who cares. I love the whimsy of both: art and baking.

So making my pumpkin pie tartlettes brought me back in time… to the old Studio One ceramics class.  There you would find me one with the clay, transformed with intent, immersed in another world, throwing, plying and molding the mound with my hands; and bringing to life the various shapes and beings that I had no idea could come forth from the tips of my fingers. Just as it was with clay I now find myself in my closet kitchen-my culinary studio-hovered over my counter top doing the same.

Today I’m working with ground nuts, like I did with clay, and molding the delicate meal into a vessel that holds my leftover pumpkin pie batter, which is then baked into the mini, sweet, aromatic pumpkin pies. And let’s be honest, it’s a lot easier to lick your hands when they’re filled with ground nuts than it is if they’re yucked up with mud.

These spicy tartletes are 1/5th of the leftovers from my Perfect Paleo Pumpkin Pie. But you can make and use the entire batter which will yield about 26 mini pies.

I also did a new take on my Nutty Crust and Pumpkin Pie Batter, using more spices. Hope you like it. Let me know in the comments!

Low Carb Pumpkin Pie Tartlettes
 
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A creamy rich mini pumpkin pie, with a spiced, slightly salty crust, that I make from the leftovers of my Perfect Paleo Pumpkin Pie.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 Cup Leftover pumpkin pie batter from Perfect Paleo Pumpkin Pie or 1 cup or your own leftover pumpkin pie batter.. Or the entire batter if you want to make 26 tartlettes.
Pumpkin Pie Batter
  • 2 cups pumpkin, mashed ( I use real sugar pumpkins, not canned. If you use canned pumpkin use 1 15oz can but results will vary)
  • 3 large eggs
  • ¼ cups Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
  • 1 can (15 oz) coconut milk, canned, full fat
  • 1 teaspoon liquid stevia - vanilla cream flavored
  • 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract (Use 1 more tbsp if no Vanilla cream stevia)
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground
  • ½ teaspoons nutmeg (adjust to taste)
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger (adjust to taste)
Nut Crust
  • ½ cup, whole almonds, raw
  • ⅔ cup, ground hazelnuts, ground
  • ⅓ cup Finely ground, blanched almonds
  • 1 tablespoon walnut halves, roughly chopped (OPTIONAL, as these were all I had left so I used them!)
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil metled
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoons fresh ground sea salt
Instructions
Crust
  1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F
  2. Line 6 muffin tins with liners (you will have approx. 6 tbsp of crust batter left over, which you can make into shells for something else!)
  3. Combine all ingredients into food processor or blender. Pulse or grind til combined and meal sticks together in small beads. Make sure to stop before nuts have become butter.
  4. Using 3 Tbsp of nut batter per muffin liner gently mold into liner making sure entire cup is covered in nut batter. Make sides are thicker than bottom and batter goes to top rim of liner.
  5. Bake at 350 for approx 10 minutes
  6. Let cool 10 minutes before filling
  7. Make pie batter while waiting for crusts to bake (If not using leftovers, of course)
  8. Be careful not to eat the pie batter while waiting, it tastes that yummy!
Batter
  1. If using frozen leftover batter bring to room temperature and set aside and proceed to CRUST direction.
  2. If using your own batter results may vary as well as nutritional information. I highly suggest making my lovely Pie batter.
  3. In a blender or food processor add pumpkin, eggs, spices. Blend until combined. Slowly add coconut milk and continue blending until combined. Recipe makes 5 cups of batter. Approximately 1 cup of batter makes 6 tartlettes.
  4. Gently add Approx 3 Tbsp of pumpkin batter into each of the nut crust lined muffin tins.
  5. Bake for 18-25 minutes or until center of tartlettes are firm.
  6. Check at 20 minutes and pull out of oven before tops of tartlettes turn brown
  7. It's smelling really good right now!
  8. Let cool 5 minutes
  9. Keeping the tartlettes in the liners, remove from tins and place in open Tupperware container.
  10. Place in refrigerator to set for an hour, and keep your hands off!
  11. Store loosely covered in fridge. Will keep for about a week, if they last that long uneaten!
Notes
The entire batter will make approximately 26 tartlettes. You will need to triple the Nut Crust recipe.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 6 Calories: 201 Fat: 20 Carbohydrates: 7 Sodium: 133 Fiber: 2.8 Protein: 6.65

Pumpkin Tartlettes

Gluten Free Pumpkin Tartlette

Low Carb Nutty Pie Crust

HI Your Fit Day Friends!

Paleo Pie Crust
This is basically a big nut cookie!

I’d been pondering a while on what would be the best low carb pie crust for my first pumpkin pie – while also being suitable for Ultra Low Carb meals, including the Carbnite Solution Diet Plan and Carb Backloading program.

Since giving up grains about 15 years ago, my Mom’s sweet, light and flaky, cinnamon-y pastry flour pie crust was no longer an option. I remember helping her in the kitchen, learning how to roll out the dough and laying the dough dipped pin over the pie plate. But the best part of pie making for me was collecting the falling waves of cut and crimped dough into my powdery hands, dousing them with cinnamon and sugar, and baking them until tender and flaky into my ‘pie crisp cookies’. They were little drops of buttery flakes that melted on my tongue like snowflakes. But my tummy, digestion and skin are so much better for giving up gluten and grains ( I do eat rice on my Carbnite!).

So my quest was to make a crust that was as alluring as a traditional one, which would also pleasing to the Paleo pallete!

To stay gluten free and low carb, coconut flour was certainly option.  But I decided I wanted to make this crust with nuts only. To bind it together I would need a fat. Yum yum, fat!

My options were butter, lard, coconut oil…and maybe some of DebbyK’s coconut butter. Well, since I don’t eat dairy butter was not really an option for this crust (but don’t let me stop your grass fed butter dipping addictions!).

And straight lard in a nut crust just didn’t seem appealing to me with pumpkin pie.

I thought coconut butter, since it’s so thick, might seize up and make the nuts harder to spread, which would result in using a lot more coconut butter – quite possibly my entire jar. And truth be told I’d rather eat DebbyK’s Coconut Butter straight out of the jar than dump most of the jar into my pie crust. I confess, I’m an addict.  Although, I do intend to try using the coconut butter in my next pie crust, so stay tuned!

Since this was my first pie crust I hopped to the web to get some inspirations and see what others, who are gluten free and primarily primal, had cooked up. Although the tart crust from Elenas Pantry was inspiring and looked tasty, I decided to exclude the egg, make it a nut medley, and throw in all the nuts I had in my fridge instead of using only almond flour.

The first crust I ended up with (without cinnamon because I forgot to add it in-oops!) sent wafts of sweet nuttiness through my small apartment. It was so hard not to eat it up right then. But I was thinking of you, so I didn’t. Which was the right thing to do, because if I had eaten that crust/cookie I’d be stuck without a crust for my Perfect Paleo Pumpkin Pie, which I hope you are making right now for Thanksgiving. And when I added the cinnamon in a second testing the crust came out even better: sweet nuttiness! That’s the one you’ll find below.

Really I could eat this pie crust alone as a giant cookie it, tastes that yummy!

As a side: I got even more creative with another crust for my tartlettes which I made from the leftover pie batter, and I added in 1/2 tsp ginger as well. Feel free to add a 1/4 tsp to the recipe below if you wish, and maybe even 1/4  tsp of nutmeg to marry the crust and pie together even more. If you do, let me know how it comes out.

Anyway, you’ll get to taste the tartlettes soon enough!

Here is my Low Carb Nutty Crust:

Nutty Pie Crust
 
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A sweet nutty crust that tastes just as good as a giant cookie!!
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American/Paleo
Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • 1 Cup walnuts
  • ½ Cup almonds
  • ½ Cup almond flour (blanched)
  • ½ Cup hazelnut flour
  • 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2 Tsp cinnamon
  • Optional:
  • ½ tsp ginger
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
Instructions
  1. In a blender or food processor ( I only have a blender) add all pie crust ingredients.
  2. Pulse until nuts start to get crumbly. Be careful as to not allow nuts to start forming a butter.
  3. Continue to pulse until mixture forms a crumbly meal and comes together when pinched. Make sure you don't grind too much, you don't want nut nut butter! Stop to scrape down sides as needed.
  4. Scrape out into mound in center of pie pan or dish
  5. Starting from middle work the pie crust out and up sides of pie tin. This part of pie making reminds me of hand building a bowl or plate out of clay! Allow for thicker crust up the sides. Bottom can be thinner.
  6. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until it just starts to brown. Do not over bake!
  7. Remove and let completely cool before filling
  8. Pie crust can be made day ahead and stored in refrigerator
  9. To keep carb count low I slice my pies into 16ths.
  10. Feel free to make this 8 servings but account for your daily net carbs.
  11. Remember: If this crust is for a pie stay focused, think PIE, and Do Not eat this as a cookie!
Notes
This crust has been known to disguise itself as a cookie, so beware! It's highly addicting. It can also be used as a crumble for muffin and cake toppings. Be creative!!
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1/16 Calories: 125 Fat: 12 Saturated fat: 2 Carbohydrates: 3 Sodium: 38 Fiber: 1.63 Protein: 3

Paleo Pie Crust
This is basically a big nut cookie!