Brian’s Pumpkin Cheese Pie

For a couple years now I have been perfecting a version of the classic pumpkin pie recipe (the Libby’s label recipe) mashed up with an Adkin’s diet cheese cake recipe.  With some personal tweaks.

The result has been a really good pumpkin “cheese pie” recipe.  I call it a cheese pie because it is really not even close to a cheesecake.  Cheesecake is best made in Brooklyn at Junior’s.

Since the family has gone gluten free – having a crust-less pumpkin pie recipe has been a very natural thing.  We have been literally making this for a few years now, long before we went gluten free.

Oh, and I like to go heavy on the spices.  Primarily because of the cheese that is added.  I also cut back on the evaporated milk so it does not get too wet.

the ingredients (for 2 - 9inch or 3 - 8inch pies):

• 1 cup sugar (I use raw or turbano)
• 2 tsp (heaping) ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp (heaping) ground ginger
• 1 tsp (heaping) ground cloves
• 5 eggs
• 1 29oz can pumpkin (I have always preferred Libby’s)
• 1 can Evaporated milk
• 16oz Ricotta cheese

I use a stand mixer, but I am sure anything can be used as long as things are combined thoroughly.

Heat the oven to 425

Cream the sugar and eggs together.

I then add the spices to make sure the are combined thoroughly through the mix.

Add the pumpkin.  Mix it in.

Add the ricotta

Add the evaporated milk

make sure everything is well combined

spray the pans with non-stick spray.

pour the mix into the pans.

Place the pies in the oven and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes

reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 60 minutes (you will have to watch here, it might be a bit less or more)

Allow the pies to cool and enjoy!

You can always tune the spices to your personal preferences.

gluten free banana bread

This is a recipe that I cannot take direct credit for.  It is my adaptation of a banana bread recipe by Alton Brown that another was so gracious as to transcribe with the proper weights.

Why is weight important?  I have slowly caught on to the tip that you can tweak and play with conventional recipes and gluten free flours as long as you have weight (not volume (aka cups)) measurements for the dry ingredients.  This has been a great discovery for us.  Unfortunately, finding recipes that have weights is very difficult.

Personally, I have tweaked the flours to our likings.  I also add extra banana (I always have done this to banana bread) and I am currently leaving out the nuts (that is why I have the almond flour).

BANANA BREAD - ALTON BROWN STYLE:

WET WORKS 1

Overripe bananas - 340 g (3 - 4)

Sugar - 210 g  (~1 cup)

DRY GOODS

Sorghum Flour - 200 g

Almond Flour - 55 g

Baking Soda - 6 g (1 tsp)

Salt - 6 g (1 tsp)

WET WORKS 2

Unsalted Butter - 113 g (1 stick) melted but not warm

Eggs - 2 large

Almond Extract - 6 g (1 tsp)

THE OPTIONS

Nuts (walnuts,pecans, or almonds)1 cup chopped

Preheat oven to 350FGrease a loaf pan.

Combine the bananas and sugar and mix until smooth.

Combine the WET WORKS 1 and the WET WORKS 2 in separate bowls, then combine them together. Combine the DRY GOODS with the WET WORKS

If using THE OPTIONS then fold them into the batter now.

Pour batter into the pan. Bake for 50 minutes - 1 hour or until center registers 210F and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean (I find it generally takes an additional 10 - 15 minutes).

Allow to cool on stove top for 15 minutes then remove from pan and transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before slicing.