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Grain-free Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Macaroon Crust and Cinnamon Vanilla Meringue
Don’t send a Thanksgiving lynching mob after me, but I generally don’t care too much about pies. I am already not a huge dessert person, but if I am going to have a little something sweet, I’d probably always opt for chocolate. Gimme this Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Tart and I’ve got everything I need. But, I am fully aware that pies are part of holiday spreads for a reason, pies go with Thanksgiving like peanut butter to jelly. I am currently also painfully aware of baking’s ability to heal and it’s important role in relieving stress, something I have personally been in great need of since the election. So here we are, with an epic pumpkin pie that will change the minds of even the greatest pie skeptics.
I have always loved the idea of a pumpkin pie, as I am a big fan of pumpkin-spiced everything, but generally I find many pumpkin pies to be just a tad lacking. First, it’s just your standard pie crust, nothing too special there, not a ton of flavor, then the pumpkin filling gets a little spicing and maybe you top it all with a little whipped cream. To me, it just always feels like it’s missing a little something. It lacks a little dessert flair. I also find that when you add adequate spices and a sweetener with some depth, beyond just standard refined white sugar, the color of a finished pumpkin pie just ends up pretty drab. Beigy brown toasted edge crust, a orangey-brown filling. I dunno, I feel like we can do better than this you guys!
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Grain-free Mini Pumpkin Cashew Cheesecakes {Vegan}
For so many of us when there are foods you avoid, either out of necessity or by choice, there are always very specific foods and recipes that you have to just give up longing for. The torture just becomes to much. As someone that generally avoids dairy, in more than very small amounts, I can assure you that the longing feeling I have in my heart for that stretchy pull of good cheese in a homemade mac and cheese or a slice of pizza loaded with the ooey gooey good stuff – those are quite hard to replicate. I am absolutely not a fan of the “faux cheese” alternatives, for so many reasons, mostly because I highly suspect there is very little actual food in there, so I generally just abstain. It’s fine. You just get over it. No really, you do.
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Grain-free S’mores Tart
Every once in a while your friends really surprise you. During the holidays we had the pleasure of having our friends Sean and Ruth, visiting from the U.K., while traveling California celebrating their honeymoon. I learned while they were staying with us that they had never had S’mores before. How is that possible? I guess with our freedom comes amazing treats like s’mores.
So, I did what any good American foodie friend would do, I promptly went to Whole Foods, got some organic graham crackers for all them, the best dark chocolate I could buy and the best marshmallows I could get my hands on. I started a fire in the fireplace and I treated them. Their minds were blown! Since I skipped out on buying store bought processed gluten-free graham crackers for me, I have since been craving some sort of homemade S’mores concoction, to get my fix.
S’mores to me conjure up emotions of childhood, fun and summertime. They bring back family and spending time around the campfire on our big group camping trips. The marshmallows of our childhood, they are scary things. Loaded with corn syrup and chemicals, we always packed the milk chocolate hershey bars, today my foodie snobbery has gotten so intense that as a self-professed chocoholic, if that was the only chocolate in a 50 mile radius, I would pass. What’s a girl to do, but remedy that situation with the best version of a S’mores you ever did see.
The idea for this tart came to me and I instantly thought it would be such a perfect Valentine’s Day Sweet, but to be fair, I just couldn’t wait that long. So here we are. A slightly sweetened spiced graham-inspired grain-free crust, a luscious, rich, super duper dark chocolate layer (I’m talking 85% dark, people) and a lightly toasted, fluffy marshmallow topping! It’s perfection.
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No-Bake Banana Cream Pie – Gluten-free + Vegan
I was very excited when I got an email a few weeks ago from Free People asking if I’d like to be a guest blogger on their popular blog, BLDG 25. I, of course, said yes, and I am a regular lurker of the blog and I really love it. They asked if I would share an exciting recipe for the launch of their newly designed and updated blog, so I knew the perfect recipe to share.
I had been working on a recipe for No-Bake Banana Cream Pie, with a raw nut based crust and a non-dairy filling, so that seemed like the absolute perfect fit. This pie is both gluten-free and vegan and easily made raw, and it is of course absolutely delicious, even without all the sugar, dairy and other yucky stuff. And come on, who doesn’t love pie?
So, go on over to the newly redesigned and updated Free People Blog, BLDG 25, now and check out the recipe for my No-Bake Banana Cream Pie and please take a minute to comment, if you will. There was mentioned of me being an ongoing guest poster, so who knows, there may be more Tasty Yummies on the Free People blog soon enough! Enjoy.
