Late night experimenting

After 5 nights in a row of Billy Blank and Bob Harper workouts, my body just needed a break yesterday! So, I decided to experiment with what I had in the kitchen. I had a go at healthy versions of Lemon cheesecakes with passion-fruit glaze, Chunky banana bread and mini spiced pumpkin pies. I had a plate of these goodies ready for my parents to taste test after dinner! Pumpkin pies were definite winners, Banana bread was good but the cheesecake recipe was not quite right so that one will need improving :(!

SPICED PUMPKIN PIES
I've never been majorly keen on any type of pastry or crust, so next time round I will make this as a sort of baked custard, the filling is sooooo delicious (even my dad, who hates pumpkin, loved this one!).

If you really want a crust, this one is relatively healthier than traditional ones ans tasty, just make it as thin as possible. I used 100% wholewheat flour which I liked but my parents weren't overly keen on, so you could easily mix 50% whole wheat & 50% any other type of flour- cassava, almond, coconut...

Crust

• 25 g coconut oil
• 45 ml non-fat milk
• Cinnamon
• 100 g your choice of mixture of flours
• Pinch of salt

1. Mix all your dry ingredients together, slowly pour in your oil and milk, form a ball and knead till you get a soft dough.
2. (With clean hands!) Press mini balls of the dough into prepared (greased & floured) pie tins to form a thin crust ready for the filling. Place in the freezer or fridge whilst you make your filling.

Filling

• About 200g pumpkin or ready made pumpkin puree
• Any sweetener (sweeten to your liking), I used about 40 g honey
• vanilla (I used extract + pod)
• Lots of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spiced...), taste to your liking
• 10 g cornflour
• 25 g milk 

1. To make the puree, peel, chop and cook your pumpkin in a saucepan with 2 tbsp of water and some cinnamon. Once cooked, puree with a fork or a blender. Dissolve you cornflour in the milk and add in  to the puree along with your other ingredients.
2. Pour your puree into your crust cases and bake as is for 25-30 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius or add on a pecan crumb topping as explained below.

Pecan crumb topping

• 10 g coconut oil
• 25 g  flour (here too I would recommend mixing wholewheat with another type)
• cinnamon
• Half a handful of chopped pecans

1. Mix everything together until it looks like crumbs.
2. Sprinkle on top of the pumpkin filling, Bake at 175 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

Banana bread recipe to be posted soon:)

Xxxx

Print PDF