Thursday Recipes - Pumpkin Pie with GF Crust

I've gone gluten-free. Yes, I know... For those of you who know me, this must be a shock. I've always been bread-girl. I was such a fussy eater as a kid that I would often find myself eating just the bread portions of a meal (rolls, tortillas, pizza crust) and turning my nose up at the other parts. I was that kid who often had a ball of white bread wadded up in her fist at the lunch table. I didn't just like bread, I liked squishy, white bread.

I also normally bake glutinous foods like a crazy person, especially when I'm stressed. There's an episode of Grey's Anatomy where Izzie, one of the main characters, has a breakdown. Her roommates know she's losing it because every inch of counter space is covered with muffins, and she's still making more. That's not far from how I usually act during finals week... There are brownies and cupcakes and cookies and breads on every available inch of kitchen space. Daryl finally made me promise to start giving the stuff away so we didn't turn into human blimps.

Anyway, when I visited Daryl in Nashville back in August, I decided to go gluten-free for a couple of weeks. The point in this was more practical than experimental - one of the friends he is living with has celiac, and gets really sick if she eats gluten. Since she and her husband are being incredibly kind and gracious in giving Daryl a place to crash for the year (hi, Ted and Heather!), the last thing I wanted to do was accidentally poison her with stray cookie crumbs. So I just avoided it entirely. It's amazing the amount of fresh fruits and veggies I found myself eating when cinnamon rolls were no longer an option...

And something crazy happened. I felt great. I've always had minor stomach troubles. Nothing truly terrible, but bad enough that I have always felt lethargic and crampy after eating. Enough to send me to a couple of doctors over the past three years, both of whom proclaimed it stress. I got a lot of fairly worthless advice, from "do yoga" to "eat more whole wheat" to "try to cut stress out of your life" to solve the digestive troubles. Um... okay... when I'm a full-time graduate student who needs to hold down a couple of part-time jobs to put food on the table, how exactly should I eliminate stress? Also, eating whole wheat made me feel terrible. So nyet to that.

But being a bit obtuse, I thought I felt better because I finally had time to rest for the first time in months, not because I had given up gluten for a time. My ordination exams were over, I was sleeping in most days, and I had little work to do for the first time in over a year. So when I got back to Jersey, I went back to my usual diet (bagels for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, pizza for dinner, etc., etc., etc.). And again, I felt terrible. "Hmmm..." I thought.

So I went back to being totally gluten-free in early September, and I've avoided it since (except for a few meals at friends houses where I indulged... and then immediately regretted it). I'm going to get myself tested for celiac and other complications in the coming months. I'm praying I just have gluten sensitivity and not anything more serious.

In the meantime, I've discovered the fun of gluten-free cooking. There are loads of good products and recipes out there, and for those of you who are interested in giving it a try, I thought I'd post a recipe I've tried and liked each week on Thursday. Today's is a new one - the finished product is currently cooling on a wire rack in our tiny kitchen. It looks delicious, and I'm hopeful that it will be. If not, expect this post to disappear tomorrow...

For today, in honor of Thanksgiving, I give you: Pumpkin Pie with GF Crust

GF Crust:

• 1-1/2 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix (This stuff is pricey but great - it eliminates all the random types of flours and xantham gum you have to mix to get a normal-ish gluten-free flour mixture, and it can be used to make everything from pancakes to cornbread to brownies. Most bigger grocery stores have started to stock it, but you can also find it here.)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/4 cup ice water

Yield: one, 9-inch pie crust

1. Combine the baking mix and sugar in a bowl.

2. Cut butter into flour mixture with two knives until butter is in very small pieces.

3. Add oil, then ice water, slowly until dough comes together, not sticky. You may not need all of the water.

4. Press dough into pan with fingers, the thinner the better. (Rolling it out is much too tricky, as it doesn't stick together like normal crust will.)

Pumpkin pie filling (naturally gluten-free!):

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.
3. Bake for 15 minutes. If you're using the crust above, cover the edges of the crust with tinfoil or it will burn.
   
4. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. 

* You can also substitute 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice for all of the spices in the pie filling (especially if you are a financially strapped student who doesn't want to buy several $6 jars of spices... ).

Yum. Pie. And no tummy aches, to boot!