Healthy Pumpkin Pie with Cream

Ingredients

• 3 eggs.
• 1/4 cup rice malt syrup.
• 1 1/2 cup Pumpkin Purée.
• 3/4 cups cream, plus extra to serve.
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger.
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.
• 1 teaspoon salt.
• 1-2 tablespoon arrowroot.
• grated zest of 1 lemon.

• 60 g butter, melted.
• 2 cups almond or hazelnut meal, or a combination of both, or LSA.
• 1 pinch salt.

Directions

Don’t be impatient when making this one. It’s much better when it’s cooked properly (it should look like a baked custard when you remove it from the oven). Also, be sure to leave it to cool for a good few hours (to allow it to set right). In fact, it’s actually nicer the next day when it has set fully. It also works well frozen and thawed just a little.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. To make the crust, combine the melted butter, nut meal and salt in a 22 cm pie dish and mix well. (I find the crust ‘holds’ better the more you work it, as this releases the oils in the nut meal.) Press the mixture into the bottom and sides of the dish to make a pie crust. If there isn’t quite enough mixture, throw in a bit more of both butter and meal. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes until it just starts to turn golden. Remove from the oven and let cool fully (refrigerate or freeze it if you are short of time).

Cream the eggs and syrup, then blend in the rest of the ingredients until the mixture is the consistency of thin custard. If it’s a bit too runny, add extra arrowroot. Gently pour the filling into the cold crust and bake for 45–55 minutes or until the centre of the pie is ‘set’ (when it starts to crack away from the base a little). Remove from the oven and cool completely before putting in the fridge. Serve with cream.

Tip: instead of the spices, you can use 1 ½ tablespoons of a five-spice mix that includes fennel and mandarin peel. Add an extra dose of ground cinnamon, too.

Note