Baby Sister Coming to Dinner

My youngest sister, who is my "baby" no matter her age, is coming to dinner tomorrow night. I had to bake her favorite pie, pumpkin and her favorite shortbread cookies. I rarely bake in the summer, and even more rarely in July. Both of my sisters' birthdays are in August, so baking in summer can sometimes not be avoided.

I love using natural brown waxed paper to roll out a pie crust and always use parchment paper for baking cookies as it is fast.

I have little time as it may get hot today, but it is cool at the moment. I use the oven for multiple tasks on days like today!

I made a whole wheat pie crust with white whole wheat flour, photos included.

Some of the cookies are a bit overbaked for shortbread cookies, but we like our cookies to at least have a bit of a brownish area on the outside. These cookies are very, very, delicate.

Here is how I made the pie crust, I roll it on the brown waxed paper and move the paper over the
pie pan and deposit it on the glass pie pan. Using a scissors, I cut any extra and paste it if needed.
I pricked one pie crust with a fork but not the other, and do not see much difference in the pre-baking process. Since we dislike 'soggy" crusts, I bake the crust for about 10 minutes before adding the pumpkin filling.

For the cookies, I mixed the dough and placed it in the refrigerator while the pies were baking.

Here are the photos, my Mom made the most beautiful cookies, I rarely make a decent one!

I rolled the dough in long tubes and rolled into the wonderful brown waxed paper and refrigerated longer as my pies are in the oven. I have a double oven, but only use the top and try to put several items in it to bake, if I am going to bake!

I unrolled two of the rolls and froze the third one without the wax paper, and placed in a freezer bag in my freezer for another cold morning when we have company, as these butter cookies are NOT in our diet. I baked the cookies in two rows in my oven.

Here are the baked pies and cookies, now the problem is I am not to eat this until my sister comes over tomorrow. Guess, I better get a cup of coffee, sit on my porch, and dream about them as the smell is incredible, or get back to one of my "volunteer" projects!

Oh, and the dishes, luckily I put them in my really deep sink, so I do not see them, but here they are as no munchkins live in this house to clean up my kitchen!

Gluten-Free Crustless Pumpkin Pie

I have been making crust-less pumpkin pie for so long, I have forgotten that many eat it with a crust!

The pie pan might not look very good, but believe me, every drop of that delicious pumpkin will be cleaned off the plate!

We love our pumpkin pie, always make two at a time exactly the same way as if it had a crust. When we have a "real" pumpkin pie pumpkin, I bake the pumpkin whole in the oven and mash it before freezing. I have found that baking the whole pumpkin is easier than trying to cut up the hard flesh and cooking it in water, which can add too much moisture to my pumpkin puree!

The easiest way to make the pumpkin pie, so that it tastes the freshest and has that heavenly smoothness, is to use Libby's pumpkin and add one's own fresh ingredients including cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, the usual 4 whole eggs, sugar and canned milk. If I do not mind losing the pumpkin flavor, I substitute  1-2 very sweet, ripe, mashed bananas (turned into a white puree in my Ninja) instead of the granulated sugar. If not using bananas as a sweetener, I usually use only 1/2 cup of sugar and two small packets of a sweetener containing stevia. Sometimes I skip the stevia and only use the 1/2 cup sugar.

We do not like the pie when the only sweetener is stevia, but at least a bit of granulated sugar plus the stevia seems to taste the best to us. Per the mashed banana, no other sweetener is needed. The banana works as granulated sugar, granulated sugar counting as a "liquid" in baked goods.

From Halloween, to any holiday, or just for a snack, we love our crust-less pumpkin pie. For special occasions, I make a homemade crust or pull one of my homemade frozen crusts out of the freezer, defrost, roll out, and place into the pie shell for a more traditional pumpkin pie. I like the recipe on the Libby's can of pumpkin the best, but all egg whites work, as does nonfat canned milk, almond, or rice milk. We do not miss the crust and think we are reducing the calories of the pie, although, I must admit, it disappears faster than a pie backed with a wonderful crust!

For the best pie, I like the recipe on the label, but be sure to cut down on the sugar depending on how sweet your family likes pumpkin pie. We can easily become used to using less granulated sugar. I would make a pie and decrease the sugar each time until I came down to about 1/2 cup. We like our pumpkin pie less sweet as it tastes more like delicious homemade pie. The wonderful pumpkin does not need all the sugar suggested, however, the pie does need some sweetness!

                                                

Muffin Mixes and Others

My nephew has 30 food allergies. My sister discovered that she can use certain muffin mixes by adding water and oil to the mix, instead of the required egg and/or milk, and the muffins come out wonderful.

My nephew is allergic to soy, rice, almond milk, cow's milk, eggs, nuts, etc.

My husband is allergic to dairy products. He is not allergic to nuts or soy. Almond or rice milk works fine added to store bought baking mix products. To date I have tried brownies, blueberry muffins, and layer cakes. I also substitute almond milk for some of the oil required in the recipe per his diet. If the brownie recipe is too sweet, such as some of the fat-free mixes, I add 1/2 cup flour and a bit more liquid for a less sweet baked brownie.

I wonder how pumpkin pie will turn out using almond milk instead of the milk suggested on the canned pumpkin? Check back to find out!