Time for some friendly one-upmanship :)
Ellie used a can of pumpkin flesh - I used a real pumpkin, which just wanted the insides scooping out, hard skin peeling off and then the flesh cut into chunks, steamed until soft but not slop and mashed.
Recipe?
Well, Ellie's is just fine, but I varied it just a little - I wanted less base and more pie, comparatively, so reduced the figure for the crust, and guessed on the weight of pumpkin since I don't know how much was in a can.
Almond Crust
200g Ground Almonds
60g Salted Butter
Melt the butter and mix into the ground almonds with a fork until fully combined and all the almond flour has touched some of the butter.
Pat into a cake tin, pressing down with a large spoon - I have one of those posh ones with a clip on the side so you can easily remove the ring leaving your cake on the base. I didn't bother going up the sides because of this.
You could blind bake this for maybe 10 minutes at 170C (350F) or just proceed - if you do, the base will be solid, but the inside will merge in with the pumpkin a little.
Pumpkin Filling
400g Pumpkin Flesh
250ml Coconut Milk
3 Eggs
Tablespoon of Local Natural Honey
Teaspoon Allspice
Slosh Vanilla Essence
Simply stir together with a fork.
The pumpkin flesh was still warm, so melted the honey really easily. Cooled with the coconut milk before adding in the eggs so that the eggs did not cook when meeting the warm pumpkin.
Pour into the cake tin and into the oven at 170C (350F) for 45 minutes.
Serve
Out of the oven, sides off, cut a segment and enjoy!
Wow! This is wonderful!
Ellie challenges us to serve with cream, if we dare!
Footnotes, Opinion and Rhetoric
There is an important note here about honey ...
Is it primal? Would something like agave nectar be better?
There is an important note here about honey ...
Is it primal? Would something like agave nectar be better?
Well, I'll link to a few resources and you can make your own mind up:
... and so:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/is-honey-a-safer-sweetener/ ... I tend to think so.
There is also an important note about cream ...
Many ancestral eaters are quite happy with fatty or fermented cream. If you are not tolerant or simply don't want to have dairy as part of your paleo template then don't - that can of coconut milk (400ml) didn't get fully used up, so whisk up the rest and optionally freeze it for a coconut ice cream on the side.
I'm going to take the cream challenge one step further and get some clotted cream today for another slice this evening.
Thanks to Ellie & Gary over Primal Britain - this is a fantastic dessert.
Oh ... are desserts paleo?
Absolutely! Paleo food is paleo food whether sweet or savoury.
I'm not one for emulation of neolithic foods or neolithic ways, but I really do not see an issue with this pie, afterall, it's not like any of our "paleo" food is actually paleo anyway. Our paleolithic ancestors did not eat domesticated meat and gently steamed cultivated vegetables. Just because the animals are left out in fields and on hillsides does not make them wild, nor does organic mean natural; they're all still farmed, which is in itself wholly neolithic.
Whoa! It's a long way down off this soap box and I've not got a head for heights. This guy does, though ...
