Gluten Free Sweet Potato Torte and Raspberry Cream Pie

annie1992

8 years ago

I didn't take pictures of Thanksgiving dinner, as usual, I got busy trying to get everything on the table and served while still warm. I did get some pictures of the appetizers, which included Pimento Cheese, a cream cheese and salsa dip, home canned pickles and olives, crackers and chips, as well as deviled eggs:

Madi and Maci busied themselves making Thanksgiving placemats for everyone. My favorite had an elephant in the pine trees. Why? Because elephants are cool. Yeah, how do you argue with that, LOL

Although we had turkey and two kinds of dressing and green beans with bacon and chipotle mashed sweet potatoes and sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and homemade rolls and fruit salad, you'll have to trust me on that, because I didn't take a single picture. I made Nancy's gluten free dinner rolls and forgot to put them on the table for Amanda, but she just took them home with some turkey and said she'd be having turkey sandwiches later, so they were not wasted.

I got pictures of the desserts, though. I made a Raspberry Cream Pie for my mother, with the raspberries that I spent all summer picking and freezing, one cup at a time. She loved it, I thought it needed a layer of dark chocolate in there somewhere....

As I've mentioned, my oldest daughter is both celiac and lactose intolerant. I had a "Gluten Free Holidays" magazine lying on the counter a few weeks ago and told her to pick out a dessert. She chose a gluten free Sweet Potato Torte, made with coconut milk. As always, the directions said to roll the crust. It's nearly impossible to roll any gluten free crust I've ever made, so I ended up pressing it into the springform pan, then adding the filling. I'd cooked the sweet potatoes the night before so I could make the casserole and the chipotle mashed sweet potatoes, so I just beat the sweet potatoes up with the mixer until they were smooth. The torte was actually delicious, and no one could tell the crust was gluten free, I was very impressed with it. I think I'd even bake the filling without the crust, it would make a wonderful custard too.

Now I'm already on to my Christmas baking! How did everyone else survive their Thanksgiving?

Annie

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annie1992
Original Author

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

Thanks, Colleen, I'll remember that. I usually remove the dessert from the pan, but Amanda cut this before I could even put it on a cake plate, my Mother wanted a piece with her coffee before dinner, as an "appetizer". She's 82 and she's my Mother, so we cut it, LOL, and after that, it was all downhill. (grin) Fortunately my family is very "laid back" about such things, so no one really cared. Except me, because I'd climbed that stupid step stool to get the cake plate down from the top shelf and then I didn't need it! I plopped the torte onto it anyway, I WAS going to use the darned thing.

Shambo, the torte does call for eggs in both the filling and the crust, but I think the flax "egg" might be an OK substitute, because the sweet potatoes have a texture that's dense enough to keep shape. I haven't tried it, but I see no reason why it can't work...

OK, the recipe. I did use fresh sweet potatoes, but I boiled them in lieu of roasting them as the recipe instructs, because I needed whipped sweet potatoes for the chipotle mashed sweets and I just didn't want to cook separate batches. I used coconut milk and the gluten free flour mix from King Arthur. I found the crust troublesome to roll, but it pressed easily into the springform pan and I flattened it with the bottom and sides of my metal measure cup. I used my food processor for the crust, but it could easily be done with a pastry cutter and a bowl.

Sweet Potato Torte

DOUGH:

1 cup gluten free all purpose flour blend

2 tbls tapioca starch/flour

3 tbls brown sugar (omit for a savory crust)

6 tbls unsalted butter or a dairy free alternative

1 large egg

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbls ice water (more if needed)

Preheat oven to 375F and light grease a 9 inch pie plate or springform pan. IN a food processor mix gluten free flour blend, tapioca, brown sugar and salt, pulse to blend. Add butter and pulse to make a coarse meal. Add egg and ice water and mix just until mixture forms a ball. Flatten dough into a 6 inch disc between 2 sheets of parchment paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour. Roll out to fit pan, fill and bake as recipe requires.

FILLING:

2 1/2 lbs. sweet potatoes (about 3 medium)

1 3/4 cups of unsweetened coconut milk or unsweetened milk of choice + 1/4 cup of honey (or 2 fourteen ounce cans sweetened condensed milk)

6 tbls unsalted butter or dairy free alternative, melted

2 large eggs

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground nutmeg

3/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F. Place sweet potatoes in oven and bake 50 to 55 minutes, until tender. Cut in half and scrape potatoes out of their skins into a bowl. With a hand mixer (I used the Kitchen Aid instead) beat potatoes until smooth. Add all additional ingredients to potatoes and mix until well combined. Roll or press dough into a 9 inch or larger springform pan, pressing up the sides 1 to 1 1/2 inch. If dough cracks, repair with dampened fingers. Add filling and bake until center is set and sides start to brown, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool before slicing and serve at room temperature.

Now, for the raspberry pie, that was very easy compared to the torte, the gluten free baking requires pretty much everything from scratch and careful cleanup so as not to contaminate what I just baked. My raspberry pie used the Nathan's Never Fail crust that SharonCB posted, and raspberries from the garden. I thickened the berries with cornstarch and didn't think they were thick enough, so added extra. Next time I think I'll stick with the original amount because the raspberry filling was pretty firm. And I still think it needs a layer of chocolate in there somewhere, maybe on the bottom of the crust under the cream cheese layer. The recipe called for a graham cracker crust, I used a pie shell but a chocolate crust might be good too. This is pretty quick and easy, although I used whipped cream instead of Cool Whip and it went pretty flat, I think the Cool Whip would have held up better, it seems sturdier...

Raspberry Cream Pie

TOPPING:

6 cups fresh raspberries, divided

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

3 tbls cornstarch

CREAM FILLING

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese

1 cup whipped topping

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 prepared crust (9 inches)

Fresh mint for garnish if desired

Mash about 2 cups raspberries to measure 1 cup, place in saucepan. Add sugar, cornstarch and water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir 2 minutes longer and strain to remove seeds if desired (I didn't). Cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, beat cream cheese and sugar in a bowl, mix in whipped cream or topping. Spread in bottom of crust, top with remaining berries. Pour cooled raspberry sauce over top and refrigerate until set, about 3 hours. Garnish with mint if desired.

The mint would have been pretty but there's none in my yard in Michigan in late November!

Annie

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Comments (14)

lizbeth-gardener
8 years ago
Recipes, please!!
basilcook3
8 years ago
Wow!! Yum!! Please share the recipe to the sweet potato torte. It looks delicious, and I have yet to find a good GF torte recipe!
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Another vote for Udi's bread. It looks and tastes like the real thing. Who knew heaven could be found in a grilled cheese sandwich? LOL I tried Redbridge beer and hated it. My reaction was "ugh, why bother?" but you need to know that I love dark, rich beers. Give me a Black Butte Porter or one of my hubby's homemade chocolate porters (made with real chocolate, yummm) any day. Redbridge reminded me of lite beer. Not even close for me. I have 5 beers left of the 6-pack I tried so I'll give it a go in a recipe and hope for the best. I guess it's a good thing that I'm more a fan of wine than beer. My restaurant experience has been hit and miss with no rhyme or reason regarding my success getting GF meals. The worker at Chipotle Grill put down a fresh paper wrapper on the counter before making my corn tacos. He did it without my asking, which was simply amazing to me. My catered meal courtesy of Wolfgang Puck's in Dallas included green beans laced with soy sauce. The staff had been alerted to my GF status, I also talked to my waitress before the meal was brought to me and yet, I still received a non-GF meal. The staff apparently were clueless that soy sauce contains wheat. D'uh. Thankfully, I hadn't eaten much of the meal before I realized this screw-up and my reaction was mild (I am GF intolerant, not celiac) but several of my fellow GF-diners became quite ill. Oh, yeah, we voiced our grievance with the manager. Stupid, stupid mistake. I had the most trouble while attending a symposium in September (the banquet meal was part of the same symposium). There is a basic misunderstanding of what GF means, add in language barriers and oh, wow, the fun starts. The servers at breakfast tried multiple times to bring me French toast or crepes - the vegetarian meal - instead of my GF meal. For 2 of the 3 mornings, they served me scrambled eggs and bacon. The last morning, they served me 3 slices of bacon and steamed broccoli! Oh, yum, I love me some bacon and broccoli in the morning. Why? Turns out someone finally realized that the egg mixture they use contains flour (to thicken it). My server took pity on me and brought me 2 fried eggs. At least I finally had the answer for why my stomach had been so upset. Our organization's rep told me that caterers don't need to fulfill food allergy requests. They only need to meet ADA requirements. I'm not sure if this is correct information (it astounds me that they would not want to meet food allergy requests, wouldn't that be a liability issue?) but the lesson I took away is to always, always, always carry GF snacks wherever I go, to request a fridge for my room (cost might be waived for us GF sufferers) and to question everything multiple times. Oh, and never, never, never eat scrambled eggs at a convention again. The hardest thing for me has been discovering the hidden sources of gluten. I was crushed the day I realized that red licorice has wheat in it. :-(
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shambo
8 years ago
Annie, my two oldest granddaughters are gluten free, dairy free, and egg free. Did the torte have eggs in it? It's really hard coming up with dishes that meet those stringent requirements.
colleenoz
8 years ago
Looks good! Here's a tip for you and everyone else looking here- if you turn the base of your springform pan the other way up so it's totally flat all the way across, when you take the sides down you can slip a palette knife under the pastry and slide the whole thing off onto a serving plate if you wish :-)
colleenoz
8 years ago
With the base flat side up it takes seconds to slide it off onto the plate, so next time you should be able to forestall Amanda and use your pretty plate :-)
annie1992
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Well, yes, Colleen, if they had involved me BEFORE they cut the thing, LOL. Mother said "cut it" and Amanda said something that resembled "Yes, Grandma". Just like that, the deed was done. (grin) Then, when I went to place the torte on the cake stand and decorate it with sugared cranberries, well, it looked like the picture above. I ate the cranberries...

I try to make it all pretty for pictures, but my family just wants to eat it, they don't care about pictures at all!

Annie
sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)
8 years ago
Raspberries, haha. Yes, just about everyday I went out with a one cup glass pyrex container before sunset. Clear so they didn't get lost in the fridge, have some for breakfast, rest into the freezer bag with all the other 1/4 cups. Amazing how expensive they are at the market and always seem to be going soft or moldy.

I always like some dark chocolate chunks tucked up against the crust edge all around. When I remember. I forgot with the pecan pie but jammed some in before I reheated while we were eating.

Torte looks good. I would like that one. Where is the 1-2 extra cups of sugar I always see in recipes. Way too much sugar for me usually. I had a sliver of sweet potato cheesecake at work that was better than most I've had.

DH is the pie crust and all around baker but has been working 7days a week, 12 hrs since Sept, so I made the pie crusts. Disaster. I just needed 3 bottom crusts so I used one on a pot-pie type casserole a few weeks ago. It was good to find out early on that I made 'hippie crust'. The bag said 'all purpose', but I missed the 'whole wheat' part.

The other 'fail' was breaking my 4 cup pyrex and DH dropped my 'ye olde' casserole. The white pyrex one. Zwilling had a two pack ceramic, sm and lg, for 19$ but all sold out early cyber Monday before I could decide or even check reviews.

I did make the best cornbread ever from a vintage cookbook I copied down when in the NYPublic library last Spring.

The best was snip-your-own-salad and micro herb 'tasting', : ).

After we cleared the table, and before desert, I brought out all six trays down the middle of the table...hilarious actually. Cleansing, lol. Timing was perfect. 17 days from seed. Trial run for Christmas. My sister, from Miami, should make it home and she is a big plant eater. After losing power for two weeks, then she went to MexicoCity to help, then 6 weeks in PuertoRico with a trauma unit, now back to help with water filtration...it will be a nice gift for her...fresh cut veg.
annie1992
Original Author
8 years ago
sleevendog, that just looks beautifully green. Right now the only green herbs I have is the curry plant, it's still perking along, as well as sage and oregano, those I pick out of the snow. Even the rosemary has given up and gone brown, but I have a row of collards still green in the garden.]

The torte is not overly sweet but more sweetener could be added if someone wanted it. When we added sweetened whipped cream, it didn't need more. The sweet potatoes were already very sweet, much more sweet than pumpkin or squash, so we didn't feel the necessity for more sweetener. Of course, your taste and sweet potatoes could vary, so taste for sweetener and adjust as you prefer.

Annie
lizbeth-gardener
8 years ago
Annie; You say we could make the torte sweeter, but could we use less than the 1/2 cup (maple syrup & honey) or does it need it?
annie1992
Original Author
8 years ago
lizbeth, if your sweet potatoes are sweet enough for your tastes, I think you could cut the sweetener without jeopardizing the custard. Truthfully, I thought it was plenty sweet enough if I added the sweetened whipped cream after baking. I loved the maple syrup flavor (mine was very dark and local, so strongly maple) and so would not have compromised that, but it depends on your taste, of course.

I think if you're going to mess with the liquid sweeteners in this, I'd keep the eggs. I don't think you can remove the gluten, remove the eggs, remove the dairy and remove the sweetener and still have an agreeable product with this recipe, I think it's going to affect the texture and the sweet potatoes won't be able to save it, it's going to be mushy instead of firm and creamy. Then again, maybe not, the sweet potatoes might be able to hold up on their own.

Geez, I'm starting to sound like one of those recipe reviews where they change everything, LOL.

Annie
lizbeth-gardener
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Thanks, Annie. I was not wanting to remove eggs or anything else. I just wondered if much sweetener is needed. We quite often microwave/bake sweet potatoes and eat with nothing but a bit of butter and pepper and they are sweet enough. I wasn't sure if removing the sweetener would change the texture/firmness of the torte. I may just try with only maple syrup and no honey.
sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)
8 years ago
I've not had trouble using less or no sugar, (white), in any dessert. 1/4 cup maple syrup is all I will use. Liquid replacing gets tricky. I don't like or use cinnamon so that is easy to leave out. A bit of powdered ginger maybe. I also have powdered lemon and lime peel I find adds a nice zip. I do like me some nutmeg.

This one got my attention...sp chesecake

Leaving out a full cup of sugar and using a 1/4 cup maple syrup might be trouble, lol. I'll just research a dozen other low sugar type similar and wing it. Maybe a touched creme brûlée topping. Love what maple syrup bring to the party.

I don't mind any changing of recipes. Just the kooks that have to comment and never come close to the original by substituting, then complain. Those that replace for likes and dislikes are often helpful when they give raves.
annie1992
Original Author
8 years ago
lizbeth, I didn't think you wanted to remove everything, but Shambo said she needed egg, dairy AND gluten free. If she does that and removes some of the liquid sweetener, I'm not sure how that's going to go. Mine was dairy and gluten free at least, and pretty low in sweetener.

sleevendog, I kind of wondered what meringue would do to that torte, since eggs are not an issue for us...

Annie

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Torte and Raspberry Cream Pie

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Gluten Free Sweet Potato Torte and Raspberry Cream Pie

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