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Cooking
annie1992_gw

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Torte and Raspberry Cream Pie

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

Featured Answer
  • 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



    Comments (14)

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