Gluten Free Sweet Potato Pie

I got this recipe from a lovely lady who has been like a mother to me pretty much since I've started my life here in Georgia.  As much as she is a great person, she is also a great cook.  I love her sweet potato pie, but as my tinkering nerves like to join in the fun every time I make something, I've done it in a slightly different way, so that my funny brother-in-law can enjoy some pie too.  Here is how I made it.

The pie crust looks like this when it's ready.

For the gluten free pie shell:
1 scant cup uncooked rolled oats
3 tbsp brown sugar
2/3 cup walnuts/pecans, minced
1/3 cup butter (5 tbsp & 1 tsp), melted

I made it for our family Christmas gathering and I would like everyone get to eat some dessert, including my brother-in-law D, who is gluten intolerant, to be able to enjoy some sweet too.  So I tried out this pie crust recipe I found online and it turned out pretty well.  I saved the aluminum pie pan for Publix brand pie crust to use it as aide for this.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spread the rolled oats in a large shallow pan and bake for 10 minutes to toast.  Toss with sugar, nuts and melted butter.  Press over bottom and up sides of the 9" pie pan. Refrigerate while preparing the filling. Oh, to mince the nuts, I use the Pampered Chef food chopper to do the job.

I had a little leftover crust material, so I put it in a small ramekin.

This pie crust is not as messy to make as a regular gluten free pie crust made out of flour, as I made it last year.  It has a different texture as one would expect, but I can dig it.

For the filling:

1 big sweet potato, well done (about 1 & 1/2 cup or a little less when mashed up)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup & 2 tbsp sugar
Sprinkle of salt
1/4 evaporated milk *
1&1/2 eggs *
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

* I made my own version of the evaporated milk with original unsweetened almond milk by Blue Diamond, since brother-in-law also can't have dairy (butter in cooking is ok).  Use 3 to 1 ratio, cook 3/4 cup of almond milk down to 1/4 cup as needed for the recipe.  Remember to constantly stir while cooking the milk down.

* The recipe I got was for 2 pies and it calls for 3 eggs, that's why it seems odd to have 1 & 1/2 eggs there.  I just used 2 eggs myself.

Wrap the sweet potato in paper towel and cook it in microwave until it's tender all throughout, about 7 to 8 minutes, depending the size of the sweet potato.  Scrape the meat off the skin and mash it in a big bowl.  Add butter, sugar and salt, mix well.  Mix the eggs and vanilla extract in a separate bowl well, then add the mixture to the potato bowl.  Slowly add milk the last and mix all into a pudding like consistency.  It should be thinner than mashed potatoes.  Pour it into unbaked pie shell.  Place in 300 F oven and bake approximately 1 hour.  The pie should be lightly brown and set.  Luckily, I had enough filling to fill up the small pie too.  So, voila, there is one big and one small.

Well, the whole pie turned out to be very delicious.  And everyone enjoyed the pie, including my brother-in-law, who misses eating pies!

French Toast Bake

I got the idea for this dish from another blogger's post, Rach's Blog. Her post details each step of making the french toast bake. My kids love french toast and they ask for it as dinner often. When I came across the picture of Rach's dish on pinterest, I thought 'hey, I can make this version for dinner.' Her recipe was for more people than the four I feed at home, so as usual I cut down the quantity and it turned out scrumptious and everyone loved it.

Serves 2 adults and 2 kids

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 packed light brown sugar
6 to 7 slices of bread
3 eggs
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon almond milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Grease all sides of the baking pan. Mix the sugar in the melted butter well. Spread the mixture onto the bottom of 2-1/2 quart (2.3L) baking pan (or you can use 8" x 8" pan but it may only hold 6 slices of bread). Beat eggs, milk, vanilla and salt.

Brown sugar and butter mixture spread on the bottom of the baking dish.

Lay single layer of bread in the pan and spoon about 1/2 the egg mixture on the bread layer. Add second layer on, then pour the remainder of the mixture over. Make sure every bit of the bread is covered with the egg mixture. Cover and let chill overnight.

Before putting it in the fridge to chill.

Bake at 350 F degree for 45 minutes. Serve warm.

The brown sugar on the bottom was the best part after it's baked. Flip the toast upside down to serve, so you can get all that yummy brown goodness into your tummy. MmmMmm (*rubbing tummy in circles*)! Hubby commented that was the best french toast he's tasted. Of course, my kids asked for seconds.

The bread I used was home made so the shape and size were a bit different than the store-bought ones. I think they were a bit bigger than store-bought bread. It was kind of fun trying to fit all the bread pieces into one layer at a time, like working on a puzzle. Also, I use 3 tablespoons egg white to substitute the 3rd egg. I think using egg white makes the dish less eggy and cut down the cholesterol a bit. I suppose you could use all egg white if you prefer. I still like some yolky taste in mine plus the nutrients from the yolks. The almond milk I used was the Original flavor of Blue Diamond Almond Milk. If you use unsweetened kind or plain soy milk, you might want to add more sweetness to the mixture. I got the dish ready the night before and took it out of the fridge the next day to bake for dinner. It worked out great while giving the kids a bath or spending extra time with them before dinner.

This is what it looks like after the dish is all assembled before baking, a self-made jigsaw bread puzzle.

You don't want to not have enough batter to soak in every inch of the bread, so making it a bit more batter is better than not enough. I find neither syrup or powder sugar is necessary when eating unless you like super sweet stuff. Adding a bit of cinnamon in the mixture would be good too, or you could sprinkle it on top when it's served.

Since I covered the pan with foil while baking for the first 30 minutes, the top wasn't as brown and crispy as Rach's. I always has this fear of burning the pie crust or any toppings for baking, so I usually cover it with foil  the whole time or at least for part of the baking time.

I knew this was going to happen some day and it did. I forgot to take a picture before the dish was served! At least I remembered it after I put the servings on my kids' plates and took pictures of them. Well, you get the idea of the brown goodness here. Hope you get to try it too.