I love cooking with seasonal produce. Pumpkins of course come into their own around Halloween and the Autumn is a great time to make use of their sweet buttery flavour. This amazing pumpkin tart is gluten and dairy free and is a big hit with my children. Packed with vitamin A pumpkins are a wonderful immune supporting ingredient and of course fabulous for glowing skin too. For speed you can use a can of pumpkin puree but it is easy to steam pumpkin or butternut squash and puree it yourself. I have used erythritol in this recipe to keep the sugar content low. Xylitol will work equally well. You could also use coconut sugar.
Overview
Difficulty – Medium
Time – 20 minutes preparation time, Cooking time 1 hour
Serves – 8
What’s good about it?
Erythritol is a natural sweetener, a sugar polyol and does not affect blood sugar like most other sugars. It is also zero calorie. More than 90% of erythritol is absorbed in the small intestine, so minimal amounts reach the colon which means it does not cause digestive upset like some other sweeteners.
Instead of the paleo crust you could swap for a gluten free pastry but bake it blind first before filling.
- Place the pecan nuts in a food processor and process until very fine. Add the dates and sweet freedom and process until the mixture comes together. Press the mixture into a greased loose bottom 20cm round cake tin.
- Place all the filling ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
- Pour the filling into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour until the filling has puffed up in the centre and turn light golden.
- Serve warm or cold. Decorate with a dusting of cocoa powder and crushed pecan nuts.
Did you Know?
Pecan nuts are a fabulous healthy nut. It contains more than 19 vitamins and minerals and are an especially good source of antioxidants; the disease fighting compounds that lower bad cholesterol. Pecans are also packed with protein. Ideal as a healthy snack.
Base
- 250g pecan nuts
- 60g pitted soft dates
- 1tbsp Vanilla extract
- 2-3tbsp sweet freedom or yacon syrup
Filling
- 400g can pumpkin puree
- 2 eggs
- 125ml Coconut milk or Coconut cream
- 1tsp ground cinnamon
- 1tsp allspice
- 1tsp ground ginger
- 1tbsp vanilla extract
- 60g erythritol