Friday, January 7, 2011

Kitchen Therapy's Pumpkin Custard sans Dairy

I have made this twice now - and just love the taste and texture. Its wonderful for breakfast, lemme tell you. Super easy to make. This was my first adventure into silken tofu, and I'm a big fan. Because my ramekins are a little bigger (and I have a small oven) 4 of them work pretty well. Although I have to add about 15 to 20 min to the baking time.


Pumpkin Custard, Hold the Dairy
Adapted from Libbey’s Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe. I ditched the crust, subbed tofu for evaporated milk, and increased the sugar a bit. Evaporated milk has some natural sweetness, tofu does not.
Yield: 6 servings
metric measures
1 cup dark brown sugar
240 gm
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 gm
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 gm
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
.5 gm
½ teaspoon salt
3 gm
2 large eggs
100 gm
1-15 oz can pure pumpkin
425 gm
1-12 oz package firm silken tofu
350 gm
1/4 cup chopped pecans
30 gm
freshly grated nutmeg, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put dark brown sugar, spices, salt, eggs, pumpkin, and tofu in a blender and process until smooth, about a minute.
Place 6 ramekins in a 9×13 baking pan. Add water to the 9×13 pan, until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. This is called a water bath and allows gentle heat to bake the custard. You can bake the custard without it, but it won’t be quite as creamy.
Pour the pumpkin mixture into the ramekins. Bake for 30 minutes.
Allow to cool and remove ramekins from the 9×13 pan. Drain the water. Put the ramekins back in the 9×13 pan and cover with plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Garnish with chopped pecans and a nutmeg. Enjoy!
Note: you can substitute 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice in place of the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

New Year, New Background, New Resolve

This blog is still the best way I have found to track recipes I like (other than my makeshift recipe box, of course). Soon on the blog - a wonderful vegan pumpkin custard, a spicy red bean and sweet potato stew, and who knows? The joys of steaming green beans? I know, I live on the edge.

M.

p.s. check out www.shabbyblogs.com - that's where the new blog background came from. I LOVE IT. Its actually an html script that is more of a layer than a layout.