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Thanksgiving recipes for Pumpkin Pie & Cranberries--printable!

If you'd rather read a printed recipe than watch a video, here are my recent recipes for Better than Grandma's Pumpkin Pie and Probiotic Cranberry-Apple Relish. 

Hat tip to Dana Carpender, whose pumpkin pie recipe inspired this one. The cranberry-apple ferment is entirely my own creation. 



Pumpkin Pie--no grains, sugar or emulsifiers

Crust

2 cups shelled raw pecans

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon monk fruit powder* (or 3 tablespoons sugar substitute)

4 tablespoons butter, melted

2 tablespoons water

Pumpkin Pie Filling

1 pie pumpkin

1-1/2 cups half and half (with no thickeners)

3 eggs

3-4 teaspoons monk fruit powder* (or 3/4 cup sugar substitute)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Stab the top of the pumpkin all the way through the flesh in a few places at the top.
  3. Place the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour. Let cool.
  4. While the pumpkin is baking, put the pecans in a food processor with the S blade and run until they are finely chopped.
  5. Add the sweetener, butter and water and pulse. The result should be soft and sticky.
  6. Butter a 10-inch pie dish. Press the pecan mixture into it to form a pie crust with an even thickness.
  7. Bake the crust for 18 minutes at 350F. Let cool.
  8. Once the pumpkin is baked and cooled, cut off the top and scoop out the seeds and stringy parts. If the pumpkin is too hard, put it back in the oven for 20-30 minutes.
  9. Cut the pumpkin in half and peel off the skin. Cut the flesh into big chunks and put them in a flat-bottomed pan.
  10. Mash the pumpkin with a potato masher until it's pureed. Set aside. 
  11. Set the oven to 425F. 
  12. Combine scant 2 cups pureed pumpkin, half and half, eggs, sweetener, salt and spice in a bowl and gently stir until well mixed. Pour into the prebaked and cooled pie crust. 
  13. Bake for 15 minutes, lower the oven to 350F, and bake for another 45 minutes. 

Carbs: 10g net per 1/8 pie serving

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iJVyiVIAfUY

*Monk fruit powder is several times sweeter than sugar, hence the small amount compared to other sweeteners. 

Cranberry-apple fermented relish

2 apples (sweet, not cooking apples), peeled and cored

1 cup cranberries, fresh or thawed

1 stalk celery

Filtered water (a few cups) (the chlorine in tap water can kill the probiotics)

2 capsules Biotiquest Ideal Immunity probiotics

Special equipment

Food processor with S and slicing blades

Canning funnel

quart-size jar and lid (regular lid is OK)

fermentation device (I use a seedling mat and kitchen towels)

fermentation weight

Small bowl or container the quart jar can sit in

  1. Thinly slice the apples in the food processor.
  2. Run the celery through the food processor with the same slicing blade. Put the apples and celery in a large bowl.
  3. Rinse the cranberries, put the S blade in the food processor and chop them fine. Add them to the bowl. 
  4. Gently mix the cranberries, celery and apples together. Transfer them to the quart jar through the canning funnel.
  5. Open two probiotics capsules and empty the contents into the jar. 
  6. Add filtered water to the jar until it's about an inch from the top. 
  7. Put the fermentation weight in the jar and press it down until it's below the rim. 
  8. Put the lid on loosely.
  9. Set the seedling mat to 95F. Put the small bowl on the seedling mat, then put the quart jar in the bowl (the bowl is there to catch any liquid that leaks out). Wedge the sensor (the clear, round plastic thing connected to the seedling mat with a cord) under the bowl, with the cord side up. Drape the kitchen towels over the whole setup to help contain the heat from the seedling mat. If the seedling mat is not getting up to temperature within an hour, put a large piece of styrofoam or some thick, folded towels under it. 
  10. Ferment for 2-3 days. Refrigerate.

 Video here: https://youtu.be/pqIm261UMec?si=hkZDQG65uRZ9El1U



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