It's Christmas, and I get to try out gluten-free goodies. I am not, generally speaking, a happy camper about this.

One of the reasons is that I'm not the rabid fan of all things chocolate that the general populace appears to be. Oh, joy: another package of gluten-free chocolate-chip cookies. I never ate chocolate-chip cookies when I could eat anything. Why start now? The Oreo people are so proud of their gluten-free Oreos that I hate to tell them this, but I've never liked Oreo cookies. To me, they are crumbly hockey pucks.

My brother-in-law always comes up trumps by making a whole box of gluten-free cookies just for me. He uses a gluten-free cake mix. My sister ices them for him. I really appreciate these cookies. They're tasty and make me feel less deprived around the holidays.

This Thanksgiving, my sister made me an unusual pie. I thought you might like to try it yourselves. Watch out: it's extremely rich. Eat small portions.

Caramel Pecan Pumpkin Pie

You need:

• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (Sis used fresh-cooked pumpkin from the farm. This is 425 g if you're not in the US, but I don't know where you get your pumpkins from.)
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
• 3/4 cup (150 g, this is hard) sugar
• 1/2 tsp (I will NOT convert teaspoons. Get yourself a normal-sized teaspoon and guess, like the rest of us) vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg¹
• 1/4 tsp allspice (No, I don't know what that's called in England. Throw in mace, if you prefer, or leave it out.)
• 1/2 cup (104 g) brown sugar, packed (If you don't know why you pack it, ask somebody who can bake.)
• 1/2 cup (65 g) pecan halves
• 2 Tbsp (Tablespoons, keep up, same instructions as with teaspoons) butter or margarine

A note about this ingredient list: Sis sent it to me in an email. She said, 'I don't remember where I got it from, some package, though.'

'Walmart,' I told her confidently.

'How do you know?'

'Because in the list of ingredients, every item is preceded by 'Great Value', as in 'Great Value ground cinnamon.' It even specifies Great Value eggs.' (Great Value is Walmart's house brand.)

'Oh,' she laughed. 'Well, you got Farmer Hoggett's extra-special, extra-large duck eggs, so there's that.'

Here's what you do to make the pie.

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together eggs, pumpkin, and milk. Stir in granulated sugar, flour, vanilla extract, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
2. Pour pumpkin mixture into pie plate. Bake at 375°F (groan, look it up. . .okay, it's 190.5°C, or the BBC says it's a '5') for 25 minutes (which is the same everywhere on Planet Earth, thank goodness)
3. While pie is baking, stir together the brown sugar, pecans, and butter until combined. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the top of the pie. (This will cause anyone who eats a slice to overdose on delicious sweetness and yummy pecans to the point where they wouldn't care if the rest of the pie was made of leftover mashed potatoes, trust me.)
4. Bake for 20 minutes more or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean and topping is golden. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.
5. Makes 8 servings.

This pie is scrumptious. Warning: it is an unusual combination of flavours and textures if you're used to pumpkin pie. Do not be deterred by unfamiliarity: it's a welcome new taste sensation.

Also: If you aren't on a gluten-free diet, feel free to put the pie in a pie shell. Mrs H didn't have any gluten-free ones available. Directions are the same as for the crustless one. Cover edge of pie with foil to prevent from overbrowning and remove after the first 25 minutes.

There is also fudge. Fudge is gluten-free. Fudge is good. Fudge would probably be illegal if certain spoilsports had their way. There is also gluten-free cherry pie from the mail-order people. Life is good.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

11.12.23 Front Page

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