I Get By With A Little Help From My Desserts

Well, so far my attempts at gluten-free/dairy-free/corn-free cooking and baking haven't been anything to celebrate. A so-so soup or two, lots of salads, bunless burgers smeared with avocado, rice noodles galore and one batch of very flat, very crumbly cookies. That's okay though - I am not getting discouraged! I know with a little more tweaking and playing with ingredients it will all come together. It has to because without the occasional (okay, weekly) treat I am pretty sure I would turn into an old scrooge! With that said, I will admit I am feeling more confident already, especially since this super yummy pie I made is living proof that deliciousness is (still) possible.
I used a recipe for the crust from GFE - http://glutenfreeeasily.com - an amazing blog that is a miracle find for the newbie (or oldbie, too!) in the world of gluten free living. It took less than 5 minutes to make and was so tasty it fooled even Mr. 31, who did a double take when he saw me eating it. It makes a more crumbly, flaky crust than a rolled out dough would make, but we didn't even notice. For the pie filling I used a regular recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks and made the modifications I needed. Pecan pie calls for corn syrup, which doesn't work if you are allergic to corn, so I substituted honey for it. We noticed that after the first day the pie actually tasted sweeter - almost the way honey takes on a sweeter 'taste' as it crystallizes sometimes. I think next time I will use a portion of molasses mixed in with the honey. Any thoughts on this? Also, I can't use butter so I used Earth Balance Butter Substitute. It was the first time I used it... still a little up in the air with my feelings on it.
All in all the pie turned out great and we had no problem scarfing it up in a matter of days. (And yes, I did have a piece for breakfast one day. You know you would have done the same.)

No Roll, Never Fail, Press In Pie Crust (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Soy Free, Nut Free, Vegan)
1 ½ cup gluten-free flour mix (see notes)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp milk (dairy or non-dairy)
¾ tsp xanthan gum (optional; see notes)
Sift flour, sugar, and salt into 9-inch pie plate.
In a separate small bowl or large glass measuring cup, add milk to oil and stir vigorously with a fork until oil turns into little droplets. (I usually measure my oil in a glass measuring cup and then add the milk to that cup.)Pour milk and oil mixture over dry ingredients and mix. (I just use the same fork that I used to mix the oil and milk. It works great.)Pat crust out with hands, trying to make thickness the same throughout and extending crust as high as you would like on the sides of the pie plate.

Fill and bake per your recipe. *On her blog Shirley mentions that you can use a variety of different flours it this recipe, according to what you like. Just be aware that changing the flours may change the consistency. Also, she noted that you could leave the xanthan gum is optional - I left it out because it is a corn derivative so its out of bounds for me.

 Pecan Pie Filling

3 eggs
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 c. sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 c. honey
1/4 c. Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, melted
1 c. pecan halves
1 tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs with sugar, salt, buttery sticks, honey and vanilla. Add pecans and mix thoroughly. Pour in pie crust and bake for 40-45 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between outside and center of pie comes out clean.

Check out the fancy cut job. :-) Mr. 31 must have done that.....