My husband LOVES pumpkin pie. It is the only pie he likes, and actually aside from ice cream, it is really the only sweet he likes, period. The allure of pumpkin pie for him is the filling. He doesn’t care at all about crust. In the past I have actually made some homemade pumpkin pie filling and baked it in little ramekins without crust, since crust was a waste anyway. These always go over so well, I decided to experiment with another form of our pumpkin pie. I wanted to make it in muffin form! All I really needed to do was make my standard pumpkin custard cups and thicken it a bit.
Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie Muffins Ingredients:
- 8 ounces sweet cream butter
- 29 ounce can of pumpkin
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- A hefty pinch of each: cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice
- 4 large eggs (maybe five if small)
- 1/2 cup milk
- 10 Tablespoons of white rice flour
Combine all of your ingredients together, minus the rice flour. Hand mix your ingredients until everything is folded together smoothly. Slowly begin stirring in your rice flour. The rice flour serves to slightly thick your batter so it isn’t soupy. Let your mixture stand for a good 10 minutes to allow the rice flour to absorb and expand a bit.
Once the batter has thickened up, fill your muffin/cupcake liners with about 3-4 ounces of batter. They will look like little raw pumpkin pies.
Place your muffin tin in the oven preheated to 375 F and bake for one hour on a center rack. Longer if you make larger muffins. You want to be able to slide a sharp knife into the center sand have it come out mostly clean like when baking a pumpkin pie.
Allow your muffins (or mini pies as they could more appropriately be called!) to cool for at least an hour. Preferably, let them cool several hours or even place them in the fridge. Much like a pie, these will mold if you leave them out on the counter for too many days. They never last that long though!
Our family personally likes these with just a dollop of whipped cream on top, but I decided to try a butter-cream icing on this batch using a natural food coloring to go with the pumpkin theme.
For easy butter-cream:
- One stick of sweet cream butter
- One standard brick of cream cheese
- 4-6 tablespoons of powdered sugar
Whip it together with egg beaters until creamy. Some people may add vanilla or even a maple flavoring. I tend to go plain.
These are a huge hit with my family and any of our gluten free friends. They are soft in the center and taste just like a pumpkin pie custard. They can be a little messy, so I like to use the tin foil lined muffin liners to make them stand up easier. These taste and feel decadent, but are really not that high in sugar without the icing. Go ahead and give them a try!
*note: you can replace the rice flour with three tablespoons of glucomannan, or with 10 tablespoons of tapioca starch if you are wishing to make them completely grain free.
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