Enjoy your traditional Holiday treats without the guilt!
My weekly article is usually about health and fitness and maintaining an active lifestyle. But, to maintain health and fitness it is essential to have a healthy diet that accounts for 80 percent of your effect to maintain your healthy weight or waistline. Even during the holidays, you can maintain your diet with family and friends and still enjoy maintaining your diet.
You might be wondering why BAJA Health and Fitness Academy is publishing an article containing a recipe for a pumpkin pie. Well, it goes back to my childhood when I worked in my grandfather’s bakery until I went to the military and attended college. Our specialty was bread, cinnamon rolls, and pies. I still have my grandfather’s Hobart 20-quart mixer and commercial convection ovens in my commercial kitchen at home.
I wanted to underscore the importance of including complex carbohydrates in your diet. Because not are carbohydrates are unhealthy. I even got into a conversation with a dietetic that was under the same impression that some are that all fats and carbs are unhealthy. Most complex carbohydrates in vegetables contain healthy fiber like pinto beans, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin. A healthy diet should contain complex carbohydrates for heart health. There was a rise of cardiovascular disease in the 1970’s when dietitians thought incorrectly that all fats and carbs were unhealthy.
I routinely bake bread and whole wheat rolls for neighbors and friends, especially around the Holidays. I actually bake now as a hobby like my welding is to remain active even at age 68.
The Following is the Recipe for my Nutritional-Based Pumpkin Pie Recipe- A Breakfast of Champions & A Healthy Dessert
I actually do have a slice of pumpkin pie for my breakfast occasionally. The MACS (Metabolic Analytics Catabolic Score) factor is in the area of a perfect food we need in our diet, like sweet potatoes or pinto beans of 2.952. I lost 6-inches in my waist in 4-months following the Catabolic Diet, where I kept 80 percent of my meals below a 3.5 MACS factor. Below is my health Pumpkin Pie Recipe:
Pumpkin Filling:
Follow the recipe on back of the Nestle Libby’s® Pumpkin Puree can, except I use either a half-a-cup to a quarter cup of sugar based on your preference of taste. This reduces the sugar content by 33 to 50 percent. You still get the rich flavor of the pumpkin pie filling. I always prefer mixing my own ingredients for all my meals.
Recipe for a 9-inch Deep Pie Crust Shell, Please don’t shy away from making your own flaky crust that is thicker than store bought:
2 cups of sifted Flour
1/2 teaspoon of Salt
2/3 cup of Shortening (for convenience, use stick shortening)
6 Tablespoons cold water (place ice cubes in a glass of water)
Note: If you want prefect flaky pie crust, add just one tablespoon at a time of cold water into the flour, salt, and shortening base mixture. This is a critical process in making perfect flaky crust. Believe me, you can do this and avoid buying your crust for a homemade pie crust. You get pass the crust, you’re home free.
Directions for Pie Shell:
Sift flour and add salt. Measure flour after sifting. Cut in shortening with a rubber spatula into flour/salt mixture in a mixing bowl and place bowl onto a electric mixer, add medium mixing speed.
Gradually add cold water to flour/salt/shortening mixture, one Tablespoon at a time, until dough starts forming a ball.
NOTE: NEVER add more flour to mixture after cold water is added. This will cause the crust to become tough.
Roll out crust to approx. 1/8-inch thickness, slightly dust crust with flour to prevent sticking to rolling pin (Figure No. 1). To make the transfer of rolled out crust to the pie pan easy, use a piece of 1/4 or 3/8-inch piece of plywood that is large enough to handle the crust with a piece of parchment paper placed on the board. After rolling out the crust, just place the PAM sprayed pie pan upside down onto the crust and just flip the plywood board over and just lift the paper and plywood board off the pie pan and press shell into place (Figure No. 2 and Figure No. 3). Use a knife to trim off excess crust. You can use your fingers to create a design into the edge of the pie crust.
Prep Work:
Prepare your crust first, then prepare the filling. Make sure you use a whisk to make sure you mix the cinnamon, ginger, and clove spices in with the pumpkin, eggs, and evaporated milk mixture. I use the whisk to beat my eggs to incorporate air into my eggs for lighter egg base.
The spices tend to settle out of the filling to the bottom of the bowl. When you place the filling into the pie shell, make sure you are standing right by the oven. Walking across the kitchen with a pizza pan and unbaked filled pie is an interesting adventure.
Baking the pumpkin pie: (Figure No. 4) Bake the pie as directed on the back of the Libby’s Pumpkin can label. It is usually baked at two temperatures. I use a polished ice pick to test the pie to check if it has finished baking. A knife leaves a large mark in the pie’s surface. The Ice pick hole will close back up as the pie cools.
HINT: The best rolling pin to use in baking is a marble rolling pin in Figure No. 2. This applies to rolling out rolls that I featured above. The weight and hard surface assist with rolling out crust and rolls that I do in my bakery. And it is easier to clean up after the prep work.
I hope you and yours have a great Holiday and enjoy your family and friends. God Bless You and your family with Health and prosperity!
