Grain-free pumpkin-pecan pie

Sapsorrow

Hi all, I follow a paleo/primal diet which means no grains (among other things) and want to make a pumpkin-pecan pie. I'm not sure how to go about making the crust, I was thinking along the lines of almond or coconut flour with butter and sweetener. I don't know would it be better to use one of the flours alone or a blend. Has anyone ever tried making a crust with these ingredients? I've made flour-free almond cookies lots of times but not sure would the same recipe work for this

Minder

Use chestnut flour following the recipe for the pastry here. You are most likely to find chestnut flour in a good Italian deli.

Sapsorrow

Oh wow I never knew such a thing existed! chestnuts would be incredible with pumpkin, cinnamon and pecans... I'm excited now, thanks!

Minder

If you manage to find some chestnut flour, would you let us know how the recipe goes?

Sapsorrow

Oh ya no worried, I'll be doing a blog post on it anyway so I can cut and paste the whole reccipe into here too if you like? I wonder could you make the flour out of dried chestnuts, I have a sack full of them from a healthfood wholesalers.

Minder

I doubt you could grind them fine enough? What would you use? Chestnut flour is as fine as any wheat flour. Can you use flours made from pulses?

Sapsorrow

Minder wrote: »

I doubt you could grind them fine enough? What would you use? Chestnut flour is as fine as any wheat flour. Can you use flours made from pulses?

My coffee bean grinder? No I'm afraid I can't eat pulses at all unfortunately.

silverharp

Minder wrote: »

If you manage to find some chestnut flour, would you let us know how the recipe goes?

can chestnut flour be used for pancakes and pizza?

Minder

Sapsorrow wrote: »

My coffee bean grinder? No I'm afraid I can't eat pulses at all unfortunately.

You could try the coffee grinder but i doubt it would get fine enough. The chestnuts will contain some moisture and oils. So i'd expect the blades of the grinder to heat up the chestnut fines and it will get claggy (technical term, claggy). So not fine enough.

silverharp wrote: »

can chestnut flour be used for pancakes and pizza?

I'm afraid I don't know that much about it (Which I asked Sapsorrow to post the pastry results). I remember trying it years ago in a recipe for a traditional Italian Christmas cake. There are recipes here including pancakes.

Sapsorrow

That link is fantastic thanks so much! I can't wait to try the pancakes and bread, now I can add chestnut flour into my list of paleo baking ingredients the possibilities are endless! I'm going to try get the flour on amazon I reckon.