It’s pumpkin season and we’ve been blessed with an abundance of sweet little sugar pie pumpkins. I decided to whip up a naturally sweet treat – portable pumpkin pie. It’s got all the flavor of regular pumpkin pie in a grab and go snack. It’s gluten free and free of refined sugars, too. (Confession – while I was writing this I went and grabbed some to munch on – it’s addictive.)
This recipe is adapted from Mary Bell’s Dehydrator cookbook, which is my “go to” book for all things dehydrated. I prefer to use organic spices whenever possible, as they are not irradiated or sporting excess chemicals. Mountain Rose Herbs (see sidebar) offers a great selection of organic herbs and spices, as does Frontier Natural Foods. Using homegrown pumpkin and you-pick apples for applesauce, bulk dried coconut and honey helps make this treat budget friendly.
Portable Pumpkin Pie AKA Pumpkin Leather recipe
Ingredients
2 cups (one 16-ounce can) pumpkin – I used home prepared pumpkin that had been cooked and run through the Vitamix
1 cup canned coconut milk (I prefer organic Thai Kitchen)
2 cups homemade applesauce (you could also use unsweetened store applesauce, but it soooo easy to make)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dried shredded coconut, unsweetened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 tablespoons finely chopped raisins
Directions
Mix all ingredients together, adjust spices if needed, but keep in mind that drying will intensify the flavors. You may want to try a test batch or half batch before adjusting. I made a half batch the first time through.
Spread mixture on well oiled fruit leather sheets in dehydrator (I oil mine with coconut oil), or drop by the tablespoon to make “cookies”. If doing “cookies” leave about 1/2″ to 1″ between rounds. I spread mine in sheets because it was faster and easier, but if you liked the cookie idea you could use a pastry bag to make the cookies in a hurry. Just load your mix in and squirt away. I like to use my pastry bag for making cream puffs, too.
One half batch nearly filled two fruit roll sheets in my American Harvest dehydrator.
Dry 8 to 24 hours at around 135 F. I loaded mine at night and unloaded it mid-morning. I could have cut the raisins a little finer, because they were still tacky in the early morning.
As you can see, the mixture will darken as it dries.
Cut in squares or strips.
Mary Bell recommends the following for storing fruit leathers:
Stack sheets of fruit or vegetable leathers on top of each other. If desired, and this is optional, you can sprinkle the finished sheets with cornstarch or arrowroot to prevent them from sticking together. Roll up, wrap securely in plastic wrap, and put them in an airtight container.
I’ve never dusted mine with anything, and I typically cut them into strips before storing to encourage munching of only small amounts at one time. After all, even though they’re all natural, it’s still a fair amount of concentrated sugars. I store mine in plastic bags or glass jars, in the cupboard or fridge depending on the expected length of storage time (and how much room I have in my fridge). Refrigeration will extend shelf life, but properly dried fruit sealed in airtight containers should keep for months as is.
Note: Winter squash is high in vitamin A, vitamin C, dietary fiber, manganese, vitamin B6, potassium, vitamin K, folate, tryptophan, copper, riboflavin, omega 3 fatty acids and magnesium. Now you have even more reasons to give this treat a try!
I’m so glad I tried out this recipe – it’s a keeper.
Homemaker Monday at 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven,
the Grain Free Real Food Linky Carnival at Real Food Forager,
Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop,
Pennywise Platter Thursday at The Nourishing Gourmet and
the Recipe Lion October Blog Hop.
19 Responses to “Portable Pumpkin Pie AKA Pumpkin Leather”
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Oh my gosh! Yum!
I made with parchment paper and it seemed to work ok. Except they cracked all over. Maybe I spread too thinly? It's my first attempt at leathers.
I wish I could make these every day just for the wonderful aroma throughout the house!
Thank you for posting.
Coreen
Try spreading it a little thinner or drying it for a shorter time, or both. That should give a more flexible leather.
Thanks for letting me know you liked it.
Laurie
Laurie,
This is a great idea. Please link up to my new Fall Harvest Blog Hop.
That looks like the same dehydrator as I have, but I don't have an instruction manual for it. Do you happen to have a spare, or know where I can find one? I got the dehydrator as a hand-me-down and am a little afraid to do much with it since I have no clue what I'm doing or where to find out how to do anything without destroying the machine or blowing up the house or something.
There's really nothing to using it – just set it to the correct temp for whatever you're drying and let it dry. I've been using mine for years and have yet to blow anything up.
Most of the time I let it run overnight.
A manual is available online at: http://www.nesco.com/files/pdf/food_dehydrator.pdf
Hi Laurie, well that's a very interesting recipe. I haven't seen that one before. Will have to try making it sometime soon. Thanks for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
What is the purpose of the coconut milk? Could you use something else? I have an abundance of hubbard squash I’m going to try with this.
The coconut milk adds flavor and modifies the texture a little. You could also use evaporated milk, or try skipping it all together and seeing how it works.
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This sounds seriously yummy!!! I have some extra crookneck that I have to use up and it’s apple season (almost) here!
YUM!
Tamara
tamsgarden-howdoesourgardengrow.blogspot.com
I just visited a friend today who has more crooknecks than I have even seen in one garden. They’re huge, too. I told her I would swap her some spaghetti squash.
[...] of the bounty, I’ll be experimenting with new squash recipes like Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, Pumpkin Leather, Pumpkin Wine and today’s recipe – Squaffles – Squash Waffles. 2012 Squash and [...]
Am really excited about trying this out! After Thanksgiving! We harvested so many pie pumpkins and I have canned a bunch and was wondering if I was going to have to through the pumpkin out after collecting the seeds (my husband nuts for taco flavored roasted pumpkin seeds) Now I am thinking of this plus I have a recipe for pumpkin butter found on the web and am going to try that. If I use parchment paper do I need ‘oil’ it first?
(I find myself visiting your site daily for it is very inspirering You put a lot of work into it and it is great!)
If you’re not concerned about reusing the parchment, you can probably skip lubing. Maybe try a single batch first, and see if you like the results?
thanks for your kind words about the site. It is a bit like my third kid.
Just a quick update. Made my first batch of pumpkin leather over night. It turned out fantastic! I chose to do pumpkin butter recipe that I got from mysheglows.com. Neat site great recipe. I got two and a half sheets out of about 6 cups of mix.
Portable pumpkin. Gotta love it.
[...] so I need to kick our pumpkin eating into high gear. I’ve been making up regular batches of pumpkin leather, and some pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin pancakes. I even made some pumpkin spice [...]
This is great, I have some pumpkin about to expire, and this will give me a few more months, perhaps, not, once the grandkids get hold of it!
Thank you!
You’re very welcome. Enjoy.