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Recipe and pictures updated 10/10/15.
I don’t usually “THM-ify” recipes per suggestion, but when I do…they’re layered pumpkin desserts that looked so good that I couldn’t resist.
This pumpkin delight has a thick pecan crust, a cream cheese layer, and a layer of spiced pumpkin pudding. Top it off with some sweetened whipped cream and a few pecans and you have a gorgeous fall dessert. Now to be perfectly honest, I don’t think that the tang of the cream cheese pairs well with the pumpkin; I prefer my cream cheese and pumpkin desserts to be baked, like this yummy-looking Pumpkin Cream Cake from my friend Sarah’s kitchen. But my mom loved this pumpkin delight, and the more I ate it the more I liked it, so here you go…likely my taste buds are just being wacky again. Now excuse me while I go eat my sauerkraut…
Update…now that I’m a year older and wiser and have tweaked this recipe a little, I’m hooked. Go make it. Now.
Don’t let the ingredients list scare you – most of those ingredients are used more than once in this recipe, so you’re seeing a lot of repeats. This is a layered dessert, after all. The instructions are very simple – prebake a crust, make and chill two pudding layers, then assemble. Top with whipped cream and nuts if you like. Easy as…delight. You thought I was going to say pie, didn’t you?
You can find a cleaned-up version of this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
Note:
If you want a crust recipe that uses my baking mix instead of the pecans, flaxmeal, and oats, try the crust from this Blueberry Cheesecake Delight in place of the one listed in this recipe.
- 3 T butter, softened
- ½ cup pecans, pulsed in a food processor to course meal (measured *before* grinding)
- ½ cup ground golden flax
- ½ cup old-fashioned oats (use gluten free if necessary)
- 1 egg
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tsp. Knox gelatin (if using beef gelatin such as Great Lakes brand or THM Just Gelatin, add an extra ¼ tsp.)
- ¼ tsp. glucomannan
- 1 8-oz. pkg. ⅓-less fat cream cheese (full-fat would work as well), softened
- 1½ tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 doonks THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder (a doonk is 1/32 tsp.)
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tsp. Knox gelatin (if using beef gelatin such as Great Lakes brand or THM Just Gelatin, add an extra ¼ tsp.)
- ½ tsp. glucomannan
- 2 cups canned pumpkin puree
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp. Grandma's molasses
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp. THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
- 3 packs of Truvia (about 2¼ tsp. spoonable Truvia, or the same amount of THM Gentle Sweet)
- Scant ¼ tsp. salt
- 1½ tsp. cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. nutmeg
- Rounded ¼ tsp. ground cloves
- Sweetened whipping cream (sweetened with a low-glycemic sweetener such as any of the THM sweeteners, ground in a coffee grinder if granulated, or Truvia, also ground)
- *or*
- Fat-free Reddi-Whip
- Chopped pecans
- Prepare the crust. Mix all the crust ingredients together and press into a greased 8x8 inch glass baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Let cool on the counter, then transfer to the freezer to super-chill.
- Make the cream cheese layer. Heat the almond milk until just boiling (a microwave works great) then whisk in the gelatin and glucomannan, whisking while sprinkling it in so lumps don't form. Add the softened cream cheese, vanilla, and sweetener and beat with a hand mixer until smooth. Put the cream cheese mixture in the refrigerator to start chilling.
- Make the pumpkin pudding. Heat the almond milk until just boiling. Whisk in the gelatin and glucomannan. Add the rest of the pumpkin pudding ingredients and beat with a hand mixer until smooth. Put the pumpkin pudding in the refrigerator to start chilling.
- When the crust is chilled well in the freezer (you don't have to freeze it solid), top it with the cream cheese mixture and put the delight pan in the refrigerator to firm up (or freezer, for quicker results). When the cream cheese layer is fairly firm, top gently with the pumpkin pudding. Refrigerate until ready to serve, at least two hours. Before serving, top with the sweetened whipped cream and pecans.
The net carbs from the oats in the crust come to less than 2½ grams per serving, which is perfectly fine for an S meal for you Trim Healthy Mamas.
Suggested products:
- THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder, Gentle Sweet, Just Gelatin, Glucomannan, and other great products can be purchased from the Trim Healthy Mama online store.
- Golden Flaxmeal
- Unflavored gelatin
- Truvia
- Glucomannan
- Grandma’s Molasses (gluten and nut free)
My recipe turned out bitter. I’m not sure what I did wrong. I’m not new to THM so I’m used to the bitterness of of stevia. I sooo want to love this recipe and I’m willing to try again.
I’m sorry it was bitter for you! I actually have an update of this recipe ready to publish when I have time – hopefully soon!
Can the crusted this recipe be used on a pumpkin pie (bake)
I don’t know if it would be enough to press all the way around a pie plate, or if it would hold up when served, but you’re welcome to try!
Brianna – I do not have ground golden flax but I do have the rest of the ingredients. What do you think about adding the flax meal instead……it’s like a heavy flour?
Thank you so much for your blog and the great recipes.
Ground golden flax is the same thing as golden flaxmeal. 🙂 Back when I wrote this recipe I typically bought golden flax seeds at a bulk food store and ground them into flour in a coffee grinder. I recommend using golden flaxmeal instead of dark flaxmeal because the texture and taste are lighter. I believe you can purchase both from various places online (and maybe even find them at some local stores in the alternative flour section).
Hi Brianna,
This looks yummy. Would love to see some nutritional information with your recipes, especially calorie counts. Thanks so much for sharing!
In Him and for His sake,
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie! Thanks for your comment. I don’t usually calculate nutrition info on my recipes since the healthy eating lifestyle I follow doesn’t require it (Trim Healthy Mama) and I like to embrace that freedom, but MyFitnessPal is a super easy way to find nutrition facts! If you sign up for an account, under the Recipes tab there’s a place where you can just add the link to a recipe and it will pull up the ingredients for you to confirm, then generate the nutritional info! 🙂
What is the carb count for this yummy dessert?
Hi there! I don’t usually calculate nutrition info on my recipes since the healthy eating lifestyle I follow doesn’t require it (Trim Healthy Mama), but MyFitnessPal is a super easy way to find nutrition facts! If you sign up for an account, under the Recipes tab there’s a place where you can just add the link to a recipe and it will pull up the ingredients for you to confirm, then generate the nutritional info! 🙂
How far ahead could I make this? Would it keep 2-3 days in the fridge? I’m sure I could make/freeze the crust well ahead, but not sure about how long this would be good in the fridge before serving. Just trying to cut down on the labor for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. 🙂
Also, I don’t generally like the flavor of stevia – I like using coconut palm sugar since it doesn’t spike the blood sugar levels so fast. I can experiment, but how much “typical” sugar are you replacing in the recipe with the stevia amounts you’re using? Thanks!!
It wouldn’t be ideal to keep it assembled for three days, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! Maybe you could keep the components separated and assemble them the morning of? I think that would probably be better.
I’m actually not usually following traditional recipes when I create recipes (just creating and tasting as I go), so I’m not sure how much regular sugar you would need. I’m sorry! Since alternative sweeteners *and* individual taste buds vary so much, I always recommend starting with less sweetener than you think you’ll need, then adding and tasting as you go so you don’t accidentally get too much when replacing the sweeteners that I call for in the recipe. 🙂
Oh that’s a good idea!! I’ll make up the components, and assemble the layers on Christmas morning. Thank you for the suggestion.
You’re right – I’ll guesstimate a lower amount of my coconut sugar and work up from there. Not much point making a healthy dessert and then mucking it up with a too-sweet result!! LOL
Is this freezeable?
I personally wouldn’t try it. I’m afraid it would get watery when thawed.
Curious….why the Glucomannan?
It’s a thickener/stabilizer. 🙂
Do you happen to have the nutritional info on this? I am looking so a friend can figure for her child with Type 1 diabetes
No, I’m afraid I don’t.
This looks amazing, I I really want to make this for Thanksgiving. Any suggestions for making it dairy free? I was thinking of omitting the cream cheese layer and using full fat coconut milk instead of heavy whipping cream. Do you think that would work?
I’m not that well-versed in dairy substitution so I’m probably not the one to ask, but it would be worth a try at least!
I’ve made whipped cream from coconut milk (canned) before. You just chill the can, scoop the cream off of the top and whip it in a stand mixer. You could also make a cashew cream cheese for the center layer or buy a vegan cream cheese.
I’m going to try this for Thanksgiving this year! I had picked out another pumpkin cheesecake but I’m really trying to stay away from large amounts of sugar and this looks perfect!
You need to STOP calling your recipes low carb. I follow a ketogenic diet which is less than 20 total carbs a day and low-carbers know that low fat diary products are unhealthy garbage as sugar is added to compensate the lack of fat. Which by, the way, fat doesn’t make you fat, just like sugar doesn’t make you sweet. Sugar (and excess carbs) cause diabetes, heart disease, obesity, to name a few. Low carb recipes would call for BUTTER, HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM and FULL FAT CREAM CHEESE. I get you want more followers but it’s annoying misrepresentation that shows dietary ignorance. J
Ketogenic diets aren’t the only kind of low-carbing out there. According to Wikipedia, there’s nothing wrong with the way I’ve categorized my recipes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-carbohydrate_diet).
You can find out more about the healthy eating lifestyle I follow here >> http://www.briana-thomas.com/starting-trim-healthy-mama/
Feel free to use full fat products in this and all my recipes. 🙂 I actually specifically mentioned that in this recipe.
Hello
I was wondering if you have the net carbs on this. From what I entered in my fitness pal and what I know I put in, I think I got 7 net carbs per piece.
Just wanted to make sure.
Thanks
Mindy
Hi Mindy! I don’t usually calculate the nutritional info for my recipes since I follow a healthy eating plan called Trim Healthy Mama that doesn’t require counting and I like to embrace that freedom and just keep my carbs and fats separated. 🙂 MyFitnessPal is a great app though, and I’m sure your calculations are close.
Low carb is low carb not ketogenic. It is rude to berate someone and call them ignorant. Please be kinder to each other, we have enough hate in the world.
I don’t have glucomannan, is there something else I could use?
You can usually use xanthan gum as a 1:1 substitute for glucomannan.
It’s a thickening agent. I just used coconut flour and it came out perfect!
Hi, this looks oh so yummy! I don’t have pecans though, do you think I could sub walnuts or would the taste be off?
I honestly haven’t worked much with walnuts, so I’m not sure if they’d change things much or not. Feel free to try it, though!
WOW! I wanted this soooo bad!!! Thanks so much!!!
how much whipping cream is needed for the topping?
Well, that all depends on how much whipped cream you want… 😛
Really want to make this. If you don’t have golden flax to put in crust. What else can you use? Thanks
I’m sure you could substitute almond flour. 🙂
Printing this out…hope I have time to make it today! I really need a dessert…
Looks like great recipe!
YUM!