SCD Butternut pecan tart

When I was back in college I followed the specific carbohydrate diet for one week for a group assignment. As I have a bit of a sweet tooth I decided to develop a dessert using SCD legal ingredients, to make my week on the diet easier to manage. The potential ingredients list is quite limited. Your only choice of sweeteners is honey or dates. I wanted to incorporate a vegetable into the dessert, so I decided to use butternut squash. My first version of this tart was an almost vegan version, but I felt it wasn't quite right, and it needed a crunchy base.  I experimented with how to set the topping. In my first version I used chia seeds, and then in my second version i used gelatine. The gelatine gave me a much better result. My second version was an experiment that I baked for the day of our diet presentation at college  so that I could test it out on the class. However our lecturer had food poisoning that day, so our presentation was delayed. A handful of us went to an alternative lecture, so I shared it out at lunchtime, with great feedback from my classmates!

I loved this second version, and I will most definitely make it again! The only thing that takes time is waiting for the butternut squash to steam!

Ingredients for the base

• 150g butter

• 6 tablespoons honey

• 200g almonds

• 50g pecans

• 75 g desiccated coconut

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons ginger

Ingredients for the topping

• 1 butternut squash steamed for 1.5 hours. Weight 700g of cooked flesh scooped out of skin.

• 8 pitted dates

• 2 tablespoons honey

• 100g ground almonds

• 100g pecans

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 1/2 teaspoon all spice

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 6 sheets of gelatin

• Extra pecan nuts and desiccated coconut to decorate.

Directions for the base

1. Cut the butternut squash in half, and scoop out the seeds. (You could save the seeds to make a roasted seed snack)

2. Steam the butternut squash in its skin for about 1.5 hours until the flesh is soft and thoroughly cooked.

3. Pre heat the oven to 175º C.

4. Use a food processor to briefly whizz together the nuts for the base - almonds and pecans. You want your nuts to be roughly chopped. Don't over process them!

5. In a pan melt the butter and add in the honey, ginger, and salt.

6. Add the chopped nuts, and the desiccated coconut and stir until it is thoroughly coated.

7. Press the nut mix into the base of a flan tin.

8. This recipe is enough to make about 1.5 tarts.Bake the base in the oven at 175ºC for 20 mins, then remove from the oven to cool.

Directions for the topping

1. Take your gelatine sheets and soak them in water for 5 minutes while you are making the rest of the topping.

2. Put your scooped cooked butternut squash flesh into the food processor.

3. Add all of the topping ingredients apart from the gelatine.

4. Blitz thoroughly until you get a nice smooth paste.

5. Take your gelatine sheets shake off the excess water, and slowly heat them in a pan on a very low heat, stirring as they start to melt.

6. Once melted then add in the butternut squash mix

7. Stir in with the gelatine until it is thoroughly mixed.

8. Spread the butternut squash mix over the top of the base.

9. Put the tart into the fridge for a couple of hours to set.

10. Decorate the top with pecans and desiccated coconut.