No Crust, Low Carb Cinnamon Ricotta Pie
The first time I tasted ricotta pie was this past Christmas. One of my coworkers is an old school Italiana and she is awesome. She constantly brings in homemade Italian goodness for the entire staff to enjoy. This past Christmas, she brought in ricotta pie with honey. Yum, yum, yum.
If you’ve ever been on a diet, you’d know that the oddest cravings will hit you when you least expect it. One night, I inexplicably craved ricotta pie, rice pudding, and chocolate cake. Of those three delicacies, the first was the only viable diet-friendly option. Once I found this elegantly simple recipe here, I knew it was meant to be.
To make my version of ricotta pie low carb, I used guidelines from here and here.
Ingredients
- 16 ounces of ricotta cheese. I used part-skim, which has about 30 grams of carbohydrates in the whole shebang. So, 8 total slices of pie = approximately 4 carbs per slice.
- 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. I used a heaping tablespoon because I really like cinnamon.
- 3 large eggs. All I had was large eggs. I’m sure whatever size is fine.
- 3 tablespoons of Stevia extract. This stuff has a weird bitter/chemical aftertaste but it cost $7 and has no carbs so I’m using it! If you’re sensitive to the taste of artificial sweeteners, I’d suggest using less.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla, with a whopping 1 gram of carbohydrates in one teaspoon serving.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Dump out the entire container of ricotta cheese into a mixing bowl. Crack in eggs and mix.
- Add the Stevia, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix well.
- Grease a cake pan (or pie dish, if you have one). Pour the pie filling into the pan.
- Plop into the oven and bake for 65 minutes.
The verdict? DELICIOUS.
The cinnamon and vanilla satisfy my craving. The Stevia totally loses its bitter aftertaste but its still evidence this dessert was made with an artificial sweetener. Hopefully, I can get used to this in time. Does Truvia have a weird taste? What’s the latest in artificial sweetening? I’m so out of the loop.
Even ST had two slices of pie. He has a voracious sweet tooth so that is saying something about the yummy factor of this dessert. It was perfect after a big bowl of spicy beef and sausage chili (I of course had a small bowl of chili).
Fresh out of the oven, the pie has a slight custard-like consistency. After refrigeration, the texture alludes to something baked with flour, like a cake. I love this because I miss cake.
If you’re a fan of ricotta pie, definitely give this recipe a try, even if you’re not on a diet.
Have you successfully recreated a healthier version of your favorite dessert?
I’ve never had ricotta pie before. This looks interesting! I will bookmark this.
it looks very yummy and i hate cheese. i did take an authentic irish woman’s scone recipe and subbed vegan buttery spread for butter, used organic ingredients (flour, sugar), white choco chips and craisins. they came out delish and everyone i know who has tried them feels the same way so i am no way biased in my opinion of my lack of culinary skills. don’t know the carb factor but here is the recipe.
It really belongs to Lisa Whiteman who was a mom in Christopher’s Mommy & Me class at the Y. I don’t bake or cook much but I do make a mean scone. I also use organic ingredients as much as I can, such as the all purpose flour (Stop N’ Shop), eggs, sugar, milk). I also use organic, vegan buttery spread (Stop N’ Shop) in lieu of butter, 3 organic, cage free (I hear happier chickens produce eggs that have more Omega 3 in them, lol) egg whites instead of 2 whole eggs, and organic skim milk to make them a little healthier.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees
mix all the dry ingredients together:
2 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder (not baking soda, but baking powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup butter or 5 tablespoons. make sure its cold and that you slice bits of it in the dry mix
2 whole eggs
1/2 cup of milk
cut up all butter in bits/slivers – make sure it’s cold so u can cut it up easier. The woman who gave me this recipe said that this is key cause the butter bits mushed up in the flour will melt once u bake them so it makes them extra good. Caitlin also melted the butter to put in cause I didn’t want her cutting anything and they tasted good, too but I always mush it in w/a spoon.
mush up the dry ingredients w/the butter – you can use your hands to do it where u take a sliver of butter and just mush it into the flour but I use a spoon.
crack eggs or egg whites into a measuring cup, pour milk into the measuring cup w/the eggs already in there until the liquid becomes 3/4 cup, mix the eggs and milk w/a fork
pour egg/milk mixture into the flour and mix. You want the dough to be fluffy, not wet and not too dry. If it’s too wet, put some more flour into it or if it’s too dry, splash a tiny bit of milk into it. It should look airy and fluffy. Continue with the additional 1/2 cup of milk.
flour a cutting board to roll the dough into.
you can pat it into a large rectangle and cut pieces into triangles (she’s a true Irish woman and she says scones are traditionally triangular). I just used two big spoons to scoop them out onto the baking sheet. I like them looking fluffy and round, like the top of a muffin.
you leave them plain and eat them with jelly or put whatever you want in them like craisins, fresh blueberries, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, nuts, or anything you wish. I’m going to try white chocolate chips and macadamia nut pieces next time but I really like a craisin filled scone, too. I’ve also tried organic cocoa, which was good, too. Coconut is good, too.
grease cookie sheet (save that piece of paper the butter was in to use to grease the sheet)
you can also brush the tops of the scones w/milk and sprinkle w/cinnamon sugar
bake for 12 to 15 minutes – I like to bake them for 12 minutes, take them out of the oven for them to finish baking. You can also see when the bottoms get a tad golden brown and take them out. It’s hard to get their bottoms to not burn but so far, the 11 or 12 minute rule seems to work and keeping a close eye after 10 minutes is good, too. Enjoy!
I’ve never had a vegan “butter” spread so I must look for that the next time I’m at the grocery store. Does it taste much different when used in lieu of butter in baked goods? Because Stevia gives a slight artificial taste that I am very sensitive to, for some reason. I firmyl believe that just baking something yourself makes it much healthier than a store-bought or restaurant version and that’s without the healthy substitutions you made.
it tastes good in all that i use it with (cookies, scones, buttered bagels). then again my old tastebuds may be less sharp as yours
here is their website:
http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/product/vegan-buttery-sticks/
i find when i bake, we eat less junk. so we’ll bake a box of cherry brook farm choco chip cookies (gluten free and peanut free but we’re not allergic. we just like the taste of them, lol) w/ one stick of the vegan buttery spread and we’ll eat the cookies and then it will be a while until we bake them again.
btw, i love reading your blog and sometimes get impatient when you haven’t posted anything new, lol.
You’re too cute. You and Kim are the only ones, haha. Oftentimes, the first thing she says to me when we hang out is to complain about the lack of reading material on my blog. But the summer is so glorious! I love being outside and working the paleness out of my skin…