Pumpkin Pie - dairy free

Since it's Thanksgiving this week, I thought, for once, I'd get up an appropriate recipe ahead of time. Not the day of or the week after, which is less than helpful.

Yesterday I showed you how I cooked my pumpkin, and today I'll tell you how I made it into delicious, delicious pie. If you try to eat vegan or dairy free, you may have noticed that pumpkin pie is tough. Almost all "regular" recipes I've seen use condensed milk or evaporated milk, and there's not an intuitive substitute that I can think of. However, in Devil's Food Cake Murder, I found a substitution recipe. The book itself is not good, but the recipes are mouthwatering. Anyway, thanks to this book, I was able to make a dairy free pumpkin pie without using tofu. and it was DELICIOUS. Seriously.

go forth and make pie.

Substitute for Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 eggs
1 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Beat the eggs together until they are a uniform color. Add the brown sugar and mix in well. Add vanilla and beat in. Add the flour and beat for another minute and make sure it's well mixed. Add the baking powder and salt and mix in.

This makes enough to substitute or one 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk.

Pumpkin Pie - dairy free
1 1/3 C smooth pumpkin
1 batch substitute for sweet condensed milk
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1 C hot water

one 9 inch pie crust- vegan, gluten free, homemade, store bought, etc.

Preheat oven to 375F. Beat all ingredients together until just smooth. Pour into a prepared 9 inch crust and bake for 50-60 minutes. It's normal if the center is still somewhat jiggly, as it will set as it cools.

How to Cook a Pumpkin

Last week, I wanted to make a pumpkin pie as a rehearsal for Thanksgiving, and this year I wanted to make it from a real pumpkin, not a can. I had a sugar pie pumpkin to use (I've seen them both at Trader Joe's and farmers' markets, fyi), but I've never actually cooked a pumpkin before. So I did a little internet research and combined a few techniques I read about to bake my own little pumpkin.

Here's what I did, but there's definitely lots of other methods out there, including microwaving if you need to save some time.

How to Bake a Pumpkin

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Without trying to cut through the stem, cut the pumpkin in half. Use an ice cream scooper to scoop out the seeds. Save them for roasting!
3. Place the pumpkin halves face down in an oven-proof dish. Add enough water so that there's about half an inch covering the bottom of the pan. Cover pumpkin with foil.
4. Cook the pumpkin for about 90 minutes, or until tender.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

To puree for use in baking, scoop out cooked flesh and blend in a food processor or blender. Alternatively, smash with a potato masher. If you're not using the pumpkin right away, refrigerate or freeze.