Eating your veggies for dessert? Okay, I’m sold!  Yes, I’ve officially boarded the pumpkin pie train. I’ve honestly never made a pumpkin pie since my all time favorite holiday pie is sour cream raisin or even mincemeat (I know, weird). Given that my husband absolutely MUST have pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I feel it’s only fair to finally make one just for him. Starting from an old fashioned pumpkin pie recipe, I’ve created a dairy free pumpkin pie using coconut milk in place of the cream or evaporated milk. The spices include cardamom which is more traditional in Scandinavian pies so I’ve honored my heritage with that in combination with the old standards of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.

The crust for this dairy free pumpkin pie version is the exact crust I used to bake back home on the farm.  I learned to make flaky delicious pie crusts using lard which we often rendered ourselves.  The method is the same as butter based crusts (pate brisee) which needs to be chilled before rolling but this version using lard seems to be perfectly flaky whether or not you chill the dough before rolling so you can save that step if you prefer.  They key to this awesome crust is to not over-handle it and roll it thin to around 1/8 inch.  Blind-baking the crust first (baking without the filling for a few minutes) helps the crust to begin to develop flakiness without absorbing the moisture of the filling. You will want to cover the edges of the crust with foil or a pie shield to prevent overbrowning for the rest of the bake time.

Dairy free pumpkin pie can easily be made a day ahead or you can freeze the pie crust already made but not yet baked. To do this, you can simply pat it into a disk and cover in plastic wrap or go a step further and roll, plate it and cover the whole pie dish before freezing.  The flavors of the pie filling are even more wonderful if you mix them up the day before and let them sit in the fridge overnight to mingle.  Top your perfect slice with pastry leaves or a vanilla bourbon coconut whipped cream sweetened with maple syrup. Now, THIS is a pumpkin pie perfect for a feast!

Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

75 mins

Total time

1 hour 30 mins

 

Author: Kari - CookingUpClean

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 12 slices

Ingredients

• CRUST:
• 1½ cups flour (I used ancient einkorn wheat flour)
• ½ teaspoon salt (I used pink Himalayan)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• ½ cup cold lard or unsalted butter
• 3-4 tablespoons ice cold water
• FILLING:
• 2 cups pumpkin puree from a roasted pie pumpkin or use canned puree that's not seasoned
• 1 cup full fat canned coconut milk
• ⅔ cup maple syrup
• ½ teaspoon pink himalayan salt
• 2 whole eggs plus the yolk of a third egg
• 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
• zest of 1 lemon
• WHIPPED COCONUT CREAM:
• 1 cup coconut cream (scrape the solid cream off the top of about 2 cans of coconut milk refrigerated for at least 24 hours so it separates)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 teaspoon bourbon or rum

Instructions

1. FOR THE CRUST:
2. In a food processor, blend flour and salt with a quick pulse.
3. Dice the cold lard into small half inch cubes and pulse with the flour just a few times until the lard is about the size of peas. Alternately, you can do this by hand and cut the lard into the flour with a pastry blender.
4. Add maple syrup and ice water and pulse just until dough starts to come together (or blend with pastry blender).
5. Then, add the ice water one tablespoon at a time and pulse after each one or knead with your hands until it comes together. If there are still bits of dough that are not incorporating, add a touch more water.
6. Once dough comes together, knead gently on a clean lightly floured surface to form into a disc. Do not over knead.
7. Dust dough with flour and wrap in plastic wrap to refrigerate for an hour to overnight.
8. When ready to fill, flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll out dough to ⅛" thickness.
9. Drape over an ungreased pie plate and press lightly into the dish. Trim off excess to leave 1" overhang.
10. Fold edges of dough under to make a cute edge and pinch around to seal edges. Lightly prick dough with a fork.
11. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Blind bake (without filling in it) about 10 minutes until crust puffs slightly and is light golden. Remove from oven and pour in filling.
12. FOR THE FILLING:
13. Combine all ingredients with the whisk attachment on a stand mixer.
14. Let sit in fridge 1 hour to overnight for best flavor but can use immediately.
15. Pour into blind baked pie crust and turn oven down to 375 degrees. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes.
16. Check for doneness every five minutes starting at 45 minutes. Center should be just set.
17. Cool completely before serving.
18. FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:
19. Place coconut cream in a chilled bowl and whisk with electric hand mixer or stand mixer until peaks form.
20. Whisk in syrup, vanilla and bourbon and serve on top of pie slices.

Notes

For lower sodium, reduce salt to ¼ teaspoon in the crust and filling = 64mg per serving

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 slice Calories: 249 Fat: 17g Carbohydrates: 22g Sodium: 169mg* Fiber: 3g Protein: 3g

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