I don’t care about your back story, just take me to the recipe.

I had my first encounter with pumpkin pie when Mr S and I were in New York last year for the marathon. It wasn’t quite Thanksgiving, but there were pumpkins everywhere and pumpkin pie on most menus so we gave it a go. I only had a little scoop of the filling (as it had cream in it) but liked it and vowed to make my own gluten and dairy free version for the follow year’s “Thanksgiving”.

Above: Pumpkins for sale in New York City, November 2011.

Being an American event, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia, but the last few years on Twitter have opened up my world to it (as it turns out that I follow a lot of Americans).

While I haven’t researched and understood its beginnings, I really like the tradition of taking time to be with loved ones and recognising what you are thankful for.

Clearly I’m thankful for the Internet, as it allows me to follow incredible people and learn interesting things and find recipes for gluten and dairy free pumpkin pie…

There are an abundance of recipes out there. I ended up selecting this one from the Gluten Free Goddess blog as:

  1. Her pie got the response: “This might be the best pumpkin pie I’ve ever eaten.”
  2. It’s crustless. Which is a huge plus for me as I find gluten and dairy free pastry crumbly, dry, difficult to work with and generally painful. Not things I like when cooking.

We shared the pumpkin pie with some friends who were over for dinner who gave it the thumbs up. I think we were still all a bit… “this is different” mainly because we had never had it before and had no point of reference or “history” for it.

Even our friend Adam appeared to like it, which I’ll take as a compliment as his wife warned me: “Adam doesn’t really like vegetables or desserts, so a dessert made from vegetables could be a push…”*

*That was the general gist of it, I cant’ remember exactly.

Gluten and dairy free crustless pumpkin pie

Ingredients:

For the pie

  • 450ml cooked and pureed pumpkin (I’m not sure how much this is in pumpkin weight… I roasted a whole heap then pureed what I needed and used the rest in a salad)
  • 1 1/2 cups full fat coconut milk (or you can substitute soy or almond milk)
  • 2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla (I used regular vanilla, but I want to find some of this “bourbon vanilla”!)
  • 2 tablespoons light olive oil
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten, or to make it vegan, substitute the eggs with 1 tablespoon egg replacer
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup buckwheat flour, or other gluten free flour (best to have one with a bit of substance though)
  • 2 tablespoons tapioca starch/flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

For serving

  • Strawberries or berries
  • Yoghurt or thickened cream (depending on your lactardiness)

Method:

  1. Cut the pumpkin into pieces and roas. You could probably steam it, but I like the roasted flavour. I actually didn’t think about it going into a sweet dish and still seasoned it like I normally would, but it still worked! Cooking time will depend on your oven (ours is slooow) but maybe 45 minutes – 1 hour depending on how much pumpkin, 180˙C or until a skewer easily goes through the pumpkin pieces.
  2. Grease and line a pie tray or round cake tin with baking paper.
  3. And if you don’t still have the oven on from roasting the pumpkin, pre heat your oven to 180˙C.
  4. Puree the pumpkin in a food processor. I know I tend to go on about my “hand held blitzy thingy”, well this is what I’m actually talking about, it’s rad. The blending container also has measurements on it, so you can tell exactly how much pumpkin you have.
  5. Combine with all other ingredients until smooth, then fill the prepared pie tray or tin.
  6. Place in oven and bake for about 1 hour, or until the pie is firm but still has a little give in the centre.
  7. Cool (in tin) on wire rack for about 10 minutes.
  8. Remove from tin, place on place and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
  9. Serve with strawberries, yoghurt or other desired accompaniments.

Below: The pumpkin pie making process (and my first experiment with Diptic).