Pumpkin pie (in my humble opinion) is an essential of all Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Unfortunately it would seem that nearly all pumpkin pie recipes not only are not gluten free, but also use condensed milk as one of the ingredients for the filling.
Pumpkin is thick
And sugar is sweet.
So why the need for condensed milk?
My family and I are all lactose intolerant so condensed milk definitely was not an option.
My mother had for years experimented using yogurt and/or almond milk for the pie. These pies always tasted regrettably sour.
Compounding the difficulty was my family's desire for it to be sugar free. So we tried using honey- but somehow the pies always had a slight sour taste.
I finally went to my ol' pal "Google" and typed in "sugar-free pumpkin pie filling."
I found a recipe by Martha Stewart that was not only condensed milk-free but was also sugar-free. I tweaked it slightly and managed to make a delicious honey sweetened pumpkin pie from scratch.
So Voila! Here is my Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie Recipe. I use the same crust as the one for the smoked salmon tarts except I add a dash of sweetener to the dough
Pie Crust Recipe
1 cup Key Gluten Free Mix (below)
2 Tbl. sweet rice flour
6 Tbl. cold butter
1 tsp. honey or sugar (add to dough after ingredients are all mix)
1 Egg
1 Tbl. lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.
Instructions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. Mix the flour. Cut the butter into tablespoons and add to the flour. Cut the butter in by working it into the flour with a fork or a pastry cutter. You want the butter mixed in until it is in pea sized pieces. Next make a dip (or well) in the middle of your flour. Pour in the egg and lemon juice. Mix in starting from the center and working your way out.
Take a piece of floured parchment paper and roll out your crust on it until is as thin as a piece of thickish fabric. Put it on a cookie sheet and refrigerate it for 5-10 minutes. When it is done chillin' take it back out and mold into your pie tin. (I used mini pie tins for my quiches but I would recommend using a regular sized one). Prick the crust with a fork before putting it inot the oven to bake for 10 minutes. The crust should be barely cooked, a pale golden. Put it to the side until you have prepared your filling.
Pumpking Filling
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
To prepare the pumpkin (skip if using canned pumpkin): Cut pumpkin into slices and scrape out all the seeds. Bake in the oven on cookie sheet on tinfoil at 350 degrees farenheit for 35 minutes or until soft. Let cool. Scrape out the pumpkin and blend in a blender. If possible, put pureed pumpkin through a cheese cloth in order to squeeze out any excess liquid. Finally freeze the pumpkin puree you won't be using.
To prepare filling: Preheat oven to 375 degrees farenheit. Combine pumpkin puree, eggs, maple syrup, milk vanilla and salt. Stir until well blended. Pour into the pie shell and bake for about 45-55 minutes, or until set. By "set" I mean that the filling will be fairly firm and won't stick to your finger if you touch the pies surface. If the crust begins to overbake you can cover it with tinfoil.
Once it is completely baked let it cool.
Serve with icecream, whipped coconut cream, or "truewhip." Truewhip is a dairyfree, healthy alternative to cool whip that I am particularly fond of.
