Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Autumn in San Diego reminds me how much I miss living in the midwest.  

While composing this first entry in my new blog I am currently visiting friends in Chicago, where the air is crisp, the sidewalks are littered with an array of crimson and gold, and the inspiration for anything containing winter squash is annoyingly cliche.  However, who doesn't appreciate a good pumpkin pie recipe?  This particular pie was adapted from a recipe at www.joyofbaking.com, which called for a gingersnap/pecan layer between the pumpkin filling and the crust, I used walnuts instead but trust me, it's better.  I also roasted my own pumpkin, canned pumpkin works just as well (and is probably cheaper and definitely less time consuming) but I would still suggest roasting your own if you can and pureeing it in a food processor.  I feel the need to stress that this was my first attempt at a pumpkin pie and decided to not stray too far away from the traditional ingredients, but I must say that this is one damn good vegan dessert.

First, set your oven to 350 F

Crust

3/4 c all purpose flour

1/2 c wheat flour

1/2 t salt

1 T white sugar

1/2 c vegetable shortening (i like the ones made from palm fruit oil, non hydrogenated)

1/8 c ice water

Pulse together flour, sugar and salt in a food processor until combined.  Add shortening in pieces to the flour mixture and pulse together until all the large pieces of shortening are almost fully integrated.  Drizzle in water while the food processor is on, everything should combine fairly quick but if the dough looks too dry add a little more water.

Take your dough and form it into a ball on a countertop, cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

Dust your countertop (or a flexible cutting board, preferably)  with just a bit of flour, take out your dough ball and flatten with your hands into a disc.  Then start rolling out your dough, picking up the mass and turning it a 1/4 turn with each roll (if you don't do this it will stick to whatever surface you're rolling the dough on and will break apart and will be incredibly discouraging).  Roll to an even thickness, I prefer something around 1/8 of an inch or so.  Take the pie pan and lay it on top of the dough, then flip over the pan, dough and cutting board (if you don't have the flexible cutting board you can lift up the dough and put it in the pan, just pinch the cracks back together).  Press the dough into the bottom of the pan and trim off the excess, form into another mass, roll out the dough and cut into decorative shapes that will thoroughly impress your buddies.  Wrap in plastic and put back in the refrigerator for at least another 30 minutes.

Walnut/Gingersnap Layer

1/4 c walnuts

1/4 c broken gingersnap cookies (I like Mary's Gone Crackers Gluten Free Gingersnap Cookies)

Toast Walnuts in a hot pan until aromatic.  Pulse Cookies/Nuts in a food processor until a coarse mixture is formed.  Press evenly into the crust and then return to the refrigerator while you make the pumpkin filling.

Pumpkin Filling

1 15oz can pumpkin puree (I roasted two small sugar pumpkins and that came out to be just enough)

1/4 c apple sauce

1/4 c Artisana Coconut Butter (softened)

1/2 c So Delicious Coconut Milk Kefir, or homemade cashew cream

1/2 c light brown sugar

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t ground ginger

1/8 t ground cloves

1/2 t sea salt

Whisk all the ingredients together, use an electric hand mixer, or pull that food processor back out for a third time and puree everything together.  Pour into the chilled pie crust, bake for 45-55 minutes or until a knife inserted about an inch away from the edge comes out clean (the center might still look wet, really, it's ok).  Let the pie come to room temperature and serve with So Delicious Coconut Milk Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, or maybe a homemade vegan maple ice cream if you feel like going through the extra work and plan that far ahead.  I also rolled out that extra dough and cut a maple leaf, then brushed it with maple syrup and baked it in the oven until it had started to brown then meticulously garnished the my masterpiece.

This is how the pie came out.  I can promise you it tasted like perfection and I am quite proud to christen my new blog with this recipe.  Thanks for reading and please tell me if you try it out, nothing would tickle me more.