No products in the cart.
Baking, Dairy Free, Desserts, Egg Free, Featured, GAPS, Gluten Free, Grain Free, Holidays, Naturally Sweetened, Nut Free, Paleo, Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend, Spice Blends, Thermomix, Wholefood
Grain-Free Pumpkin Pie
In my family no Christmas dinner is complete without pumpkin pie (along with cherry pie, pecan pie, apple pie . . . you get the picture). If you’ve never tasted pumpkin pie, don’t be nervous – it’s sweet, creamy and delicious, and tastes of spices not vegetables. My version is simpler and more nourishing than traditional recipes. I prebake the grain-free crust, then make a naturally-sweetened pumpkin custard filling that sets when chilled. To make it even simpler, this recipe uses my premade Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend!*
*Note: The original recipe with individual spices listed can be found in my Simple, Healing Food cookbook – this recipe is the quick & easy ‘spice blend’ version. 🙂
Serve this pie chilled, with a dollop of cream – either pure, organic dairy cream or kefir cream (recipe in Simple, Healing Food), or use coconut cream for a dairy-free option.
Print
Grain-Free Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
Pastry:
300g blanched almond meal
2 eggs
¼ tsp fine sea salt
30g butter or coconut oil, plus extra for greasing dish
Filling:
500g butternut pumpkin, grated
250g coconut cream or kefir cream (recipe in Simple, Healing Food)
100g honey
2 Tbsp gelatine powder
2 Tbsp (40g) ghee or coconut oil, plus extra for greasing dish
1 Tbsp Quirky Cooking Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend OR,
-
2 tsp ground cinnamon
-
1 tsp ground ginger
-
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
-
1/2 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp fine sea salt
3 egg yolks
Instructions
Pastry:
- Mix almond meal, eggs, salt and butter or coconut oil in a large bowl or food processor (Thermomix 20 sec/speed 4) until a soft dough is formed. It will be slightly sticky.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, flatten into a disc and wrap in baking paper. Place in the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes before use. (Note: if you store your almond meal in the fridge or freezer you can skip this step as it will already be cool.)
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Prepare a pie dish (23x4cm approx) by greasing with a little ghee or coconut oil and set aside.
- Roll out the pastry between two sheets of baking paper to a circle 30cm in diameter and about 3mm thick. Trim off excess pastry and set aside.
- Carefully remove top sheet of paper and turn pastry over into the greased pie dish, pressing down gently so that it is flat against base and side of dish. Carefully remove remaining sheet of paper.
- Trim edges with a butter knife so that edge of pastry is even with edge of dish. (Roll any unused pastry into a ball, flatten and wrap well with baking paper, then place into a reusable freezer bag. It can be stored in the fridge for a few days, or frozen for a few months to be used in another recipe.)
- Neaten the edge of the pastry, crimping with fingers or a fork if desired, then place into hot oven and cook 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Turn off oven.
Filling:
- While pastry cooks, place grated pumpkin, cream, honey, gelatine, ghee or coconut oil, Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend and salt into a heavy-based saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes with lid off, stirring occasionally, until pumpkin is soft. (Thermomix: grate cubed pumpkin first – 10 sec/speed 5 – then add cream, honey, gelatine, spices and salt and cook 10 mins/Varoma/speed 2.)
- Remove from heat, and whisk in egg yolks, beating mixture until smooth with a whisk or hand mixer. (Thermomix: add yolks and blend 10 sec/speed 10.)
- Pour mixture into cooked pastry shell and set on a baking tray, tapping dish lightly on tray to get rid of air bubbles.
- Place tray carefully into the freezer or fridge to set, making sure it stays level. Chill for at least 1 hour in the freezer or 2 hours in the fridge, until set firmly.
- To serve, slice pie into 8 large or 12 smaller slices and serve with a dollop of cream, kefir cream or coconut cream.
Notes
Variations:
Egg free: Mix together 2 Tbsp of chia seeds and 6 Tbsp of water in a cup. Leave to soak for 5 minutes, then use to replace eggs in pastry. Omit egg yolks in filling, the pie will still set beautifully.
Nut free: Use pepita meal in place of the almond meal.
Pumpkin spice custard: Instead of making this into a pie, serve the filling hot as a custard, or set in a tray and cut into squares once chilled for a yummy snack.
Storage:
Store pie or custard in the fridge for up to 4 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Hello, I am wondering if there is a particular reason to use blanched almond meal, I usually have whole almond meal on hand, will that make much difference?
Hi Grace, in this recipe it should be ok to swap for whole almond meal – you may need to add a tiny bit of water though if the dough is a bit dry or crumbly. I use blanched almond meal because the almond skins contain phytates that can irritate the gut (removing the skins makes the almond meal easier to digest), and you’ll also get a lighter result with blanched almond meal. The whole almond meal will make a heavier result in baking and can sometimes be a little dry.