This delicious vegan pumpkin pie is a firm US favourite – but it’s less well-known here in the UK. Of course the main ingredient is pumpkin, but pumpkin on it’s own has a very bland taste. That makes it a perfect carrier for the special spice mix which compliments the underlying pumpkin flavour perfectly. I haven’t skimped on the spices which many recipes do – with a 1/4 teasp of this and an 1/8 teasp of that – so little you can barely taste it. My version is a lot bolder and gets the balance spot on. You can tell me in the comments if you agree or not.
Another common complaint I have about many internet recipes is TOO MUCH SUGAR & WHITE FLOUR! Don’t they know there’s a diabetes epidemic raging? Going vegan won’t sort that, but cutting down on sugar and refined white products will – whole grains rule. There’s nothing to miss, get the balance right and no-one notices because most things are too sickly sweet.
There’s no getting around it, pastry is tricky – especially wholemeal. However if you use a loose base tart, you can cheat a bit and no-one will know. Roll the pastry out bigger than the base, and allow enough extra to go up the sides as well. Place the base on the rolled out pastry and cut round it with a pastry cutting wheel. Carefully remove the edges, and then slide the pastry circle onto the base. Drop the base into the tin, then just piece in the sides – easy peasy.
Baking this delicious vegan pumpkin pie is a slow affair – nice and gentle with the heat. You’re looking for a little jiggle at the end so it’s not completely solid. It will firm up as it cools. Cook it too long and the pastry will overbrown and the filling will be too dry.
This is delicious when eaten with vegan mascarpone or vegan vanilla ice cream.
Pumkin Pie - veganised
Equipment
- 1 20cm/ 8 inch loose base cake tin
- 1 Food processor
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 box of ceramic pastry beans
- 1 greaseproof paper circle for 20cm tin or a roll of greaseproof paper
Ingredients
Pastry base.
- 200 g wholemeal flour You can use a mix if you like - for instance: 100g Emmer & 100g plain – or just use 200g plain wholemeal flour
- ½ tsp Salt
- 100 g vegan butter/vegetable shortening. I use 75g coconut + 25g Rapeseed frozen
- 30 g caster sugar
- 3 tbsp cold water. you may need 4 depending on the flour you're using.
- 25 g ground almonds
Filling
- 425 g pumpkin puree canned or fresh
- 80 g maple syrup
- 70 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
- 100 g full fat coconut milk
- 150 g silken tofu – use a 300g pack Sainsbury’s sell it, freeze the rest for another one.
- 3 flat tablespoons of custard powder/corn starch It may work better with just 2 - next time......
- 40 g cashews soaked 30mins in hot water.
- 2 teasps Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
Instructions
Making the pastry case
- Put the flour(s) and frozen ice-cubes of shortening into a food processor with the blade attachment inserted.
- Pulse the blade until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add in the sugar and pulse a few times to mix in well.
- Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle the very cold water into the mixture as you stir it with a fork.
- It should clump together, and then form into larger pieces. At this point if it’s not starting to do this, you may need to add a up to a maximum of 1 more tablespoon. Too much water though will make the finished pastry tough.
- Form into a dough.
- Then on a sheet of greaseproof paper, pat/roll into a disk a little smaller than the pie dish – and refrigerate for 30mins. Use a high sided 8inch removable base pie/tart case.
- Roll out to bigger than the pie dish by around 40mm – still on the sheet of greaseproof paper. Slide hand under paper and offer it up to the pie dish & flip over or fold over a rolling pin to transfer it. Wholemeal pastry is more difficult to work with as it’s not so flexible.
- Press gently into the edges and smooth the pastry level with the top edge and trim pastry so it’s not above the lip, with a table knife.
- Cut the same greaseproof sheet to the size of a large dinner plate and cut strips radially around the edge.
- Drop paper into pie dish and smooth into edges
- then pour some baking beads in so you have a single layer of beads completely covering the base. Bake at 200°C (190°C Fan) for 15 mins until edges are golden brown.
- Once pie crust is cooked, remove paper and beads by gathering up and put on a plate or bowl to cool.
Making the filling
- Meanwhile, tip all “filling” ingredients into a blender and blend until completely smooth. This will take some time in a standard food processor.
- Pour the mixture into the cooled pie dish,
- bake at 170°C (160° Fan) for 45 mins to 1 hour making sure it is set. It should have a slight jiggle to it when tapped from the side smartly.
- Cool thoroughly/overnight.
- Eat with vegan cream and/or vanilla ice-cream.
Notes
- This tart freezes well.
- Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s sell a can of pumpkin puree exactly the right size for this recipe.
