Real Food Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin is everything Autumn to me! I love driving through farm country and seeing the orange spheres laying out in the fields. The day they show up in piles outside the grocery stores is always a red letter day! And I don't believe in restricting pumpkins only to October! After all, Real Food Pumpkin Pie is a classic for Thanksgiving Dinner!

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"What do you mean 'Real Food' Pumpkin Pie?" I mean that it's made using nothing canned or processed. The pumpkin is roasted, then pureed, and I use cream rather than evaporated milk.

Is there a problem with evaporated milk?

Evaporated milk is milk that has had 60% of the water extracted from it and that is done by applying heat, then homogenizing it, then heat sterilizing it during the canning process. When evaporated milk was created, it was to answer the lack of refrigeration. If milk could be canned, it could be kept for longer than fresh milk. Since I have a perfectly good refrigerator, I see no need to use it!

While I believe whole, non-homogenized milk would work fine in this pie, I also think the water content is too high, so I choose heavy cream from a local farm. The texture is much more like evaporated milk and the richness causes the custard to set up perfectly.

I've always loved Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe … the one on the can of pumpkin. I think the blend of spices is good and it always sets really well.

It calls for eggs and sugar to be mixed with the pumpkin and spices first.

Then you can carefully whisk in the cream being sure that it is well-incorporated.

My Pie Crust Quandary

Pie dough is difficult for me since I started eating gluten-free. I used to pull out a really great homemade pie crust! I've tried almond flour recipes and they just don't make the cut for me. I have made it successfully with a 1:1 gluten-free blend, but I land on sourdough crust. It is phenomenal! However, use which ever one works well for you!

You'll just need one pie crust for Pumpkin Pie. Roll it out, place it in the pie plate, and form the edges.

Place the pie plate on a baking sheet and pour the custard into the shell.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425, then 40-50 minutes at 350 until the custard is only just jiggly in the middle. A knife inserted in the middle will come out mostly clean.

Let the pie cool completely at room temperature and store in the refrigerator. It's delicious cold with cinnamon whipped cream.

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Recipe

Real Food Pumpkin Pie

Tammy Circeo

'Real Food' Pumpkin Pie" is made using nothing canned or processed. The pumpkin is roasted, then pureed, and I use cream rather than evaporated milk. Of course, the recipe works just as well with canned pumpkin and evaporated milk, but the taste? Oh the taste of a fresh roasted pumpkin pie... mmm! Read the Notes to see how to make it gluten- and dairy-free.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 25 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

  

• ¾ cup organic cane sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ¼ teaspoon cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1¾ cups pumpkin puree
• 1½ cups heavy cream
• 1 9-inch deep-dish pie crust

Instructions

 

• Heat oven to 425°F.
• Mix sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and cloves in small bowl.
• Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add dry ingredients and pumpkin puree.
• Gradually add the cream, stirring carefully with a whisk.
• Pour into a 9-inch deep-dish pie shell.
• Bake at 425˚ for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350˚ and bake for 40-50 minutes. If the crust edges are getting too dark, you can cover them with foil.
• Cool on wire rack for 2 hours.
• Store in the refrigerator and serve with cinnamon whipped cream.

Notes

I have used coconut palm sugar instead of organic cane sugar and the taste is much more caramelly. The flavor of the coconut sugar almost overpowers the flavor of the pumpkin and that's why I prefer organic cane sugar.

Use whatever pie crust recipe you prefer. I'm still working on a gluten-free recipe (or searching for it somewhere!). It works well to use 1:1 gluten-free flour blend in your favorite pie crust recipe.

If you eat dairy-free, this works well with cashew cream, too. 

To roast the pumpkin, follow the instructions in this post. 

Keyword pumpkin, pumpkin pie, pumpkin puree