Pumpkin Pie

by John Tanner — last modified Sep 01, 2010 10:20 AM

Tastes just like the traditional Thanksgiving favorite, but without the dairy, eggs, and oil.
Makes one 9" pie - about 8 slices

3/4 cup spelt or other whole grain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup frozen apple juice concentrate

15 oz can of pumpkin
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ground allspice or cloves)
1 cup nonfat soy or oat milk
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Using the spelt flour results in a crust that is a lighter color and therefore looks a little more like a traditional bleached flour crust. If you don't care about the color, whole wheat flour tastes just as good.

I bought apple juice concentrate by Langers that comes in the freezer section with a plastic jar with a screw on lid. This package is great because you can easily store the remainder back in your freezer for next time.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Use a non-stick 9" pie pan. If you don't have one, you can spray your pie pan with vegetable oil spray (bad!) and wipe off the excess.

Mix the flour and salt in a medium size mixing bowl. Stir in the apple juice concentrate straight from the freezer so the mixture will remain cool while you work it. Use a fork to mix the dough until the flour is all wetted and the mixture is uniform. Pack it into a tight ball with your hands and then roll it out on the counter with a rolling pin. Use extra flour liberally on the counter, the rolling pin, and your hands to keep the dough from tearing, as it will otherwise be quite sticky. When the circle gets to be bigger than your pie plate, carefully lift the dough and transfer it to the pre oiled pie plate, pressing it into place, repairing any tears with your fingers, and finally trimming off any excess.

If you don't mind a thicker pie crust, you can scale up the crust ingredients by 50% or so. That will make the crust much easier to work. But I find its worth the extra work to keep the crust thin so the emphasis is on the filling.

Put the pumpkin and the remainder of the ingredients into a blender and blend. Pour the mixture into the unbaked pie crust and bake for 60 minutes. Cool in refrigerator overnight for the filling to set.

Because this crust has no oil or fat in it, the hardness of the crust depends on the moisture content, so that if the pie is not eaten right away, the crust around the rim of the pie can get very hard. To counter this, spread a bead of water around the rim of the pie crust with your finger about 10 minutes before eating the pie.