Given a choice between cake and pie, I choose pie every time. I’m a pie lady. There really is no such thing as bad pie, give me your soggy crusts and gummy innards. One of my few laments about living in San Francisco, is that there isn’t a diner on every corner with a massive pie display. It’s tough to get a slice on the go out here. I know, the tiny violins, they play for me.
Vegan pies are really simple, helped by the fact that pie recipes sometimes end up being vegan purely coincidentally. For fruit pies, like apple or blueberry, it’s all about using shortening instead of butter in the crust. When it comes to custard pies like pumpkin pie, the recipe needs a few more tweaks to vegan-ize it. The end result, though, is miraculously the same as regular heavy-cream-and-egg pumpkin pie.
Actually, during a blind-ish taste test last Thanksgiving, my vegan pie beat the regular pumpkin pie. That’s always my goal when making vegan treats — that they taste so good, people don’t even realize they’re eating a dairy and egg-free dessert. The pumpkin custard ends up fluffier and lighter than regular pumpkin pie, which can be a bit heavy and gloppy. The pumpkin spices really shine too, perhaps not weighed down by the cream and eggs. It’s a very satisfying bite of pie.
Vegan Spiced Pumpkin Pie
For the crust: Head over to Smitten Kitchen’s Pie Crust 102. For vegan pie, just use all shortening/Crisco (butter flavored if you want to keep it real). If you’re like me and don’t mind imperfect pie crusts, go ahead and fudge a few corners and promise the Pastry Gods that you will care about perfect, flakey pie crust some day in the future. The crust will be fine even if you over mix, totally mishandle it. I figure it’s better to have a pie than to feel utterly intimidated and have no pie at all. (Triply so if you’re making this vegan, because no one is selling you a vegan pumpkin pie.) (Unless you DO know of someone making vegan pie in the Bay Area, in which case, TELL ME WHERE.)
For the custard:
15-oz can of pumpkin puree
1 cup coconut milk (the kind that comes in a can, not the coconut milk that comes in a carton near the milk case)
1/2 cup milk alternative (I used rice milk)
3 teaspoons Egg Replacer
4 tablespoons warm water
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
Roll out your pie dough on a floured surface to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Lay inside pie plate and press into corners. Fold down and crimp edges. Use a fork to prick the bottom of the dough, scattered around the pie crust. Chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 375. Place foil inside your pie plate and weigh down with dry rice, dry beans, or pie weights if you’re fancy. Bake for 20 minutes. Take off the foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes until your pie crust is a pale gold. You don’t want it fully baked right now. Let it cool before using.
While the pie crust is baking, make the pumpkin custard. In a small bowl, whisk your Egg Replacer and warm water until there are no lumps. In a large bowl, mix the puree with coconut milk, milk alternative, Egg Replacer concoction, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt.
Pour the custard batter into your pie crust shell. At this point, if you have extra pie crust dough, you can roll some out and cut them with cookie cutters to make your pie look extra special. Just position the cut out pieces on top of the batter carefully so that they stay on top.
Bake your pie for 45 to 50 minutes. I needed the full 50 minutes. As you pull it out, the top should quiver slightly, letting you know that the custard has set. Let the pie cool to further set the custard before serving.
Enjoy!
