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!

“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. Sourdough crust is phenomenal! However, it still has gluten. I’ve had decent success using a 1:1 flour blend and that’s what I fall back on while I’m still looking for the ultimate recipe! So … while I’m still experimenting with crust, you just use which ever one you want!

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.