Best Ever Homemade Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie

This is how to make the best ever homemade gluten free pumpkin pie for your family and friends. And this totally delicious recipe can be dairy free and gluten free pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin pie has become an Easter tradition for us as it is a perfect autumn recipe. Pumpkins are in season in the southern hemisphere and pumpkin pie has all the spices and flavour I associate with hot cross buns. My husband grew up with pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So it has been just as easily added as a dessert tradition for our Easter celebrations.

Great For Sharing

It is great to invite friends over to try something new and pumpkin pie is not something I ever see around where we live. And, it is a good way to share our harvest of pumpkins and swap extra apples or pears with friends and neighbours. Autumn is a good time for giving to others and fits well with Easter and Thanksgiving.

The Ingredients

The Pumpkin Puree

I first made pumpkin pie using canned pumpkin puree and followed the recipe on the can. That was a good place for me to start. We have a great grocery shop nearby and they encouraged me to take a whole pumpkin home to roast. Which was great because then I was not able to buy canned pumpkin puree, it seems like there was not much demand in our area.

Sometimes it is good to buy a few pumpkins and keep them somewhere dry and dark for a few weeks. Pumpkins get sweeter and continue to develop more flavour after they are picked.

The Spices and Milk

The spices have stayed the same, ground cinnamon, ginger and cloves.

And I use coconut cream, or sometimes soy milk, instead of dairy milk. Traditional recipes use evaporated milk and you can still use this too.

The Pastry

A gluten free sweet short pastry base is pretty simple just using the same pastry recipe that I use for sweet short pastry https://mynaturalcottage.com/2022/07/20/light-and-easy-gluten-free-sweet-short-pastry-recipe/.

You can use any short crust pastry recipe, or cookie crumb base, it does not have to be gluten free.

I have used this recipe for large tarts or pies and small Christmas mince pies or individual lemon or apple tarts. https://mynaturalcottage.com/2022/01/19/bite-sized-christmas-mince-pies-using-local-ingredients/

Making the Easiest Pumpkin Puree

I like kto roast the pumpkin whole. There are two great things about this method. Firstly, it is easy and requires no effort. Secondly, the pumpkin retains all its flavour because none is lost as when it is boiled in water.

I have a crown pumpkin here as that is the variety most commonly found in gardens and shops around here, but you can use another kind of pumpkin if that is what you have to hand.

Use a skewer or sharp knife to prick a few holes in the pumpkin. Put the whole pumpkin in the oven to roast. That is it, no chopping or peeling. When the pumpkin has roasted for about an hour it will be soft (and hot) to the touch. You can just turn the oven off and leave the pumpkin to cool in the oven or take it out and sit it on the counter top. The pumpkin will keep cooking in its own heat for a while.

Set the pumpkin aside to cool, then cut a round in the top and lift it out by the stem.

You can scoop out the seeds and put them in your compost bucket. You then have an easy way to get to the cooked pumpkin and scoop it out. A this point I freeze some of the cooked pumpkin because you only need about two cups of puree to make the pie filling.

The pumpkin pie filling

Now to make the filling and this really a type of custard filling using pumpkin. It does not call for any gluten so it works well with or without the dairy substitution. For coconut cream I like to use the top two thirds of the can as this is often the thickest cream. You can put the can of coconut cream into the refrigerator while the pumpkin is cooking to help it separate.

I use a blender to make the filling because that is what I have at the moment although the recipe is super easy with a stick blender too.

1. Put the coconut cream, soy milk or evaporated milk into the blender followed by the eggs and blend together.
2. Then add the pumpkin puree, and blend until completely smooth.
3. Lastly, add the sugar, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground cloves and blend together.

That is all you need to do to make the easiest, most delicious, gluten free pumpkin pie filling.

Sometimes I double the recipe and save half to make an easy pumpkin pie later on. The mixture will keep up to three days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.

Assembling the pumpkin pie

You need a gluten free tart shell made from the sweet short pastry recipe, and here is the link again https://mynaturalcottage.com/2022/07/20/light-and-easy-gluten-free-sweet-short-pastry-recipe/

Pour the pumpkin mixture in to the pie shell and spread it evenly as it will not change shape or spread while cooking.

The pumpkin pie is first put in to a hot oven to cook the outside quickly and then you will reduce the temperature to cook the custard all the way through.

If you are looking for a dessert for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter, then definitely try this gluten free pumpkin pie. It is delicious and the spices have all the right smells to take you straight into the holiday season.

Let me know what you think and enjoy the special days in our calendar.