Thanksgiving came early this week for us, so to speak. There was no grand dinner just a grand pumpkin pie. I swapped a smoothie for a pumpkin at the Kerrisdale Market on the weekend and took a stab at making a pumpkin pie from scratch for the very first time ever.
Did you know that you need to bake a pumpkin in order to make the pumpkin puree? I sure didn't until a few days ago! I'm always continually surprised by the simple things that I don't know. I knew of course that there wasn't always canned pumpkin puree so what the heck was it that they did over 100 years ago before there was? Well, I'll tell you, in case you were just as in the dark as I was.
Pumpkin Puree
Cut a small to medium sugar pumpkin in half, cut out steam and scrape out insides. Lay cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet (line it with foil). Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit until fork tender, about and hour to an hour and a half. Remove from oven, let cool, scoop out the pulp.
From there I just followed a pumpkin pie recipe and put the pulp straight into my food processor and blended with all the ingredients. I could have just sat there and eaten the straight insides. It was so delicious.
Delicious enough that C and I couldn't resist having it for breakfast. We worked hard on it and couldn't wait any longer. I can see why so many people just buy pumpkin pies. It is a long pie to create. Most likely why I've never known how to make one, as one had never been made in my home growing up, lots of other delicious stuff had been made instead.
Of course our pie crust is gluten free. We use the Pie Crust from Gluten Free Pantry. It is a flour combination that is already premade and sold in the box but still requires the addition of eggs, water, sugar, butter and shortening. Essentially from scratch but not. C did all the pie crust mixing and I did the rolling. We have two open crusts that come from one box. A great crutch while we search the world for the perfect/favourite gluten free pie crust recipe that we have yet to discover.
Here's a few other Thanksgiving Inspirations that I've discovered and wanted to share in light of the upcoming holiday next weekend:
Raw Vegan Pumpkin Mousse PIe from Sweetly Raw
Vegan Pumpkin Pie from The Spunky Coconut
A ton of Pumpkin PIe inpsired recipes from Whole Foods Market to select from
Enjoy! XO. S
