If you love pumpkin spice and all things nice, then this is the pie for you! It’s pie season and it can’t pass by without having baked a deliciously flavoursome pumpkin pie. This pumpkin pie is easily made in two simple steps. First, the all-butter sweet flaky pastry and then the creamy pumpkin pie filling. Slow bake it in the oven for an hour, add a dollop or two of fresh cream and it’s ready to melt-in-your-mouth! This is my all-time favorite dessert that I could honestly eat all-year-round!

Hokkaido pumpkin is perfect for baking with and especially perfect for gluten-free bakes. Gluten-free bakes often risk being too dry or crumbly, but adding fruit or vegetable purees such as pumpkin or beetroot, can bring back that missing moisture and create a beautifully soft and fluffy texture. Making your own pumpkin puree may be time consuming but it is very rewarding when you see the amount of delicious bakes you can get out of it. Plus, the whole pumpkin can be used so nothing goes to waste. The seeds can be roasted with salt for a healthy snack inbetween!

This pumpkin pie is super simple to make with simple ingredients and no particular special equipment, making it the perfect addition to a family feast or for Thanks Giving and Halloween get-togethers.

What equipment do I need for this pie?

• Large 28cm pie dish or 24cm deep pie dish
• Stand mixer or electric hand-held mixer
• Rolling pin
• Baking paper and clingfilm

What ingredients do I need?

• Butter – I often use unsalted butter for my recipes but salted is okay too if you leave out the extra sugar from the ingredients. Make sure the butter is fresh out of the fridge for the pastry!
• Brown sugar – Light brown sugar or brown sugar is perfect, try to avoid muscavado sugar as it may change the taste of the pie a little too much.
• Eggs – Medium free range eggs are fine and also need to be cold, straight from the fridge
• Gluten free flour – A gluten free flour blend such as Doves Farm Plain Flour with added Xanthan gum is perfect for this recipe, otherwise a standard flour blend will work fine. I often use Schär Mix C for plain flour recipes. You want to avoid a flour blend with added baking powder as you don’t want a cakey overflowing mess for your pastry crust.
• Pumpkin Puree*- Homemade or tinned puree is fine for this recipe. The most important thing, is that any excess water has been removed either through blotting or the cheesecloth draining method
• Xanthan gum – Xanthan gum is essential for most gluten free recipes and there’s no exceptions here. Doves Farm is my preferred choice but you can use any.
• Cream – Double heavy cream for the filling and a good sturdy whipping cream to top.
• Corn starch – Any gluten-free corn starch can be used, just check the packaging that it is gluten-free.
• Milk– I use a full-fat 3,5% whole-milk for this recipe but semi-skimmed can also be used.
• Butter – Unsalted butter is preferable for this recipe, if using salted, leave out the extra salt
• Mixed spices – For this recipe you can use your own mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper and ginger or a pumpkin pie spice mix, all spice mix or mixed ground spice, depending on what is available in your area.

Tips

• Blotting or draining – It’s imperative to blott or drain the pumpkin puree beforehand so as to remove any excess water before baking. Too much water will make the pie soggy and wet and has the potential to ruin the pie!
• Rolling out the dough – Roll out the chilled dough between two sheets of baking paper will help to avoid the dough sticking to the rolling pin as it is a very sticky dough. The baking paper can be used to help transfer the dough to the pie dish later without any problems.
• Filling the pie – Once the dough is in the pie dish, place the pie dish on the oven wrack on the middle shelf and pour in the filling like that. This helps to avoid having to transfer the wobbly pie to the oven and risking any spillages. You want to keep every drop of deliciousness!

Tried this recipe? Let me know what you think!