I am not a vegan, however, I have beloved family members who keep Kosher and one who is deathly allergic to eggs. As you can imagine, this can present quite a challenge when it comes to desserts – especially for the holidays. And I have an aversion to making something with substitutes that isn’t almost as wonderful as the real thing. It’s taken some searching and experimentation, but I think that my vegan pumpkin pie is as good as pumpkin pie with milk and eggs. It has the right taste and mouthfeel. So if I didn’t have to work within these restrictions would I still make the vegan version – probably not, but when I eat this do I feel as if I am “making do?” Definitely not. It’s one darn good pumpkin pie. And my niece, who has eaten both, swears she likes this version better!
Ingredients
1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust (I use the Crisco recipe)
12 ounces silken tofu, blended until liquefied
1 recipe non-dairy condensed milk (see attached recipe)
15 ounce can pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 rounded teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground clove
2 Tablespoons molasses or buckwheat honey
3-5 cracks of black pepper
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a blender until smooth and well-blended
- Pour into pie shell and bake on the lowest rack of the oven for 10 minutes
- Cover the crust with foil or a pie guard and continue baking for about 30 minutes more or until the center just jiggles a little. Turn off the oven, open the door slightly and leave the pie in the oven for 10 more minutes. Don’t worry if it cracks a bit and poofs up. It will settle down as it cools. My baked filling is very dark because of the spices and molasses.
- Allow to cool thoroughly. This tastes best when made a day ahead.
- Because this is not a real custard, you don’t have to worry about refrigerating it.
I brought this to my niece’s house for Shabbat and it is the favorite dessert of my goddaughter/great niece.
Instant Dairy-Free Sweetened Condensed Milk Alternative
Author: Alisa Fleming
Serves: Makes approximately 14 ounces
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons dairy-free, vanilla milk powder (I used Growing Naturals Organic Vanilla Rice Milk Drink but I’m not sure this is still available, so you might look for either a soy-based version if you have no issues with soy or Better Than Milk brand Rice Beverage Powder Mix – Vanilla. I have not yet tried either of these, so I am going off of reviews on the internet. )
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup hot water
- 2 tablespoons canola, rice bran or grapeseed oil
- Generous pinch salt
Instructions
- Place the rice milk powder and sugar in your blender. Whiz the ingredients for about 30 seconds, or until powdered.
- Add the water, oil, and salt to your blender and blend for 2 minutes, or until thick and creamy.
- Use as a substitute for sweetened condensed milk in recipes.