Vegan Pumpkin Pie

After my battle with the cheese pumpkin I swore off making my own purée. Then I became intrigued by the use of sugar pumpkins in baking. Now that I've come up with an easier way to make purée, I'm swearing off the canned stuff.. at least when pumpkins are in season. The sugar pumpkins make delicious, flavorful purée, that tasted excellent in pumpkin pie.

Sugar Pumpkins 

We have an impostor!

I made the purée by cutting the pumpkins in half and scraping out the seeds. They were placed cut side down on a greased baking sheet and baked for about 30 minutes at 400º. Once cool enough to handle, I scooped out the flesh and puréed in a food processor. This was much easier than peeling and cubing the pumpkin before it was cooked, like I did with the cheese pumpkin.

Scoop out the seeds

Bake cut-side down

They're done when easily pierced with a fork.

For the past couple weeks I have been experimenting with different vegan pumpkin pie recipes to make the perfect pie for thanksgiving. I've finally developed a winner! I couldn't find any appealing vegan recipes online, so I did what I always do and just made my own! Traditional pumpkin pie calls for sweetened condensed milk (or whatever that stuff is called), but I replaced it with a mix of coconut milk and coconut oil. I used a homemade egg replacer, also.

I was worried that this wasn't going to work, since it didn't seem to be cooking through in the oven. I took it out, thinking I had another failure, and left it on the counter overnight. The next day, I decided to have a bite, and it was great! I guess the coconut oil just needed time to solidify. So if you're making this for Thanksgiving I would make it a day or two in advance (like tomorrow.. these holidays keep sneaking up!) and leave it in the fridge. (Update*- I made this again, this time with only 1/4 cup of coconut milk instead of a 1/2 cup. It came out much more solid, and had the perfect consistency of a regular pumpkin pie.)

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

• 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• Dash of cinnamon and ginger
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg substitute (see below)
• 1/4 cup full fat coconut milk
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil

I rimmed the edges with fall themed sprinkles.

1. Preheat the oven to 450º.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the puree and sugar.
3. Add in the flour, salt and spices.
4. In a small bowl, whisk up the egg substitute (3 Tbsp of water, 2 Tbsp of flour, 1 tsp of baking powder, and 1/2 tsp of baking soda) until frothy.
5. Add the egg substitute to the pumpkin mix and stir until combined.
6. Gently stir in the coconut milk and oil.
7. Add the mix to a pie crust that has been fitted into a dish. I used my recipe for a galette as the pie crust, but you could use a pre-made crust, too.
8. Bake for 10 minutes. 
9. After 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 350º and bake for an additional 35 minutes.

You're just going to have to trust that it's done, since a knife won't come out clean. Just leave it on the counter to cool, move (covered) to the fridge to chill for a day or two before serving. 

Is there anything I can't do?? Ok, I'm done bragging now.

Pumpkin Season!!

Although I claim to be all about the summer, October is probably my favorite month. The autumn foliage is at its peak, there are pumpkins and vibrant mums everywhere, and it's home to one of my favorite holidays. I've always loved Halloween. It's even more fun now that I have Logan to join in the festivities. I still love watching the old Halloween classics with Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel on YouTube, and I'll never tire of movies like Hocus Pocus and Nightmare Before Christmas. Logan and I watched that last one this morning actually. He loved the scenes with Christmas trees, and I had to rewind the song "What's This" a few times.

Another great thing about the month is the return of pumpkin as an ingredient. It's a tradition for me to grab a pumpkin latte and take a stroll around the Mill Pond in Setauket. Andrew and Logan joined me last year for the first time, and we plan on going again soon.

Last year at the Mill Pond

I tried something new this year, I made my own pumpkin puree from a locally grown cheese pumpkin. What. A. Pain. I try to avoid cans whenever I can (I'll pass on the BPA, thanks), but peeling and chopping the pumpkin was such a big production that I'll stick to the canned pumpkin for the rest of the season.

Cheese pumpkin.

I peeled and cubed the pumpkin, then
steamed the pieces until easily pierced with a fork..

and blended them into a puree.

That one pumpkin made a lot of puree!

Logan looking festive while eating oatmeal
with pumpkin and apple puree.

It never occurred to me to make my own lattes and frappes, until I saw recipes on Pinterest. I used coconut milk to take them vegan, adjusted the ingredients to suit my tastes, and wow. They're delicious!

Iced Pumpkin Frappes

Makes 2 large servings

Freezing the coffee in ice cube trays
was my stroke of genius.

• 16 coffee ice cubes
• 1/4 cup of pumpkin purée
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1. Brew 2 cups of coffee ahead of time, and freeze in ice cube trays.
2. Once frozen, add the cubes along with the rest of the ingredients to a blender, and blend until the ice is blended enough to drink.
3. Pour into glasses, sprinkle with a dash of cinnamon, and enjoy along with the warm fall weather we've been blessed with so far :-)

I cheated and added traditional whipped cream to these,
but if you're feeling ambitious you can top them with coconut
whipped cream, like I made here. These were delicious with
pumpkin muffins, fresh from the oven!

The latte recipe I found was made in a crockpot and took 2 hours. Who wants to wait 2 hours in the morning for their latte? Not me, so I made it in a pan on the stove and it still came out wonderful.

Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Makes 4

Cooling on the windowsill

• 2 cups fresh brewed coffee
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups coconut milk
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie extract
• 2 tsp. sugar

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over the stove.
2. Heat over a low flame until warm, but don't let it boil.
3. Serve immediately.

Vegan Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup

I found a great recipe for vegan pancakes on allrecipes.com, added pumpkin purée to it and struck gold. It's quick, easy to make, and you most likely have everything you need to make it already in the cabinets. No worries if you don't have pumpkin, they're still great pancakes without it. I made a cinnamon syrup to go with it, another recipe I got from allrecipes.com. I made some changes to the original recipe, like adding less sugar, more cinnamon, and omitted the flour. These have become favorites in our house, and I've made them time and time again.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Makes 12 small pancakes

Logan chowing down on an "L" shaped pancake on his first birthday

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. safflower oil (canola or olive oil would work here too)
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1. Mix everything into a large bowl.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle over a medium flame. Drop about 1/2 cup of batter for each pancake onto the griddle. 
3. Flip the pancake when bubbles begin to form and the edges start to brown.
4. Enjoy with mimosas.

Cinnamon Syrup

Serves about 8*

• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar (or white sugar if that's what you have)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup water

1. Stir all ingredients in a small saucepan. 
2. Bring to a boil and stir until it thickens to the consistency of syrup.
3. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes before serving. 

*Any extra can be stored in the fridge and reheated before each use. I store extra in old Frank's Hot Sauce bottles. We put hot sauce on a lot of our food, so we have plenty of those bottles lying around!

Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Muffins

You know what the best part about vegan baking is? You can eat as much of the batter as you want. So I do. I probably end up with one less muffin or so because of it, but I can't help myself!

This was the first baked goods recipe I altered to make it vegan. It was the first time I used apples as an egg substitute, and oil instead of butter. It came out perfect the first time, and it's a recipe I make again and again. Unsurprisingly Logan goes nuts for them, and so does Andrew. I've made it with any combination of unbleached flour, whole wheat flour, plain white sugar and turbinado sugar. It all works so use whatever you have on hand.

Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

• 1/2 cup apple purée
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin purée (about 1/2 of a 15 oz. can)
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Vegan chocolate bar or chocolate chips (about 3 oz.)

1. Preheat the oven to 400º.
2. Mix the apple, sugar, pumpkin and oil in a large bowl.
3. Add the flour, soda, powder, and pumpkin pie spice and mix thoroughly.
4. Stir in the chocolate.
5. Pour into a greased muffin tin and bake for 17 minutes.