Pie is considered a tradition for Thanksgiving dessert in the USA. So you might feel the need to make a GF pie for the holidays. I think pumpkin is actually a really easy to make pie choice: it has only a few steps. Make or buy a ready-made crust, dump and mix up the filling, bake it, chill it and yumm it up!! And a pumpkin pie sure is a classic favorite in my family .

This GF crust will work for any pie you should want to make including pecan pie. This particular filling recipe is adapted from my 1970s Betty Crocker and is one I have made for years; perfect custard texture. If you like it really sweet add another quarter cup sugar.

My mom always says that eating a slice of pumpkin pie is like having an extra vegetable serving. I like to cook up a butternut squash and run it through a food mill to make it silky smooth for the pie but you can just buy a can of pumpkin, not pie filling which has other stuff; just the pumpkin please.

Go ahead, bake as easy a gf pie as is humanly possible and enjoy a tasty yet kinda healthy pie for Thanksgiving or Christmas!

Angie’s GF Pumpkin Pie

Crust:
1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
1 Tbps. granulated sugar
½ tsp xanthan gum
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks
1 lg egg
2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 9 inch metal pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer. Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal. Add egg and juice. Mix until it comes together into big chunks. Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes while you make the filling.

Filling:

2 eggs
2 cups cooked pumpkin or butternut squash puree (canned is fine)
½ to 3/4 cup sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. cloves
Sprinkle of nutmeg
1 3/4 c evaporated milk (1 entire can)

Beat eggs well and add the rest of the ingredients and mix it all together with a mixer at low speed until blended.

Put It Together:

Roll out pie crust between the two sheets of wax paper, try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! My sister Karen gave me a pie bag last year and I love it for an even thin crust. You can get one on line from King Arthur Flours. Peel off one side of paper and place in pie pan, centered. Remove other slice of wax paper. Crimp edges all around. Bake ten minutes unless you have a bottom heat oven which will allow you to skip this pre-bake.  Removed from oven and carefully fill with pumpkin pie mixture. Sometimes I sprinkle the top with more cinnamon and nutmeg.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes, lower temperature setting to 350 and bake for 45 minutes until just set and the crust is light brown. Cool and chill at least 2 to 4 hours before serving at or close to room temperature.

Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur GF Flour Mix)
2 c brown rice flour
2/3 c potato starch
1/3 c tapioca flour

Originally published on this blog November 2014.