Home Grown Tomatoes presents: Crust a Must? No.

Crustless Pecan Pumpkin Pie with Maple Pumpkin Frosting

Home Grown Tomatoes is a weekly Vegan/Vegetarian column by Giovanina Bucci
(in other words...Scarlet Lily did not write this:))

I just like staring at these pictures. They make me happy, except I am doing the Master Cleanse right now, so they're kind of pissing me off, because I can't eat anything for 10 days! Nonetheless this creation, otherwise known as Crustless Pecan Pumpkin Pie with Maple Pumpkin Frosting, is sweet, delicious, and gluten free! In my humble opinion, it's pretty much an edible version of the Adirondacks: pumpkin, maple, pecan...

Beau requested this number for Thanksgiving this year, so I figured a trial run wouldn't hurt anyone. And it didn't. We grabbed forks, spoons, whatever we could find, and dove into this delight like ravaging animals. And now it's gone... :)

I adapted this recipe from My Sweet Vegan, which is a highly recommended, fabulous vegan dessert cookbook with pictures for each recipe. I decided to ditch the crust, add my own little flair for the frosting, and made a few other changes. Speaking of frosting, I was acting like an 8 year old on Christmas this day and couldn't wait for the pie to cool before frosting with my Ziploc bag. Regretfully I piped too soon, but I grabbed the camera just in time. About one minute after these pictures were taken, the frosting started gravitating towards the middle and the pies' decadent appearance disappeared as each pecan was swallowed. Tasty, nonetheless.

Serving Size: apparently 8 slices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Pumpkin Filling

1 C. pumpkin puree

1/3 C. sugar

2 Tbs. of Rice Milk (Soy Milk, Soy Creamer, anything milky...)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ginger (which I didn't have, but I'm sure would add a magnificent dimension)

1/8 tsp. allspice

2 Tbs. Non-genetically modified cornstarch

(Note: I am not a huge fan of using cornstarch, and try to use it minimally in my cooking. I haven't experimented yet, but I imagine there are alternatives here, especially if you're not vegan. And as a vegan, I would likely try using something like Arrowroot Powder or something similar to help the pie set up and thicken.)

Pecan Filling:

1 C. pecan halves

2 heaping Tbs. of honey or 1 Tbs. of agave syrup

1/3 C. maple syrup (I used Grade B, which is excellent for cooking)

1/4 C. dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Maple Pumpkin Frosting:

This was a "wing it" effort - so the measurements are, well, approximate.

3 Tbs. Earth Balance butter (room temperature)

1/4 C. confectioner's sugar

2-3 Tbs. pumpkin puree

1 Tbs. maple syrup

Essentially, with frosting, you want to get a good consistency and sweetness, and those two things aren't very hard to accomplish. Begin with the measurements above and modify as needed. The worst that could happen is you'll make too much...which gives you an excuse to eat a spoonful here and there.

First, mix all of the ingredients for the Pumpkin Filling. Once mixed well (either by hand or using a mixer), pour into a well greased 9" pie dish. Mix the ingredients of the Pecan Filling and layer on top of the pumpkin. Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Once the pie has COMPLETELY cooled, frost away.

As I said earlier, I just used a Ziploc bag and piped small, round swirls to add to the beauty. Honestly, since I dove in head first, I didn't even attempt to slice the pie. However, it did set up nicely and I think would be sliceable. Now that I am looking at the size of this post, it looks overwhelming. Seriously, I don't make things that are overwhelming or take 3 hours to make, because I'm impatient and usually hungry. This whipped up very fast and the outcome is well worth it! Enjoy.