No Butter Baking Pumpkin Pie

Do you realize that there's pumpkin-themed EVERYTHING especially during the fall season: pumpkin pancake mix, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin butter, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin scones, they even have pumpkin flavored raviolis! If I say that I am completely not on the pumpkin bandwagon, I'd be lying but in the end, it all comes down to the classic, pumpkin pie. Although pumpkin pies are a Thanksgiving tradition, I say pumpkin pies all year round! It's too good of a dessert to just wait to bake or eat until Thanksgiving :)

When I think of "pie" the filling is the most important, but I'd say that the crust is just as important as what's inside the actual pie. You see, pie crusts are very difficult to make it without butter because if you look at a traditional pie crust, it's filled with butter, which keeps the crust nice and structured. This was one of many many times that I tried making a vegan crust and I must say, it wasn't easy at all. Some recipes made the crust too soft, and some were too flaky where I give it a touch with a fork and it crumbles. This 2014 holiday season, I finally was satisfied with my vegan pie crust so I hope you enjoy it!

Vegan Pie Crust

Ingredients: 

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour 
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 Tablespoon sugar 
• 1/3 cups ice water (add more as needed) 

Instructions: 

• In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt, and sugar. 
• Add vegetable oil in the flour mixture until the mixture become crumbly. 
• Combine ice water until the dough holds together. Please add ice water 1 Tablespoon at a time if you need more liquid to hold together the dough. 
• Take out the dough and knead the dough. 
• On a cutting board, dust the surface with flour and shape the dough into a ball. 
• Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for about 30-45 minutes. 
• When the dough is soft enough to use, flour the cutting board and rolling pin and roll the dough. 

Pie Ingredients: (NOT VEGAN) 

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 can of pumpkin (15 oz.) - I used Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin 
• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk 

Instructions: 

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (I got this tip from the Libby can on the back!) 
• In a small bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice.  
• In a large bowl, beat eggs then stir in the pumpkin, followed by the sugar and spice mixture. 
• Gradually stir in the evaporated milk. 
• Pour the mixture into a pie shell. 
• Bake for about 40-45 minutes until you poke the center of the pie with toothpick and it comes out clean. 
• Cool for about 2 hours - but I highly suggest cooling overnight in the fridge! 

My pumpkin pie with my "all-year-round" holiday coffee mug :)

If you ever try this recipe, you may think that the crust is a little flaky compared to a traditional pumpkin pie crust. I personally like flaky crusts versus a dense crust so I really enjoyed it. If you feel like you like dense pie crusts, then maybe taking out butter might not be the best way for you ;) That's ok, I'm not against using butter because it does enhance the flavor but for this blog purposes, this is #nobutterbaking :) 

For those who are classic bakers may think that this is the wrong way of baking, but just give it a try and let me know how it tastes and how it goes! 

With that being said, thank you for dropping by #nobutterbaking ! 

From my kitchen to yours, Happy Baking! 

Smiles, 

Mei