By Gretchen 26 Comments
The number one dessert that undergoes the most scrutiny once converted is the Vegan Pumpkin Pie Recipe!
Do not go to your holiday gathering without an acceptable recipe!
Here is a vegan pumpkin pie recipe that passes the test from all our non vegan friends and family.
We all have those friends and family members that are going to “be the judge of that” when it comes to tasting our vegan creations!
Trust me this recipe is a sure winner and I guarantee no one will know it’s vegan!
With a few easy tweaks I’ve veganized my famous pumpkin pie from my bakery days!
Sweetened with maple syrup and a little brown sugar too and all the pumpkin pie spices!
For those of you that make a jar of Pumpkin Pie Spice as soon as September 1st rolls around;
We must be soulmates! Use 2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice instead of the individual spices listed below
Notes for Success:
You will notice in the video tutorial I was using The Plant Based Egg by Freely Vegan for the egg replacer
It’s not available anymore and I regret promoting it so vigorously; so now when I do use an egg replacer from the store I will use Bob’s Red Mill since it seems to be the most consistent & available to most.
But you can add whatever dry blend egg replacer you love the most OR simply add 1 more teaspoon of cornstarch for added thickening
When measuring cornstarch I cannot stress enough that a kitchen scale is the best way to go.
Cornstarch is a very difficult ingredient to measure consistently with a volume spoons measure
So while I list both measures below I cannot stress enough how the grams measure with a scale is going to give you the best results.
Many times people have complained that their custard (AND PUMPKIN PIE IS ESSENTIALLY A BAKED CUSTARD) is like rubber and they don’t know why!
Pumpkin in a can may be hard to find for some people but don’t worry you can easily make your own! CLICK HERE
Just be aware that homemade pumpkin puree is often much more liquid than the thick solid pumpkin in a can so you may want to strain the homemade version to take out as much excess liquid as possible before using in this recipe
Last: This is one recipe that can easily be converted to sugar free or refined sugar free simply by switching out the granulated sugar for whatever sugar you like the most!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE ABOUT SUGAR FREE BAKING!
Also, I have a full video tutorial for how to make the best, flakiest vegan pie crust that you won’t want to miss!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS PUMPKIN PIE
Yield: serves 8
Vegan Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Recipe is for 1-9½" Pie (24cm)
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time2 hours 10 minutes
Ingredients
For the Pie Dough:
- All Purpose Flour 2 cups (250g)
- Sugar 2 Tablespoons (28g)
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Vegan Butter Cold 6 Tablespoons
- Shortening or Solid Coconut Oil 4 Tablespoons
- Liquid Vegetable or Coconut Oil 2 Tablespoons
- Cold Water 3 Tablespoons (90ml)
For the Pumpkin Pie Filling:
- Canned Pumpkin 2 cup (480g)
- Light Brown Sugar 6 Tablespoons (85g)
- Cornstarch 4 Tablespoons (32g)
- Egg Replacer 1 teaspoon (2.5g) *see notes above
- Maple Syrup 5 Tablespoons (75ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoon (10ml)
- Cinnamon 1½ teaspoons
- Ground Ginger 1 teaspoon
- Ground Nutmeg ½ teaspoon
- Ground Cloves ¼ teaspoon
- OR
- 3 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice
- Plant Milk 1½ cup (355ml)
- Vegan Butter 2 Tablespoons (28g) *optional
- 1 Recipe Vegan Whipped Cream
Instructions
- For the pie dough first get the vegan butter and shortening or coconut oil to the freezer while you measure the rest of the ingredients.
- Combine the flour, salt, sugar in a food processor (or you can mix the entire recipe by hand with a pastry cutter or fork) process to distribute the ingredients evenly.
- Add the cold vegan butter and the shortening or coconut oil and process until it is mealy and course crumbly texture.
- Add the cold water and the oil through the feed tube while pulsing and then process until a soft crumbly dough forms.
- Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and gather the dough together to a soft ball that stays together.
- Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour to relax the dough and allow the flour to absorb through.
- Once chilled, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface (this dough is much easier to roll between 2 pieces of parchment or wax paper) to about 12" diameter (¼" thick) and line your 9.5" pie plate. Trim the excess and re-roll to cut out the optional leave shapes to adorn the rim of the pie.
- Poke holes in the bottom of the pie dough with a fork and blind bake in a preheated 350ªFoven for 12-15 minutes on a pizza stone (*optional but really helpful for a nice color bottom crust)
- For the pumpkin pie filling, combine all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and whisk smooth.
- Pour into the prepared pie crust and bake in a preheated 350°F oven for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.
- The pie will look slightly jiggly in the center but not liquid and it will set to firm upon refrigeration
- Remove from the oven, cool completely and then refrigerate to set before serving.
Notes
Pumpkin Pie should be kept refrigerated and will stay fresh for up to 5 days
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Reader Interactions
Comments
CassiaSince I am not a fan of pumkin, I’m going to turn this into a sweet potato or honeynut squash pie. I’m excited!
- dale
2 Tablespoons of ground flax seed mixed in 3 ounces of water is a great substitute for 2 eggs when making pumpkin pie.The filling texture is no different.
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- Donna
Gretchen, several years ago I made your pumpkin crunch cake and absolutely loved it. I thought I had wrote the recipe down but I can’t find it. Is there anyway I can get that recipe from you? Thank you so much.
I tried your vegan pumpkin cake and it is delicious as well, but I would like to have the original recipe. 😉Reply
- dara
Your recipe looks really good. Can you tell me, what changes would you make for a speculoos cookie crust? Have you made it that way? Thank you for any help.
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- Gretchen
Thanks! You can use crushed cookies 2 cups + 4-5 tablespoons melted vegan butter
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What exactly does the Plant Based Egg do in baked goods? Flax or Chia will/won’t do the same thing?
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- Gretchen
In my experience using all the egg replacers (including in a controlled test of one recipe with 8 different replacers her in my online course Vegan Baking mastery) I have found that the Plant Based Egg is my favorite. In my opinion flax can be gummy, and because of the fat content I feel it almost weighs down in the final recipe.
I love flax for many things and have used it with success in lots of recipes, but since the PBE I am definitely using that more often than not. It not only binds the recipe, but it gives a beautiful texture and crumb that stays together more than any of the other replacers Ive used. No crumbly cakes that won’t stay on the fork, the texture stays light not heavy, never gummy. It’s really worth the buy. I know I am biased, but I only advertise for things I really believe in
So anyway, it has flax and chia in it, but well….here is the ingredients list:
The Plant Based Egg ingredients are psyllium husk, flaxseed, pectin (apple/citrus pectin and cane sugar), agar, milled chia, and sunflower lecithin. It is gluten and top 8 allergen free and made in a dedicated facility.
Unfortunately the website isn’t up yet, and Amazon has required us to sell by the 3-pack grrr… but once the website is done we can ship single packs out!Reply
- Kaitlyn Modz
First of all, this was more delicious than any pie I remember eating from the store in my non-vegan years, or any pie my mom tried to make around the holidays. I made this for a vegan bake sale and I didn’t get to take any home with me–it was such a big hit. Having grappled with this as a college student owning very little equipment, however, I would like to offer a few tips about the crust and achieving a very good-looking pie.
I chose to make this with vegan butter, sunflower oil, and coconut oil instead of shortening. I mixed everything by hand and cut the oil into the flour with a fork. If you go for this route as well, I do not recommend making your coconut oil very cold before adding it to the flour. The first time I tried this, I ended up with huge, hard chunks of coconut oil in the dough, which I couldn’t easily break up and didn’t think to remove, because I’m not that experienced a baker. That was a very big mistake. If you leave these hard chunks of oil in the dough, baking it will cause the oil to melt, leaving big holes in your crust where the chunks were and causing the whole thing to collapse. I had to remake my crust, and this time I was very careful to remove those hard chunks of oil as I came across them while rolling it out. That time I was successful–my crust held its shape through blind baking instead of slumping down the sides. Learn from my mistake–keep your coconut oil solid, but don’t let any hard chunks of it stick around!
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- Gretchen
Hi Kaitlyn! Thank you for the feedback! I appreciate that!
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- Kim
Can you substitute soy or flax milk for almond milk? Thank you!
- Gretchen
yes definitely! I have to get into the habit of writing “plant milk” rather than soy so people can choose what they prefer
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- Sophie
Hi Gretchen,
We don’t have tinned Pumpkin in the UK. But we have plenty of fresh pumpkin. What do i need to do to the fresh pumpkin to get it to tinned pumpkin status? Or can I just grate it finely?
Many thanks,
Sophie
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- Gretchen
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- Sophia B Hutchinson
Seriously!! You are theeeeeee best! You have saved me! Thank you, a million, thank yous!!!!sop
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- Deja
Best pumpkin pie!!
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- Gretchen
YAY! Thanks!
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- Sylvia
I tripled you filling recipe as there will be a LOT of pumpkin pie eaten around here tomorrow. The pies smell heavenly, texture looks like pumpkin pie should and I have no doubt that they will taste yummy.As we need GF crust, I cheated and bought ready made. I suspect your recipe would work fine using GF flour which I will try another time.
Appreciate the recipe!Reply
- Robin
Hi Gretchen. Any thoughts on why the crust slumped in the blind baking? I used ceramic pie weights and baked for 12 minutes on a cast iron pan. Thank you!
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- Gretchen
Hmmm, not so sure as I have not had this trouble with this recipe for crust!
My best guess (for when this happens – in any recipe) is usually to much working of the dough, sometimes when a dough is tootough, (too dry) or just plain too overworked, it causes the dough to pull in, imagine a muscle that is sore and overworked for example, it gets super tight so we have to stretch out right? So this is a good analogy with the dough. I usually rest the pie shell in the pan in the refrigerator while I am preheating the ovenReply
- Merryl
I had the same problem, even after refrigerating the crust while the oven preheated. I think the prebake may not work when using coconut oil instead of shortening.
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- Bessie Hernandez
Where can I find the non vegan pumpkin pie recipe?
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- Gretchen
Hi Bessie, Since last December my non vegan blog has shut down.I couldn’t keep up the cost to host it on the internet and maintain it monthly anymore
The cost to host such a huge database online was close to $400 a month with tech support monthly to keep it clean & safe and smooth.
I certainly do not (did not) make that much in adsense revenue through Youtube & Google.That became a pretty steep price to pay for a website that had been conflicting me financially & emotionally for so many years,
so after 5 years of keeping it free & open to the public I finally decided to shut it down.
I did not keep any of the recipes for myself when I shut down the database
(which was the only place the recipes were stored)
I just did (do) not feel comfortable anymore sharing recipes laden with animal ingredients promoting the very industry I loathe
so it really didn’t make sense for me to keep them nor keep open and available such an expensive website.I do thank you so much for your support and encouragement through the ages,
I have stunned NON Vegans with my vegan recipes, perhaps you could try to do the same?
If not, I am sure there are tons of great (if not better than mine) recipes out there for you to use!Thanks again~ Best, Gretchen
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- Gabrielle Engh
Dear Gretchen, Thank you. It’s to die for! And you are right that when you bring a treat like this to a holiday it had better be ready to take on the competition. What better way to encourage people to think about minimizing and eradicating animal suffering. A few questions: how many slices would you turn this into for a bakery? Did you hand cut the leaves?
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- Gretchen
Thank you! I would typically get 8 slices out of a pie this size
The leaves are hand cut~ yes. I would cut them ahead of time and leave them in the freezer to easily apply on the pies just before bakingReply
hello, i had someone who not only needed dairy free, egg free, but gluten free and nut free. after looking through several recipes .. i used yours!! i used great value gluten free four, 2 cups, a full stick of vegan butte, the 4 tbs of butter crisco and then 4 to 5 tbs of cold water, and i omitted the vegetable oil, but im going to try it next time with it, and then the same sugar and salt amount and chilled.. i then needed it just enough to get a good ball and rolled it between parchment paper. used the paper to drape it onto the pan. and then you just need to take time in working the edging. it does tend to fall apart but you can piece that top part together to get a nice looking edge..i washed it with a dairy free whipping cream and added sugar and cinnamon and it kept its shape and turned out flaky and really good.. so thank you so much … the pie itself is also amazing..
the only question i used almond milk in the first attempt and it puffed up and looked and tasted great.. but this one customer could not have tree nuts so i used soy milk and it did not look as nice and i dont think it tasted as good.. what do you think about oat milk instead? i have used that before in my cakes.. venturing into this gluten free vegan pies is a whole new experience for me..
thank you for everything you have done, i love all your videos and have used several of your recipes over the years
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- Gretchen
Hey wow this is great news that it works with gluten free! Thanks for letting me know!
I have not tried Oat milk but I am 100% sure it will work! I typically always bake with soy milkReply
