Low Fat Pumpkin Pie

I promised in my last post that if I were to do any "healthy" baking I would come back here to share the results.  I have to confess that the pumpkin pie recipe I'm about to share with you is not what I would call healthy per se, and you'll see why soon enough.  It is however very low in fat, especially compared to recipes I have read online - that goes for the filling and the pie crust (feels like sacrilege to call it "pastry"!).  There are one or two simple changes I would make if I was going to cook this up again (stated below) and I think once tweaked with, this would make for a pretty healthful dessert or snack.

I've never made pumpkin pie before and usually I wouldn't attempt a healthy version of anything if I didn't know how to make it the regular way first.  I did quite a lot of reading to see what the pie filling is made up of and it's basically a pumpkin custard.  Most recipes call for a couple of whole eggs, and lots of cream and sugar although one or two suggested using mascarpone or even low fat yoghurt to create a more cheesecake-type filling.  Recognizing that I needed a mixture that thinned out the pumpkin but still set to a creamy texture once cooked, I used my baking instincts to create the below recipe. The resulting filling was creamy and spicy and pretty indulgent actually.

The pie crust is kind of a different story.  Real pastry is made up of one part white flour to one part butter; it's less of a "sometimes" food and more of a "birthday and Christmas" food. Don't get me wrong, I love pastry as much as the next person but if I think too hard about what's in it I get the health heebie jeebies!  With that in mind the pie crust below is an excellent alternative.  The recipe I used is from my trusty Healthy Food Guide magazine and was designed for a savoury pie that would be eaten straight from the oven. The pastry is pretty bland but it held itself together and served its purpose of holding all the filling in one place.  If I were to use it again for a dessert pie I'd probably add a bit of a cinnamon or maybe even some sweetener to give a bit more flavour.


Pie Crust

2.5 cups of plain flour (do NOT use wholemeal, it will make the pastry super tough)
4 tablespoons rolled oats*
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons reduced fat spread straight from the fridge
1 cup low fat plain yoghurt

*if you are using a food processor any oats are fine, but I mixed everything by hand and used quick-cook oats as they are already "chopped up"

Food Processor (Quick/Lazy Way):
Process dry ingredients until combined.
Add margarine and pulse until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Turn processor on to lowest setting and add yoghurt until everything holds together.
Just like if you are making cake mix or scone dough, you want the flour to be as little processed as possible - turn the mix into a bowl, lightly knead into one ball, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate one hour.

By Hand (Baking Purist/Better Way):
Use a wooden spoon to stir all the dry ingredients together in one large bowl.
Pop your margarine in the bowl and use a butter knife to slice it up and into the flour until it's in really small pieces.
Use your very clean, nail-varnish-free fingertips to crumble the marge into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Use a very light hand and work quickly, the warmth of your hands will melt the margarine a little and since it isn't as hard as real butter is you want to avoid it getting too mushy.
Pour in your yoghurt and, using a knife at first then your wooden spoon once the mix is more doughy, fold the mixture together. If you've never "folded" batter or dough before, you cut through the middle of the bowl with your utensil then scoop one half of the mix back on itself until it's only just mixed together.  This technique incorporate air into the mixture and stirs everything together without over-processing the flour (it's also how you add flavours to a meringue mix without bashing out all the precious air).
Lightly knead the dough into a ball, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate one hour.

Try not to drink too much wine while waiting for it to chill

Pumpkin Pie Filling

2 cups cooled cooked Crown, Acorn or Butternut pumpkin (I just cooked mine in the microwave)
1/2 - 3/4 cup brown sugar*
3 egg whites, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
100mL extra light coconut milk

*Aye, there's the rub! I did only promise the mixture was low in fat... keep in mind with the pastry we're using, you will want the mix to be quite sweet or you'll end up with a savoury pie but I would recommend swapping it out for a low calorie sweetener.

In a large bowl, mash up your pumpkin.  I could not find my stick blender anywhere so I used a potato masher and it worked fine but a proper blender will get rid of any stringy or lumpy bits in the mix.

Pumpkin "puree"

Add your spices, vanilla and sweetener to taste: you want to get the flavour right before you add your eggs so you can safely taste test as you go, it's really up to you how much of everything you add but if you're unsure, the amounts I've used gave a hint of spice without being overpowering.
Fold in your beaten egg whites. You could use four egg white if you'd like the mix to be lighter.
Add the coconut milk until the mix is sloppy and glossy looking.

Sloppy + glossy = gloppy?

Putting Everything Together

Preheat the oven to 200C
You will either need a lined pie dish or a non stick muffin tray.
Roll out your dough as thin as you can get it.
If you're making one big pie, place your pie dough over your pie dish, press your dough in, trim the edges and voila!
If you're making mini pies, use a cookie cutter or a wide-rimmed coffee mug to cut out circles of dough to pop in your cupcake tray.
Spoon the mixture into the crust, it won't rise in the oven so don't worry too much about it overflowing.
Bake in the middle of the oven for around 20 minutes for mini pies or 30-40 for a large pie.  Keep an eye on everything, you want the filling to be set and the crust to have browned.

Rustic!

Serve warm with Greek yoghurt :-)