Sweet Potato-Pumpkin Pie with Pecan-Maple Sugar Crumble
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The taste of this pie is a little bit different from what you might expect from the usual sweet potato concoction. With the addition of coconut milk, lime juice and rum along with the usual suspects of cinnamon, ginger and allspice – there’s a definite island kind of tang.
The basis of this recipe comes from the sweet potato Brazil nut pie in the delicious cookbook, Vegan Pie in the Sky, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Not being a fan of Brazil nuts, I used pecans instead. Other changes I made were adding pumpkin puree – I didn’t have enough roasted sweet potato but had leftover pumpkin puree; swapping out a 1/2 cup refined sugar for stevia; using maple sugar instead of brown sugar and totally changing the crust. I used my low-fat Grape-Nuts crust – doubling the recipe – to avoid the additional fat. I also reduced the sugar by half in the crumble topping and used maple sugar again instead of brown.
Sweet Potato-Pumpkin Pie with Pecan-Maple Sugar Crumble
Serves 8
Crust:
2 cups Grape-Nuts cereal
1/2 cup pecans, toasted
1/2 cup unsweetened apple juice
2 tbsp. flaxseed meal + 6 tbsp. water (whisk together and let sit for a minute)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
Filling:
1 1/2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup + 4 tbsp. coconut milk
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup maple sugar
1/2 tsp. powdered stevia
1 tbsp. rum
1 tbsp. lime juice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
Crumble Topping:
1/4 cup maple sugar
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped
2 tbsp. vegan butter/shortening
pinch of salt
Make the crust:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Combine the Grape-Nuts, pecans and cinnamon in a food processor and process until finely ground. Some larger pecan pieces may be visible – that’s okay. In a bowl, stir together the Grape-Nuts mixture with the apple juice, flaxseed meal mixture and vanilla extract. Pour the “dough” into a deep-dish pie pan and gently pat until it’s evenly distributed along the bottom and up the sides.
When the oven is to temperature, bake the crust for about 15 minutes. It will have browned a little and the smell in your kitchen will be a beautiful thing. Remove from the oven and set aside while you prepare the crumble topping and pie filling.
Make the crumble:
In a small bowl, combine the vegan butter and maple sugar, then stir in a pinch of salt and the pecans. Set aside.
Make the pie filling:
Put all of the pie filling ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until completely smooth. Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake for 20 minutes. Remove pie from the oven and gently top it with the pecan crumble. Put the pie back in the oven for another 30-35 minutes. The nuts should be nice and toasty and the pie filling will feel slightly firm.
Cool the pie for at least a couple of hours before slicing and serving. Top with tofu whipped cream, if desired.
I’m a big fan of your blog; your posts inspire me to get in the kitchen and cook. I’m putting this pie on my weekend to-do list.
Quick question: what brand of Grape Nuts did you use? My understanding is that Post uses animal-derived Vitamin D (D3) in its cereals, and I’ve been looking for a good substitute. I think that the New Farm cookbook offers a homemade Grape Nuts recipe, but I haven’t had the time to try it yet.
Thank you, Heather!
Wow…I had no idea bout the Vitamin D – but I just did a quick search and all I could really find out is…nothing definitive. PETA lists Grape-Nuts as an “accidentally vegan” product, but others note that the source of the Vitamin D is not identified or known. I guess it’s time to find a proper substitute! I would think that almost any vegan cereal could be ground and used in the manner suggested in my post. Let me know if you come up with something inspiring! I appreciate you giving me the heads up.
Annie
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