Why you’ll love this dairy free pumpkin pie
Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and I’m already hard at work testing pies and casseroles and all sorts of pumpkin-related things. I wanted to make sure you were prepared for the holiday with the best dairy free Thanksgiving recipes because I don’t want you to miss out on your favorite dishes just because they have dairy in them.
Pumpkin pie has been a tricky one for me. Traditional recipes call for evaporated or sweetened, condensed milk, which tend to be hard to substitute. So to keep things simple, I decided to make my pumpkin pie with coconut milk in place of evaporated milk. I did change the ratio of liquid-sugar-eggs just a little to make sure we didn’t end up with a soft, gooey mess when it came out of the oven. See also: Are eggs dairy?
More dairy free pumpkin recipes: dairy free pumpkin cookies / roasted garlic pumpkin hummus / pumpkin dinner rolls / pumpkin cream cheese muffins / pumpkin risotto
A few notes on pie crust:
I should start by saying that I am a fan of store-bought crust. I don’t think it’s worth the energy to make your own, especially since dairy free cooking can be so complicated and time-consuming. If you have a favorite pie crust recipe, than definitely use it. To give myself a little more crust to work with for the edge, I always roll mine out just a little.
Do I need to pre-bake the crust for pumpkin pie? You don’t need to blind bake your crust for this recipe, but it wouldn’t hurt. The process of blind baking just allows the crust to crisp up a little more, so you don’t end up with a soggy crust.
Melissa’s tips + tricks:
- Choose the right coconut milk. I recommend using a full-fat, canned coconut milk that contains about 60% coconut. If your coconut milk contains too much water, you will end up with a soggy, mushy pie.
- If you have a pie crust shield, use it when baking your pie to prevent the crust from getting too brown.
- Check doneness by inserting a toothpick into the very center of the pie. If it comes out clean, it’s ready.
- Serve your pie with dairy free whipped cream or your favorite dairy free vanilla ice cream.
More dairy free Thanksgiving recipes: dairy free green bean casserole / homemade stuffing / vegan scalloped potatoes
Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
- 1 store-bought pie crust, or
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup canned full-fat coconut milk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Instructions
- Prepare your crust. Preheat your oven to 425˚F. Roll your crust to fit your pie plate and trim or flute the edges as desired.
- Blind bake the crust. Crumble a piece of parchment paper to make it more pliable, then add it to your crust and fill with pie weights. Then, bake the crust for 15 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven and carefully remove the pie weights. Allow crust to cool completely before filling.
- Make the filling. In a large bowl, mix remaining ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into cooled pie crust and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350˚F and continue baking for 40 – 45 minutes, or until filling has set.
- Bake the pie. Remove from oven and allow pie to cool completely before loosely covering. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
So amazing! Only changes I made was that I used sweetened condensed coconut milk (Walmart has been the only place I have seen it.) and did half the sugar. Came out perfect!
Hi Melissa, I made this pie tonight. Have not tried it yet. I used Trader Joe’s organic coconut milk in a can. It had a lot of liquid and about a half inch of solids. I shook the can, they did not combine. I whisked it, no combo. I put it in my nutribullet, still didn’t combine. So I used about. 1/4 cup of solids and 3/4 liquid. The pie looks great and I can’t wait to eat it tomorrow. Why did I have so much trouble with the coconut milk combining, solids with liquids?
To be completely honest, the can was probably sitting on the shelf for a while and it separated over time. The other possibility is that temperature fluctuations affected it before it was opened. I’ve actually never had coconut milk not come together again at room temp with decent whisking. I’m really sorry that you had that happen over Thanksgiving. Hopefully the pie still worked out!
My 7 year old grandson is very allergic to cow’s milk. He wanted to try a pumpkin pie so we made two pies using your recipe. We saved one for him to bring to his other grandmother’s Thanksgiving meal and cut into mine as soon as it cooled. We were both thrilled with the results. It is absolutely delicious!!! I think it’s the best pumpkin pie I’ve ever eaten.
This is absolutely my favorite recipe EVER! Cane out perfectly. I used coconut cream and had to increase time here in Arizona.
Great recipe!! My partner loved it!
As I had no full fat coconut milk but had sweet cream oat milk i added a 1/2 tblspn coconut oil to it and cut back the sugar. Taste is excellent. Texture good but could be more firm
I am not a fan of coconut flavor but this was delicious. Perhaps the spices covered the coconut taste, but whatever the cause I plan to use this recipe from now on. In my family there are three people with milk intolerance (I’m one of them).
Thanks! I’m so glad you liked it!
This is the best pumpkin pie I have ever had. My family agreed that it was better than pumpkin pie with dairy. We also had extra filling because our pie shell must have been a bit smaller than what what the recipe called for and we baked it in ramekins for crustless pumpkin pie and that was also delicious!
Thank you for dairy free options. I cannot wait to try@
Still slightly runny in the center after an hour and a half at 350 deg F. But my crust was burning so I took it out.
I’m guessing your coconut milk contained too much water then. Do you know what brand you used? I would also recommend using a pie crust shield next time to prevent your crust from getting overcooked while the rest of the pie sets.