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!
I made it with a ready-made, gluten-free graham cracker crust and it was excellent! And there was enough extra filling – even after I filled the pie crust full – for me to fill a small ceramic tart cup with the remainder – about a cup. I will definitely make this again.
I’m making this for the second time this week! I like to double the recipe because I buy the crust, and the store bought crust always comes in packs of two. It’s delicious – I can’t taste the coconut at all (I’m neutral about that because I enjoy the taste) and not too sweet. Thank you so much for this simple recipe. I will be dropping my second pie off with a dear friend tomorrow and I’m sure she will be overjoyed. Love this so much, thank you!
Forgot to rate this 5 stars when I submitted my comment! Absolutely delicious, thank you so much for the recipe! I use coconut cream (from the can) instead of coconut milk and it’s heavenly.
My family loves this pie. It taste so much better than regular pumpkin pie. I try and make it a couple times a month. Thanks for the recipe!
If you are using a gluten free pie crust do you baked it before filling it?
Can I use canned evaporated coconut milk instead?
I think you should be able to use it. I haven’t tested it personally, but I’m pretty confident it would work just fine. It might even be better. Just make sure it’s not sweetened condensed coconut milk because that much sugar would really affect the flavor.
We have made this pie every year for several years now and love it. I make no substitutions or changes. Doesn’t taste like coconut to me but I’m probably so used to coconut milk I barely taste it. Now my daughter, who CAN tolerate dairy, always requests this pie for Thanksgiving instead of one with milk!
This is my 1st time making the pie and since you’ve made it several times, would you answer a few questions?
1) Do you use a gluten free crust?
2) Do you pre-bake your crust?
3) Do you use a pie/crust shield when baking?
I added 1 tsp vanilla extra and used dark brown sugar 🙂
I did not pre-bake my crust; pie is still baking and the crust is already SUPER brown… lesson learned. We also use plenty of coconut products in our home and did not notice the coconut taste at all.
I’ve been making this pie the last few years for lactose intolerant kids at home. The first year we made this and a regular pumpkin pie. Everyone ate this one first, so now we just make two of these for the holidays instead!
Hate to leave a negative review, especially one star rating for someone’s personal site, so have two. Actually followed the instructions. Well, I used coconut cream because it’s heavier, and coconut milk has always been a fail. I even added arrowroot to double avoid a soggy pie. Total fail. Wasted ingredients. Not even custard texture. I’m never making a dairy free pumpkin pie again. They all fail. For me. What goes wrong? ☹️
It sounds to me like you didn’t actually follow the recipe, so you can’t say that it didn’t turn out. By using coconut cream instead of coconut milk, you increased the fat content for the recipe which can throw off the balance of the egg/liquid for the custard. If you don’t follow the recipe, you can’t expect it to turn out.
I followed the recipe as written and it turned out perfect. Thank you for a dairy free pumpkin pie recipe that is wonderful.