I Made a Pie, I Made a Pie!

Okay...well Pilsbury* made the crust and my grandmother helped me determine when the pie was properly baked...but I successfully made the filling of a pie!

So, to tackle the creation of a pie, the most important thing to start with is a pie plate - tin foil or not - not a cake pan.  Running to the grocery store right before it closed on Saturday night, I grab cake pans.  Yikes.  Off to a lovely start.  I also could NOT find maple sugar - anywhere - in that store.There was even a maple display of maple brittle, maple peanuts, maple coffee - two different brand, maple syrup times 7, and maple fudge.  I think those products were mocking me because a simple cup of maple sugar is all I was searching for, but no....

To the recipe:  I found this on http//milkallergycompanion.blogspot.com which linked me to http://mykidsallergies.blogspot.com.  Someone here found or invented this recipe, so I'm thankful for that. :)

Ingredients
14 ounce can of pumpkin pie
Just under 2/3 cups of maple syrup (future, I'd use 2/3 cup of maple sugar) + 1/4 tsp of baking soda (omit baking soda if using maple sugar)
1/2 tsp of ginger
1/4 - 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
3 slightly beaten eggs
2/3 cup of rice milk
Pilsbury (or homemade?) pie crust

What To Do
My order was slightly different since I mixed everything together and had to cook it at my grandmothers (she saved the day with extra pie plates!), but this is what you'd do:

1.  Pre-heat over to 375 degrees F.
2.  Put the pie crust into a pie dish.
3.  In a bowl, combine pumpkin, syrup (or sugar), cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and baking soda.  Add the eggs.  Beat/mix until it's just combined.  Gradually stir in the rice milk.
4.  Pour filling into pie crust.
5.  Bake the pie for 35 - 45 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

We just finished the remaining piece last night, 5 days old and still pretty good!  This pie was a hit at Thanksgiving.  Nothing, of course, beats my Grammie's Pumpkin Pie BUT I do think everyone heard "no cane sugar" and "rice milk" (rice being key) and thought that it would taste completely not like a pumpkin pie.  Leading into their first bite with this mentality, everyone was obviously pleasantly surprised!

Really, though, think about it - can you really go wrong with a mixture of pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and maple?  Tasty combination..........!  Tip for next time:  Use maple sugar, not syrup.  Find out why Gram's pie always tastes spicier - perhaps it's the overbearing maple syrup?

*Pilsbury ready-made crust is dairy and soy-free (small bit of sugar :( ) and is found in the fridge section next to the yogurt at the Super Store.  As there was sugar in the crust, I made sure to have a sugar-free filling!