Christmas
by: Hillary Pollak
October22,2014
5
2 Ratings
- Makes one 9-inch pie
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Author Notes
This pumpkin pie is anything but boring. The hefty amount of bourbon cuts the sweetness, and a mix of sour cream and heavy cream in the filling makes it a little tangy. The gluten-free gingersnap crust is just slightly spicy and much easier to make than a regular pie shell. —Hillary Pollak
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- For the gingersnap crust:
- 1 1/2 cupsfinely ground gluten-free gingersnaps
- 6 tablespoonsbutter, melted and cooled
- For the filling:
- 1 1/3 cupspumpkin purée
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cuplight brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoonbutter, melted and cooled
- 3/4 cupheavy cream
- 1/3 cupsour cream
- 1 1/2 teaspoonsground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoonground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoonground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoonground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoonsalt
- 3 tablespoonsbourbon
- 1 1/2 teaspoonsvanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350° F.
- In a large bowl, mix together the gingersnap crumbs and butter. Press the mixture evenly into a 9-inch pie pan, making sure to cover the bottom and sides. Bake until lightly golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool. Increase the oven temperature to 375° F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all the filling ingredients. Pour the filling into the cooled crust.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until set. The center should be fairly jiggly, but it will set as it cools. Cool to room temperature, then serve.
Tags:
- Pie
- Pumpkin Pie
- Fall
- Christmas
- Thanksgiving
- Dessert
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AntoniaJames
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Jenn Sigmon
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17 Reviews
Agnes November 30, 2016
I LOVE this recipe and so does my family. I do add about 1/2 cup of the bourbon. It cuts the sweetness of the pie!
learnoff November 25, 2016
This was a huge hit at our Thanksgiving meal. I used Tate's gluten free ginger cookies that also have candied ginger in them. I also replaced all the diary with full fat coconut milk (in the can - but not coco lopez). No one knew the difference at all - either that it was missing gluten or dairy. I made it in a spring form pan so it looked really nice when I took the side ring off. I was careful with baking the crust so I didn't have the problem with burning. However there is a lot of butter in the crust so if you use a spring form or tart pan (another pretty look) be sure to put it on a cookie sheet or you will end up with a mess - butter dripping all over the bottom of your oven. Really delicious and not at all difficult.
AntoniaJames November 30, 2015
Several lessons learned with this one:
1. Even with a collar, the crumbs on the top burned. I ended up cutting off all the burned crumbs, leaving a somewhat unattractive very dark rim of crumbs peeking above the filling. Looking more closely at the photo, I see that seems to have happened with the pie shown above, as well. Perhaps one could add an egg white to firm up the crumbs and blind bake it with a collar for a much shorter time.
2. Using gingersnaps significantly affects the spice flavor profile (skewing heavily toward ginger, of course), so people who prefer a "traditional" pie will notice; they could very well ask you just to use a standard pie crust instead, or at least one not made with gingersnaps. One could also use a hard vanilla cookie (Annie's and Trader Joe's make them in animal shapes), which is most likely what I would do if making this again.
3. I used coconut milk - the thick stuff on top, after refrigerating -- and no dairy; the spices were so bold I could not discern any coconut flavor.
4. The pie tasted much better two or three days later.
;o)
Ann November 28, 2015
To follow up...the pie turned out great and everyone loved it. I made another batch of filling today so that I could use up the extra crust crumbs in mini pies :)
Pam D. November 28, 2015
Used a 9-1/2" deep-dish pyrex pan, an 8-ounce box of GF gingersnaps (more like 2 cups) and kept the 6T of butter. Worked well. Used 1/2 & 1/2 instead of cream. One sugar pumpkin yielded enough puree for two pies. This was a huge hit at Thanksgiving dinner.
Ann November 26, 2015
I had the same experience as Jenn...6 TB butter is way too much. I ended up with ginger snap soup in the oven! I suspect 2-3 TB is plenty for that amount of ginger snap crumbs. 6TB is more appropriate for an entire box of cookies. Luckily I still had the other half box of cookies to grind up and add in to save my sanity on Thanksgiving morning.
Agnes November 28, 2014
what an incredible recipe! this was a major hit last night with my family. the bourbon really enhancted the flavor of the pumpkin and spices.
Jenn S. November 23, 2014
UPDATE The filling is delicious.. could not wait til after dinner to try :)
Jenn S. November 23, 2014
I attempted this, but used homemade brown sugar shortbread cookies for crust - against my better judgment, I used the 6 tbs of melted butter in crust.. it was way too wet - and was impossible to bake - I added foil and a weights to try to press it back out and up the sides.. so I had to start over - I used store bought shortbread cookies and ground pecans, with just 2 tbs of butter - crust came out great - filling looks and smells delicious - will update after tasting. I think the amount of butter is too much - no matter what type of cookie is being used - unless gluten free gingersnaps react differently.
AntoniaJames November 5, 2015
Thanks for the tip, Jenn. Comments like these are so, so helpful. I love the idea of adding nuts, but I suspect that the oil in them makes the butter totally unnecessary, especially with butter-rich shortbread cookies. I'm seriously thinking about making this on Thanksgiving and if I do, I plan to use nuts, and to leave the butter out. Stay tuned . . . . . ;o)
Randi November 21, 2014
This looks fantastic!
Japog November 19, 2014
This looks delish! What would be a good dairy-free substitution for heavy cream? My husband is lactose-intolerant. I can find lactose-free sour cream but there is no lactose free heavy cream. Can I substitute full fat coconut milk for heavy cream? Is there any other suggestions for the substitution? Thanks in advance.
Hillary P. November 20, 2014
Full fat coconut milk would be a great substitution! I think the coconut flavor would actually go very well with the ginger and spices.
Japog November 20, 2014
Thank you so much!
AntoniaJames November 5, 2015
Japog, did you try this using coconut milk? We have some dairy "issues" in this house, so I'd love to find a good workaround. The pie otherwise seems perfect! ;o)
Japog November 5, 2015
I did and it turned out delicious. Everyone loved it too. I used the full-fat coconut milk without the liquid part, just an FYI. Hope that helps.
AntoniaJames November 6, 2015
Thank you so much, Japog, for your prompt reply and especially for your tip on how to use the coconut milk. This is so helpful. I'm looking forward to trying this, now that I know it was such a success with the substitution. Happy Thanksgiving (a bit early . . . . ). ;o)
