By Eve Fox, The Garden of Eating
Adapted from Andrea Chesman's coconut-pumpkin pie in her excellent cookbook, "Recipes from the Root Cellar"
Makes 1 9-inch pie
2 cups puréed butternut squash from 1 large or two small squash (you can use pumpkin, of course)
2 eggs (try to find pasture-raised eggs from a farmer near you)
1 pie crust (you can follow this recipe for pâte brisée or use whatever crust recipe is your favorite)
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out the pie dough and lay it over the pie pan. Fold the edges under themselves and then either crimp the edges with a fork or flute them with our fingers. Using a fork, punch holes evenly across the bottom of the crust and put it in the oven to pre-bake for 15 minutes, checking once or twice to see if it is ballooning up (if it is, poke another tiny hole with your fork to let the hot air escape and gently push the dough back down with your fork) then remove it and set it aside.
2. Prepare the filling: place the squash, eggs, coconut milk, sugar, salt, and spices in the bowl of a food processor or blender and process until smooth.
3. Pour the filling into the blind-baked pie crust and bake at 400 degrees F., for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 350 and cook for 45-50 minutes longer. The crust should be nicely browned (should it start to get too brown, you can remove it for a moment and cover it with a pie crust shield or some narrow strips of aluminum foil – just be careful not to burn your fingers in the process) and the filling should be partially set – it should jiggle a little when you shake the pie pan – similar to the consistency of Jell-O.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving with your choice of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or another creamy nondairy alternative.
