Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie

Last week of July and I have been thinking about the way love accumulates, which sounds like the opening line of something more formal than a journal but is actually just what I have been thinking about while making my morning coffee and driving to work and lying in bed at night.

I mean love in the broad sense, not just the romantic kind. I mean the way you can go from having very little of it to having a great deal of it without any single dramatic moment being responsible. It is Sunday dinners and weeknight phone calls and a father you did not grow up with noticing your exhaust needs attention. It is a coworker who asks about your food with real interest. It is a toddler who hands you a painting without comment. It is your foster mother's handwriting on an index card that has your name on it.

I made Tyler's favorite dessert on Saturday: a chess pie, which is a Southern custard pie made with butter and sugar and eggs and a tablespoon of cornmeal for body. Simple, almost austere, and perfect when made correctly. He told me once that his grandmother used to make it. I looked up three recipes and combined what I understood from them with my own instincts about custard. He tasted it and said grandma would have liked you. I said that is the nicest thing you have said to me. He said I say nice things to you all the time. I said this is the nicest one.

I kept thinking about what Tyler said — that his grandmother would have liked me — and how a single sentence can hold so much. Chess pie was what started it, but the feeling underneath it belongs to any good custard pie: something warm, something simple, something that asks nothing of you except that you slow down and eat it. Since I wanted to share something close to that spirit here, and since I know not everyone is working with the same pantry, I turned to a gluten-free pumpkin pie that moves through the same emotional register — spiced custard in a tender crust, made carefully, made for someone.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 1/4 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3–4 tablespoons ice water
For the filling:
1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Make the crust. Whisk together the gluten-free flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter cubes and work them into the flour using your fingertips or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time, stirring gently after each addition, until the dough just comes together. Shape into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat and roll. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Roll the chilled dough out between two sheets of parchment paper to a 12-inch round. Carefully transfer to a 9-inch pie dish, pressing it gently into the bottom and sides. Trim and crimp the edges. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Blind bake for 15 minutes, then remove the weights and bake for another 5 minutes until the crust looks set and just beginning to color.
Make the filling. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, eggs, heavy cream, and vanilla extract until smooth and fully combined. Add the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt and whisk again until the spices are evenly incorporated.
Fill and bake. Pour the custard filling into the warm pre-baked crust. Transfer carefully to the oven and bake at 375°F for 40–45 minutes, until the edges are set and the center has only a slight jiggle when gently shaken. Do not overbake — the filling will continue to firm as it cools.
Cool completely. Remove the pie from the oven and set it on a wire rack. Allow it to cool to room temperature, at least 2 hours, before slicing. This step is not optional — the custard needs time to fully set. Serve as-is or with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Nutrition (per serving)

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie — A Custard Pie Made With Someone Else’s Memory in Mind