I had an amazing visit to a pumpkin patch this weekend where I picked a pumpkin and a load of lovely squashes. Families were filling their wheelbarrows with the biggest pumpkins they could find so that they could carve them for their Halloween decoration. What a waste! 😉 I was strolling around looking for the pumpkins that I thought would make the most delicious food.
After enjoying some delicious roasted sweet dumpling squash for dinner, I made a pumpkin pie. However, I didn’t use fresh pumpkin but canned pumpkin purée instead. I find that this is less watery so helps keep the filling solid. Luckily you can find this in most big supermarkets in the UK. Waitrose, Ocado and larger Tesco stores have all been a good, cheap source when I’ve needed it.
I wanted to create a healthier pie so the first thing to tackle was the case. Instead of using pastry, I used pizza dough. I used a 220g ball of Northern Dough Co original dough as I had some in the freezer, but you could make your own and use that instead. Just make sure you have about 200g of it.
I did some Googling for the filling and found that someone else had successfully used protein powder in their pumpkin pie so I thought I’d try that too. Rather than double cream or condensed milk I used light cream cheese (aka soft cheese).
To ensure that my pie baked as I hoped I first stretched the dough out in the case, added some baking beads and baked it for 5 minutes at 160C. I then added the filling and baked for 30 minutes at the bottom of the oven. I then covered it tin foil and baked for an additional 20 minutes. By then, the filling was baked and set as I hoped so that when sliced it stayed firm.
It tasted sweet, spiced and delicious, just as I hoped. I’ve only ever tried a small slither of pumpkin pie before, but this turned out as delicious as I hoped with a fraction of the calories that the normal version has.
Protein pumpkin pie recipe
Serves: 8 slices
Ingredients
200g pizza dough (I used a 220g ball of Northern Dough Co original dough)
550g canned pumpkin purée (although one 400g can would probably be enough)
200g light cream cheese
60g cinnamon whey powder (I used MyProtein cinnamon danish)
3 eggs, beaten
75g Sukrin gold (or other sweetener)
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/4tsp ground cloves
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160C (fan).
2. Roll the dough to fit a flan case and cover it as you would pastry. Fill with baking beads and bake for 5 minutes.
3. While the dough is baking add all of the other ingredients to a bowl and whisk until smooth.
4. Remove from the oven, empty out the beads and add the pie filling.
5. Bake for 30 mins then cover with foil and bake for 20mins.
6. Remove from the oven and leave to set and cool.
Macros (per slice): 187kcal, 14P, 19C, 6F.
macros2muscles 