Although I have already posted Pumpkin Coconut Mousse Cake for the Thanksgiving sweets’ recipe, I cannot resist posting this, since pies are the very classic sweets for this holiday.
Apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie. All sound quite compelling and hard to choose! Then isn’t it nice to have all of them in one pie?! These were the thoughts I had last year when I was going to make Thanksgiving pie for this first time in my life. And so, for last year’s Thanksgiving, I made an apple-pumpkin pie with some roasted pecans as an optional topping. And this year, I have improved the recipe from before, so here is the vegan apple-pumpkin-pecan pie!
Tarte aux Pommes meets American Thanksgiving
This recipe is based on my vegan Tarte aux Pommes, a French style apple tart. I usually make this tart with a vegan tart crust and only apples, with 1 tbsp of maple syrup. The layers of roasted applesauce and thin sliced apple slices on top of the tart crust make it so flavorful and sweet where you don’t need anything else. You can taste the full deliciousness of the apples with a rich yet light crispy tart crust.
But for this Thanksgiving pie, I made a vegan pie crust instead of a tart crust and used pumpkin butter and pecan nuts instead of roasted applesauce.
Anatomy of Apple-Pumpkin-Pecan Pie
Here is the anatomy of this Thanksgiving pie: On the pie crust, there is a layer of pumpkin butter with some pecan nuts on top. On this layer, there are thin apple sliced double layered and baked all together.
Pumpkin Butter
I will make a separate article about this butter, since I was so inspired how delicious this has turned out!! This pumpkin butter is a marriage of my roasted applesauce (recipe here) and roasted Hokkaido kabocha squash. You roast the apples as well as the kabocha squash, then blend them together and heat up in the pot.
Roasted applesauce is wonderfully sweet, rich, and creamy. Also, when you roast the winter squash, the sweetness and its rich flavor come out so much more than any other ways. Both meeting together, it will be an amazingly rich, creamy, gentle, and sweet spread that you don’t need any additional sweetener for.
Spices for the pie
The classic choice of spice is definitely using the pumpkin spice which consists of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and allspice. But this year, I decided to just use the cinnamon, since I wanted us to taste the flavor of ingredients so fully without being blinded by the strong spices’ aroma. This is my choice, and I am sure it will be very delicious using the pumpkin spice!
Thin apple slices
One of the delightful things about this pie is coming from the consistency of the apples. To bite the thinly sliced baked apples is a very fine and pleasurable experience. With the creamy pumpkin butter and crunchy pecan underneath, the harmony that happens in the mouth is pure beauty!
I cut the apples into quarters, then peel the skin. After cutting off the cores, I slice each slice towards the center of the apple. In this way, you can get almost the same shapes of slices all the way!
Apple-Pumpkin-Pecan Pie
Ingredients
- Dry ingredients for the crust:
- 150g whole spelt flour
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- Wet ingredients for the crust:
- 30g coconut oil
- 70g coconut cream solid part
- 3 tbsp coconut cream liquid part
- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ——————
- 300g pumpkin butter
- 1 lb. apples
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- cinnamon powder
- pecans
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- coconut oil
Directions
- Step 1 If the coconut oil is solid, warm it a little and make it creamy.
- Step 2 Blend all wet the ingredients for the crust together in a bowl. Blend all the dry ingredients for the crust together in another bowl.
- Step 3 Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl and mix it with a spatula in a manner as if you are cutting the dough vertically.
- Step 4 Once they come together, shape it into a ball, then cover the bowl, and put it in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
- Step 5 In the meanwhile, dust the baking form.
- Step 6 Once taking out the dough from the fridge, preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Step 7 On a baking sheet, roll the dough and make it round and flat. Compare with the size of the baking form and make it into the right round size.
- Step 8 Flip the baking sheet upside down and place the dough on the baking form. Allow the dough to fit in the baking form and let the excess dough shape the edge of the pie.
- Step 9 Create the holes with the fork and bake the pie crust in the oven for 12 minutes.
- Step 10 Meanwhile, peel and slice the apples into approx. 2mm thickness, then put into the bowls and mix with lemon juice and cinnamon powder.
- Step 11 Once taking the pie crust from the oven, layer the pumpkin butter on top, sprinkling the cinnamon powder, and place the pecan nuts on top.
- Step 12 Layer the apple slices aligned with the outer circle twice. Put the remaining slices in the middle. And if there are still some slices left, you can put them by the side of the crust (like in the picture).
- Step 13 Put into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- Step 14 Brush some coconut oil on the apples and bake another 10 minutes.
- Step 15 Brush the maple syrup on the apples and bake another 5 minutes.
