Yes, we are practicing making pumpkin pie.

And practicing eating it.  We can always use more practice around here.  Getting all geared up for our first gluten-free, dairy free (we do use butter, don’t mean to mislead you) Thanksgiving, so we need to practice don’t you think??

For this first crust I strictly copied this one from one of my very favorite gluten-free chef/websites.

Gluten Free Pie Crust

1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch
3 tablespoons sweet rice flour
3 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick cold butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 ice-cold water, or enough to make the dough stick together

Mix together all the dry ingredients, including the sugar and cinnamon. Cut the butter into small pieces, about 1/2-inch thick, and drop the pieces into the dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter, meld the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter has crumbled into pea-sized pieces.

Make a well in the dry ingredients. Drop the egg and apple cider vinegar in, then stir them in, gently, with a fork, stirring from the center out. Once they are incorporated into the dry ingredients, slowly drizzle the ice-cold water into the mixture, a little at a time, then stirring to see if it has become dough yet. You do not want this dough to be too wet. Add water only until it all coheres together.

At this point, drop the ball of dough on a large piece of parchment paper. Place another piece of parchment paper, the same size, on top of the dough. Gently, smoosh the dough outward, until it is a thick, round disk of dough, about the size of a pie plate.

Refrigerate the flattened dough, for as long as you can stand. Ideally, you would prepare the dough in the evening and refrigerate overnight. Take the dough out of the refrigerator at least twenty minutes before you want to work with it.  Okay, for me, this was refrigerate one hour, working it after letting it sit on the wooden cutting board for, ummm, one minute.  Tops.

Leave the dough in the parchment-paper sandwich and roll it out. By rolling it, gently, between the pieces of parchment paper, you will not need to add more flour to the mix. Roll it out as thin as you can, for me this was at least 1/4″ thick, I just couldn’t get it any thinner, *this time*.  Maybe that’s where the overnight refrigeration and the 20 minute bringing up to room temp comes in to play…..  It cracked as I went, I’d peel the parchment off the top, smoosh the dough back together, put the parchment back on, flip it and repeat, until I got it the size I thought it should be.  Now, strip the top piece of parchment paper off the dough. Using your rolling-pin, lift the dough and lay it into your pie plate.   The dough should sag into the pie plate. Remove the other piece of parchment, if you haven’t already. You can crimp the edges at this point. If some of the dough falls off the sides, don’t worry. Simply re-attach the pieces to the crust-to-be by pressing in with your fingers.  Since it has no gluten, there is no worry about over working it.

Things look so different around here when there is a photographer in the house....

Pour your pumpkin filling directly in and bake immediately.

For the filling we mixed it up just a bit and does it ever smell wonderful!

Combine sugars and spices in a small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in a large bowl. Stir in the pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in the milks. You could go for all coconut milk, but the eggnog is so thick it brings it more up to the texture of a can of evaporated milk, which you could also use, if you do dairy.  Pour into your pie shell.