Looking for a dessert that's a little different this holiday? Try this rich vegan chocolate pumpkin pie that's packed with chocolaty, pumpkin flavours. It's also gluten free!
Add rolled oats, raw almonds, coconut sugar, ground cinnamon, and ground ginger to a food processor or to the dry container of your high speed blender. Blend until ingredients have been broken down into a fine meal.
Slowly add melted coconut oil and pulse until everything has been combined.
Put mixture into a 9" pie dish and using your hands or the bottom of a measuring cup, press it evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Be sure that the thickness is even all around the dish.
Refrigerate the crust for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes have passed, remove from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes have passed, place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven, set aside, and make the filling.
Make the filling:
Fill a large glass bowl with hot water. Place chocolate chips in a small glass bowl and place it into the hot water bowl. Let sit and stir every few minutes. Replace hot water as needed until chocolate chips have all melted. Set aside. Chocolate chips can also be melted in the microwave using this method.
Whisk together pumpkin puree, arrowroot starch, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, salt, unsweetened non-dairy milk, vanilla extract, and pure maple syrup until combined.
Add melted chocolate to the pumpkin mixture and mix until combined.
Add the pumpkin mixture to the pie crust and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool. It can be served warm or completely cooled and is great served with coconut whipped cream.
Notes
Make sure to use a deep-dish pie plate to make this pie. If you use a smaller dish, you will have extra filling and the baking time will need to be adjusted.
Either virgin or refined coconut oil can be used in the crust, but note that if you use virgin coconut oil, there will be a slight coconut flavour.
If you don't have the three separate spices, you can use 1 ¼ teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.
After adding the maple syrup to the pumpkin mixture, taste for sweetness and if you prefer it to be a little sweeter, add more maple syrup, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Homemade pumpkin puree tends to a be a little more runny than canned. If you are using homemade puree, bump the arrowroot starch up to 3 ½ teaspoons.
Cover and store uneaten chocolate pumpkin pie in the fridge. After chilling, it will firm up quite a bit because of the chocolate chips in the filling. It is great served cold and firm but it you prefer for it to be softer, let it come to room temperature before serving again.