Healthy Pumpkin Pie Recipe {with a secret, ahem, twist} (2024)

Finding a healthier pumpkin pie with the perfect texture has been my mission. Making sugar free pumpkin pie with maple syrup has been my secret ingredient. Here’s my healthy pumpkin pie recipe.

It’s time for the KS test kitchen to get some action again!

Today we’re testing a few different ways to make healthy pumpkin pies, deemed “healthy” because even though the pumpkin pie still contains sweetener, it’s farrrrrr less than your average pie and all the otherobjectionable non-food ingredients have been removed. It’s still not as healthy as a salad or chicken soup with homemade chicken stock or anything, but it’s so much better than what we’re used to seeing this time of year.

Healthy Pumpkin Pie?

Pretty darn close.

This recipes includes pumpkin, which is a super food, eggs (don’t let anyone tell you those aren’t healthy), heavy cream instead of canned milk (clear improvement; I believe in saturated fat), yummy spices, and only a quarter cup real maple syrup per pie. Compare that to a cup of sugar in most pumpkin pie filling, and I’m tickled to serve this for dessert (or, um, breakfast, day after Thanksgiving, baby!!).

The crust is whole wheat and uses your choice of healthy fats (even though some say a pie crust is the one place one should always just use white flour!). It’s good, and I’ll even show you how to roll out a crust using my grandma’s tips (she is a totally amazing pie maker).

Now…enough chit chat. Let’s get to the pie-making.

Nailing the Perfect Pumpkin Pie Filling

I’ve been fiddling with a homemade pie filling that is both easy and delicious for the last few years. (It’s always my job to make the family Thanksgiving pumpkin pies.) I knew basically the spices I wanted and the big change that I was testing this time was leaving the eggs in the filling whole vs. separating the eggs, whipping the whites into a meringue, and then adding the yolks later, or also separating the eggs and whizzing them into foam, but not quite meringue.

Wanna see?

Egg whites whipped into a meringue

Can you tell which one is fluffier? Ha!

Whole eggs, my grandma’s crust

Meringue eggs, barley crust

In the photos above, you can tell the one with separated eggs because it is in a crumbly crust (I was testing another blogger’s barley crust, and it didn’t go so well), plus the filling is so much fluffier.

That step makes a HUGE difference. Without separating, it’s like a traditional pumpkin pie. Custard-ish. Normal. With the whipped egg whites, it’s truly lighter and more airy. Can you tell the difference in the slices?

The meringue egg whites are in the piece with the whipped cream.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it’s worth the extra time and dishes to separate the eggs, especially since you probably don’t make pumpkin pies all too often. If you’ve been following KS very long, you’ll know that that’s a big deal. Extra dishes, and I’m saying they’re worth it?

Uh huh. This pie is that good.

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How to Roll Out a Homemade Pie Crust

• Make the dough in a food processor following the directions above or use a pastry blender and fork to toss in the water. Either way, try not to handle the dough for even a second longer than necessary.
• Put pie dough in an airtight container and allow to rest in fridge about 30 minutes before rolling out.
• Very, very thoroughly flour all your surfaces. Flatten the disk of dough in the center and roll out from the center to the top and bottom, and then from the center to each side.
• Roll just bigger than your pie plate; imagine it going up the edges:

• If you’ve managed to roll it more or less evenly, you’ve done better than most people think they can handle (but it’s really not that hard!). Moving the pie crust, however, can be very tricky if you don’t know how to move it without tearing the dough.
• Fold the pie dough circle in half, then in fourths.
• To do this, pick up the edge with one hand and flip over about an inch or two into your other hand, palms flat and facing each other, then back to the first hand, then flip again, so that you’re passing the dough back and forth, gently easing it bit by bit off the rolling surface.
• Stop when it’s folded in half, then do it again vertically.

Healthiest Pie Crust

Place into the pie plate, arranged like this:

Open in the pie plate, using the same passing back and forth that you did to get it folded:

You can cut off the edges, leaving about an inch hanging over, if you choose. I didn’t have an excessive amount, so I just tucked. Fold the excess toward the outside, tucking under like so:

There are lots of ways to finish off the edges, from using a fork to special tools to your knuckles, like I do. The purpose of this technique is to make a pretty crust, of course, but also to seal the edges – which is more important on a 2-crust pie than a one-crust pie so all the filling doesn’t ooze out.

I didn’t think I’d be able to demonstrate this part but was going to ask you to use your imagination to fill in the blanks – see the imaginary other knuckle between these two?

Then I decided to risk it, set the camera on 10-second delay, and hold it under my chin:

I actually switched to using my right index finger and left knuckles after the photo so I could sneak between the pie dough and the glass plate better, but I figured I’d drop the camera if I tried again.

What Fat is Best for Pie Crust?

This was the first time I’d tried making a pie crust with lard, and I was hoping for the moon…

• It was stiff, a bit difficult to roll out but not impossible (compared to butter, which is what I usually use).
• The dough held together really well and so did the baked crust.
• It tastes good, but nothing to write home about, and I’m not sure I’d say lard is the only way to make a pie crust.

My friend, whose last hold out on Crisco was pie crusts, says that lard and butter don’t hold a candle to Crisco – and then she tried palm shortening. She was won over!

If you’ve got a love of baking or a passion for flaky, light pie crusts, try it. It’s very easy to work with, not hydrogenated like Crisco but naturally solid, and Nutiva has a version combined with coconut oil, and one that’s just red palm oil.

I can’t wait to hear if this revolutionizes your Thanksgiving dinner – or even becomes a part of your life more than once a year!

Other Thanksgiving Resources for Real Food:

• Healthy Pumpkin Cookies
• Gluten-free Pumpkin Cookies
• The Whole Thanksgiving Feast, Real Food Style
• Homemade Cranberry Orange Juice
• Thanksgiving Recipes on a Budget
• Nourishing Holiday Side Dishes
• My Favorite Party Appetizer: Probiotic Avocado Dip
• Grab those bones! Don’t forget to always make nourishing bone broth with the turkey bones…

Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.