Introduction:
This may not be a
cooking blog, but occasionally a little science can help solve a very real
problem - a better vegan pumpkin pie filling! The starchy, gloopy, blobby
pumpkin pie filling found in most vegan pumpkin pie recipes has much to be
desired. In fact, I like to joke that I can chuck a scoop across the room and
watch it slowly bleb down the wall. We deal with many allergies that won't
allow using certain egg-replacing binders (e.g. flax seed gel, corn starch,
tofu, etc.), so after coming up null with internet searches for workable
recipes given our allergen set, necessity became the mother of invention!
Welcome to my test kitchen!
Question:
Could I use chia
seed, some combination of chia seed and tapioca starch, or a combination
of chia seed and course oat flour to improve the texture of the existing
gloopy pumpkin pie filling (tapioca starch-based)?
Hypothesis:
I predicted that either the combination of chia
seed and oat flour or the combination of chia seeds and tapioca starch would significantly improve the texture of the gloopy
pumpkin pie filling. I predicted that the chia seed alone would not provide
enough binding to make an adequate filling.
Rationale:
Chia is often touted as
an egg substitute. Soaking 1 Tbsp of chia seeds in 3 Tbsp water for ~20 minutes
makes a mucilaginous gel resembling the texture of raw egg in quantity. While
the texture seems on par with raw egg, the real magic of egg binding in recipes
doesn't happen until after it is cooked (think of a hard-boiled egg. The uncooked
"white" is primarily protein, whose structure changes to the opaque,
hard but slightly pliable white after cooking. Now imagine that same structure distributed throughout your pie filling!). Chia has a combination of
polysaccharides (complex sugar chains - aka carbohydrates, some protein, and some
fat). I reasoned that chia alone wouldn't have the same protein binding
"magic" as an egg based on its protein content (1 large egg = 6.3 g of
protein; 1 Tbsp chia seed = 3 g protein). Although it is possible that chia may compensate for a
lack of protein a bit by providing more carbohydrates that can "gel" (1 large egg = 0.4 carbohydrates; 1 Tbsp chia seed = 5 g carbohydrates). Oats have a good deal of both protein and carbohydrates, though! So I figured grinding rolled oats into a coarse flour with a food processor may expose more of the protein/carbs contained within to serve a really good "binding" function (1/2 cup of rolled oats = 5 g protein, 27 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat).
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| Making chia seed gel. 1 egg substitute = 1 Tbsp chia seeds + 3 Tbsp water. Let sit ~20 minutes before using. |
Materials and methods:
In order to waste as little food as possible, I mixed a large pumpkin pie base whose ingredients were common to all conditions and added 3/4 cup of the "base ingredients" to each of four tempered glass cups.
Base ingredients common to all conditions
2 cups pureed pumpkin
1 cup light coconut milk
1/4 c. packed light brown sugar
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
I then scaled down the unique ingredients I wanted to add to each of the four separate conditions, fully mixed, and baked in the oven at 375 deg. F for 45 minutes. Note, I would have loved to test additional conditions, but I didn't have enough ingredients to test them all! In theory, I should have included a proper "negative control" that would have baked the "base ingredients" with no additions. I would have also included an "egg based" version for good measure, but hey, we deal with an egg allergy in our house - it just didn't seem right. After baking and cooling, my husband and I taste-tested each condition to obtain results based on our personal texture preferences.
Results:
Chia seed + oat flour was the clear winner for binding and texture. Both the tapioca starch alone and the chia seed + tapioca starch had the gloopy starch binding texture instead of the soft texture associated with traditional egg-based pumpkin pie filling. Chia seed alone was quite delicious, but did did not have enough binding for pie filling. It makes a fabulous pudding, however! (Yes, two recipes in one!!!).
Pumpkin pie recipe:
Pumpkin pie filling ingredients:
2 c. pureed pumpkin (I used a can of Trader Joe's)
1/2 c. of coarsely ground oat flour (I used a food processor to grind rolled oats)
1 c. coconut milk light (I used canned from Trader Joe's)
Chia seed gel (1 Tbsp chia seed + 3 Tbsp water, sit for ~20 minutes before use)
1/4 c. light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
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| Pumpkin pie filling thoroughly mixed. |
Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 deg. F.
2. Combine all pumpkin pie filling ingredients and thoroughly mix.
2. Pour filling into pie shell (I covered my crust edges with aluminum foil for the first 30 minutes of baking and removed foil for the remainder of the bake time).
3. Bake for ~60 minutes (ovens may vary, so please check your pie sooner!).
4. Cool on rack and enjoy!
