Half-Baked Deep-Dish Pumpkin Pie with Vanilla Mascarpone Cream and Pumpkin-Spiced Pecans
Look at that crust!
A tall, buttery baked pecan-date crust filled with a silky pumpkin custard made with egg yolks, cream, and mascarpone, then crowned with rosettes of vanilla mascarpone cream (or raw whipped cream), a dusting of cinnamon, and a flower of maple pumpkin-spiced pecans.
Yield: One 9-inch deep-dish pie, 12 slices · Active: 1 hour · Total: 7 hours (mostly chilling), or make it the day before · Best in North America in fall, when pumpkins and pecans are harvested · Best eaten: midday or early afternoon
Why "half-baked"? Only the crust goes in the oven. The pumpkin filling is a quick stovetop custard that sets in the fridge, so it comes out silky and smooth, with none of the cracking or long baking of a traditional pumpkin pie.
Ingredients
Deep-dish pecan-date crust
2½ cups almond flour
1¼ cups pecans, finely ground
8 Medjool dates, pitted
5 tbsp grass-fed butter, melted
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 pasture-raised egg
1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
¼ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
Pumpkin custard filling
2½ cups thick pumpkin purée (roasted sugar pie pumpkin or kabocha, or a BPA-free can)
5 pasture-raised egg yolks
1 cup raw or grass-fed heavy cream, plus ¼ cup for the gelatin
½–⅔ cup maple syrup, to taste
4 tsp grass-fed gelatin
8 oz cream cheese or mascarpone, softened
2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
Vanilla cream topping: choose one
Vanilla mascarpone cream (pipes beautifully and holds its shape for days)
8 oz mascarpone, cold
¾ cup raw or grass-fed heavy cream, cold
2–3 tbsp maple syrup
Seeds of 1 vanilla bean (or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
Pinch of Baja Gold sea salt
Raw whipped cream (softer and lighter, best piped just before serving)
1 cup raw or grass-fed heavy cream, very cold
1–2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Pumpkin-spiced pecans
1 cup pecan halves
1 tbsp grass-fed butter, melted
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or ½ tsp cinnamon plus a pinch each of ginger, nutmeg, and cloves)
Pinch of Baja Gold sea salt
To finish: a dusting of Ceylon cinnamon
Method
Make the crust. Heat the oven to 350°F. Process the dates in a food processor until they form a sticky paste, then add the almond flour, pecans, butter, maple syrup, egg, cinnamon, and salt and pulse until a soft dough forms. Press it firmly and evenly into the bottom and about 2 inches up the sides of a 9-inch deep-dish springform pan lined with parchment on the bottom.
Bake the crust 18–22 minutes, until golden and fragrant. The dates caramelize, so if the rim browns too quickly, cover it with a strip of foil. Let it cool completely.
Make the pumpkin-spiced pecans. Lower the oven to 325°F. Toss the pecans with the butter, maple syrup, spice, and salt, spread them on a parchment-lined sheet, and bake 10–12 minutes, until toasted and glossy. They crisp up as they cool.
Bloom the gelatin. Sprinkle the gelatin over ¼ cup cold cream and let it sit 5 minutes.
Cook the custard. In a heavy saucepan, whisk together the pumpkin, egg yolks, 1 cup cream, maple syrup, spices, and salt until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula (scraping the bottom and corners), 8–12 minutes, until the custard thickens and reaches 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let it boil, or the yolks can turn grainy.
Finish the filling. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the bloomed gelatin until fully dissolved. Then whisk in the cream cheese or mascarpone and the vanilla until completely smooth. For an extra-silky filling, blend it briefly with an immersion blender. Let it cool 15 minutes.
Fill and chill. Pour the filling into the cooled crust, smooth the top, and refrigerate at least 6 hours, or overnight, until set.
Make the vanilla cream.
Mascarpone cream: Beat the cold mascarpone, cream, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt on medium-high just until thick, smooth peaks form, about 1–2 minutes. Stop as soon as it holds its shape; overwhipped mascarpone turns grainy.
Raw whipped cream: Whip the very cold cream with the maple syrup and vanilla to soft-firm peaks. Raw cream whips up softer than store-bought cream, so pipe it just before serving.
Decorate. Release the springform. Dust the pie with cinnamon, pipe rosettes of vanilla cream around the edge, and arrange a flower of pumpkin-spiced pecans in the center. Scatter extra pecans around the slices as you serve.
Filling variations:
Lighter and classic: Skip the cream cheese or mascarpone and use 1¼ cups cream in the custard instead of 1 cup. The yolks and gelatin set it on their own, for a texture closest to traditional pumpkin pie.
With cashews: Instead of the cream cheese or mascarpone, blend 1 cup soaked and drained cashews into the warm custard with an immersion blender (or in a blender) until completely smooth.
Make ahead: The filled, chilled pie keeps up to 2 days in the fridge before decorating. Make the pecans up to a week ahead and store them airtight. Pipe the cream the day you serve.
Storage: Refrigerated up to 4 days. Undecorated, the pie freezes up to 1 month; thaw it overnight in the fridge before topping.
A note on raw cream: Buy raw cream from a farmer you know and trust, one who tests rigorously and keeps the herd healthy on pasture. If you'd rather keep it simple, organic, grass-fed, low-temperature pasteurized cream works beautifully. The yolks and the cream in the filling are cooked, so only the topping cream stays raw.
Nourishment Notes
Pumpkin — beta-carotene (made more absorbable by the cream and yolks), potassium, and fiber.
Pasture-raised egg yolks — choline, vitamins A, D, E, and K2, and lutein, the nutrients that make a custard so nourishing.
Pecans and almond flour — vitamin E, magnesium, manganese, and zinc.
Medjool dates — potassium, magnesium, and fiber, plus a natural caramel sweetness in the crust.
Mascarpone, cream cheese, and raw cream — vitamins A, D, and K2, plus butyrate, from grass-fed dairy.
Grass-fed gelatin — glycine and proline, the same building blocks found in bone broth.
Grass-fed butter — vitamins A and K2, plus butyrate.
Pumpkin pie spices — cinnamon's polyphenols help moderate blood sugar, and ginger, nutmeg, and cloves are traditionally used to support digestion.
As a circadian treat, this pie lands best at midday or in the early afternoon, when your body handles sweets most gracefully in daylight.
Sourcing
Pumpkin — organic sugar pie pumpkin or kabocha, roasted and puréed, or organic pumpkin purée in a BPA-free can
Eggs — organic and pasture-raised, with deep orange yolks
Pecans — organic, from a U.S. Southern orchard when you can, kept in the fridge
Almond flour — organic and fresh (keep it in the fridge); for truly raw almonds, grind your own from organic, unpasteurized Spanish almonds, like Terrasoul's
Medjool dates — organic, soft, and plump
Mascarpone and cream cheese — organic, made from grass-fed milk and cream, with no gums or stabilizers
Heavy cream — raw from a farmer you know and trust, or organic, grass-fed, low-temperature pasteurized cream (Kalona SuperNatural)
Grass-fed gelatin — from grass-fed, pasture-raised cattle, with nothing added
Grass-fed butter — organic, cultured butter from 100% grass-fed cows
Cashews (optional) — organic (every cashew sold has been heat-treated, even "raw" ones)
Maple syrup — organic Grade A dark
Spices (Ceylon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves) — organic and non-irradiated; buy whole nutmeg and grate it fresh
Vanilla — organic vanilla beans or pure vanilla extract with no added sugar
Baja Gold sea salt
— Anna aka Food Marshall