Date Sweetened Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Date Sweetened Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie, one of my favourite desserts. As seen from my various other pumpkin recipes, I am quite fond of gourds. Pumpkin pie is already one of the healthiest pie choices available, even the ones from the supermarket aren't terribly bad. But of course, homemade is better. And naturally sweetened ones even more. 

Don't mind the little burnt blotches along the crust; that's filling I got on there :P

Every year, I attempt a pumpkin pie. Usually it is the hard crust that my family complains about. I've tried traditional full-of-butter pie crusts to super fast olive oil pie crusts, but they just never worked out as advertised. Finally I experimented with making pie crust in the food processor (and using coconut oil!) and discovered the perfect pie crust. Flaky, tender, and delicious even on its own.
 
At Thanksgiving early this year, I made a pumpkin pie that was covered in cracks and wasn't sweet enough. Note to self: a quarter cup of honey isn't enough for an entire pie. Pumpkin pie filling isn't difficult to make, in fact it's pretty fail proof. But making one that isn't laden with refined sugars and one that is crack-free is the challenge. I think I have found the solution!

Date Sweetened Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Unlike most pumpkin pies that are sweetened with granulated or brown sugar, this pie is sweetened with date paste. Dates are fat free 'jewels of the dessert' that are a great source of fibre, iron, and potassium. Fibre keeps your intestines clean and happy, iron is especially important to incorporate into women's diets, and potassium is an energizer! Eat a few dates before exercising for a boost of energy. They also double up as a post-work out snack. When my mom first joined hot yoga, her instructor told them to eat a banana (which also has high amounts of potassium) to re-energize the body after sweating buckets. Yes dates are really carb heavy because of the sugar content, but they are very nutritious and make for a great dessert too! Medjool dates are the sweetest, largest, and plumpest variety; I used them in this recipe to make the date paste. Date paste can easily be made at home using dates and water. Blend blend blend away until the texture resembles that of pumpkin puree. If you have any leftover date paste, use it up in a batch of Healthy Carrot Morning Glory Muffins! 
 
Eggs are not part of this recipe, as this pie is vegan. Having egg whites in a pumpkin pie filling may contribute to surface cracks because the proteins in the egg whites will shrink and pull apart as the pie cools, leaving valleys and canyons in the middle of the pie. To combat this problem (as well as make it vegan), cornstarch is used as the thickener. Without a thickener, one would be left with a pile of mashed pumpkin instead of a 'custard'. This recipe of pumpkin 'custard' does not rise at all during baking, which also reduces the risk for cracking. As a heads up, the filling pulls away from the sides just a little bit as it cools. Other than that, the surface of the pie remains crack-free. 

Date Sweetened Vegan Pumpkin Pie

In my photos, the pie looks pretty short. I would prefer the filling to reach the top for cosmetic purposes. Maybe my pie pan is just too deep..? I may add half a recipe more of the filling the next time I make this. Taste-wise, I have no complaints. The excess crust on the top makes for a delicious 'cookie' to munch on! My vegan pie crust is fragrant from coconut oil, flaky, and crunchy and makes for the perfect vessel to spread the pumpkin filling on. The way I like to eat my pumpkin pie probably sounds ridiculous, but hey. Don't judge. Just make the pie and taste for yourself ;)

This pie is essentially guilt-free. It's pretty much just dates, pumpkin puree, coconut oil, and flour. I am not ashamed to say that I've eaten this pie for breakfast on several occasions. This is how I like to get my fruit and vegetable intake.

Find the healthiest vegan pumpkin pie that is crack-free after the cut!

Oasis Date Gardens

My only goal in Palm Springs was to visit a date garden. Or maybe two.

With only one full day to spend in the Palm Springs-ish area, we wanted to make the most out of it. I knew I wanted to visit Shield's Date Garden, which was pretty much around the corner from our awesome hotel (Homewood Suites in La Quinta!), but my dad found a brochure for Oasis Date Gardens a little further away in Thermal. So we went there first.

Date Shake

I've heard rave reviews about the date shakes at both Oasis Date Gardens and Shields Date Gardens. The name 'date shake' made me think it was a date-flavoured milk shake. But it's not. Soft serve ice cream blended with date crystals. We got this half-cup size for free because we had a coupon for a free date shake with a purchase of like $10. Contrary to all the rave reviews, I didn't find this date shake anything close to amazing. It was good ice cream, but it didn't deliver with the date flavour. Vanilla soft soft ice cream is what I tasted. The full-size version of this is really large, an stuffed cup full of date shake for around $4. However this sample size was more than enough for the four of us because it wasn't that exciting. After trying Oasis' date shake, I was no longer interested in Shield's version as I believe it's the same thing.

Medjool Dates from Oasis Date Gardens

The store portion of Oasis Date Gardens is pretty small. And there were no other customers when we arrived at 10am, which made it rather awkward to browse around. The shelves were a bit empty and the gift sets looked like they had been sitting there for a while. (I'm just guessing by the slightly drier-looking appearance of the medjool dates) We tried a few samples, and bought a pound of medjool dates from the bulk area. We just wanted to buy something, try a date shake, and get out of there. 

I actually didn't have much expectation for these medjools, because who knows how long they've been there? However, I am extremely impressed with these. Perhaps their bulk and wholesale boxes sell a lot quicker than the gift boxes. These medjools are meaty, moist, and super caramel-y. I would describe them as nature's caramels. In fact, these are better than caramels! I crave them every single day.

So, would is it worth going to Oasis Date Gardens? Hmm... Since Shield's is closer and they have medjools just as juicy and caramelly, I'd say it isn't necessary to drive the extra distance. 

And a tip for those that often use a GPS to navigate around, Grapefruit Blvd is actually Highway 111. Our GPS didn't have Grapefruit Blvd as a choice so we looked at a physical map and saw Highway 111 ends and then turns into Grapefruit Blvd. Why don't we get cool street names like that in Vancouver? I wanna live on Blackberry Street or Blueberry Lane...

Oasis Date Garden
59-111 Grapefruit Blvd, Thermal CA 

Reviews on Yelp

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡