Cream Cheese Maple-Pumpkin Pie

This is my latest eggless, soy-free pumpkin pie recipe.  After working on it for four years, it's my favorite of all the varieties I have made.

CREAM CHEESE MAPLE-PUMPKIN PIE

1 unbaked pie crust

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 cups pumpkin purée (steamed is best)*

     or 16 oz. can

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. salt

3/4 cup maple syrup

2 tsp. blackstrap molasses

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.  Place pie crust dough in a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan.  Trim edges and prick bottom and sides with a fork.  Reserve extra dough.  Bake for 10 minutes until crust is dried out.  Remove from oven and let cool.

Blend cream cheese and pumpkin together (a food processor is good to use).

In a small bowl, stir dry ingredients together.  Add maple syrup gradually, stirring until smooth.  Stir in blackstrap molasses.

Add syrup mixture to pumpkin mixture and blend until smooth and uniformly mixed.  Pour into pie crust.

Bake at 350 deg. F for about an hour or until small cracks appear in filling.  Let cool.

Roll out remaining pie crust dough and make leaf and acorn shapes.  Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 deg. F until golden.  Garnish pie just before serving.

Store in refrigerator.

 * Note: I cook my own pumpkin for the purée. It's easy to use a steamer to cook cut-up pumpkin chunks (about 1"), slice the skin and strings off after cooking, and purée in a food processor or blender. This produces a light, wonderful texture for the pie. If you use canned pumpkin, you might want to mix a little rice milk or water in, to get a consistency of stirred yogurt.