The parve pumpkin pie I blogged about on Friday turned out to be a success. It tasted as pumpkin pie should, and it set up quite nicely.
But the question remains on what to do about its appearance, as the top of the filling developed cracks while it baked. My mother — whose advice in matters culinary is always worth heading — offered two suggestions.
First, she suggested reducing slightly the amount of rice flour used to thicken the almond milk. I found that roughly 1/3 c. of rice flour gradually added to 1 1/2 c. almond milk on a low flame while constantly whisking thickened the almond milk into a pasty consistency. She suggested I try using only 1/4 c. of rice flour to see whether that would be sufficient to get the pie filling to set adequately.
Her second suggestion concerned the baking of the pie. Pumpkin pie starts out in a hot oven (425F) for 15 minutes to get the filling to start to set, then the heat is reduced to a medium oven (350F) for another 40-50 minutes — though I found the pie needed an hour at the lower heat. My mother's suggestion here was to cover the pie with aluminum foil when the temperature is reduced, in order to keep the top of the filling from drying out. The foil could then be removed for the final 10 minutes or so of baking just to dry it and brown it slightly.
I'll continue to experiment with the parve pumpkin pie, as it would be nice to have such a pie in the Friday night repertoire, especially in the autumn. While the appearance needs some help, the verdict on the taste was overwhelmingly positive.