Low Fat Pumpkin Pie

Since 1957, Canadian Thanksgiving has been celebrated on the second Monday of October. This year it falls on October 14th.

Because several members will be out of town this year, my sister held our family dinner at her home last night. My job was to provide dessert.

I got up at dawn. To bake three pies.

My entire day was free of the once endless swim practices and water polo and soccer games so I could have slept in. Except I was making pies.

You see, I have a love/hate relationship with pie crust. One that can be traced back to the 1996 “Pie-Crust-Made-Easy” class. I remember looking forward to it not just because I wanted to learn how to make flaky pie crusts but also because it meant a night out. By myself. With our son a year old and our daughter just two, life was busy. John, my late husband, was happy to look after them. The fact that he was on call that night as an xray tech at the local trauma hospital didn’t phase him at all.

” Go Kel. I’m never called in before midnight. You’ll be back by then.”

Things started to go off track early on. With my fellow students whipping up perfect dough all around me, I was rather perplexed by the sodden lump in my bowl. A quick perusal by the teacher confirmed the reason. I’d used the liquid measuring cups rather than the dry ones. This necessitated starting again from scratch. I fell far behind. Everybody else was long gone by the time my apple pie was baked.

Even so, I was rather proud of my creation when I arrived back home at 10:00 PM. To an empty house and a note on the floor.

“Called in. Brought M and H with me to work. Come get them.”

Perfect. It was three hours past their bedtime and my children were roaming free in a busy hospital as their father worked.

I arrived to find Meredith, still dressed in her jammies, dizzily running around the Medical Imaging department clutching a fistful of Arrowroot biscuits. Her brother was happily strapped in his car seat on top of a gurney, being entertained by three of his father’s coworkers.

Disembodied shouts of “No worries, drop ’em off any time!” mingled with queries of “Did you bring us some pie?” as I whipped our children home to bed.

This episode was quickly followed by my unfortunate mistake of  baking a blueberry pie in a two piece flan pan. The juices oozed out, dripping syrup onto the element. Imagine my delight upon seeing my pie on fire. I remember John was extremely puzzled by the thick layer of baking soda that covered his charred piece of pie. He was lucky. I could have put it out with our fire extinguisher …

Despite these hiccoughs in the pastry department, I have since soldiered on and made several different types of pies with varying degrees of success.

Fast forward to yesterday. With my past history, I thought it best to start early. In our family, Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. As my recipe makes 6 – 8 servings per person, I felt the need to make two. The third pie was a low-calorie, crustless version; I’m trying to reduce. Since my kids aren’t home, I am making and eating far too much food. It’s time to lose a little weight.

In honour of Thanksgiving, I offer up the recipe that I acquired from a 2009 Weight Watchers meeting.

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c Bisquick

1 can (385 gr) Evaporated Skim Milk

2 eggs

1 1/2 c cooked pumpkin

1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp vanilla

Mix all of the above together. Watch that you break up the Bisquick lumps or you’ll have lumpy-powdered crustless pumpkin pie. Pour all but 1 – 2 cups into a 9″ pie pan. Add the remainder once pie pan is in oven. (I suspect this manoeuver is to lessen the chance of slopping the goop onto the floor or into the oven when moving). Bake at 350 degrees for 55 mins or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Back then, a slice was worth four Weight Watchers points. The point values have changed since then however I’d wager it is still half the point value of a slice of regular pumpkin pie.

How does it compare to a “real” pumpkin pie? It’s just as you’d imagine. It’s pie without crust.

If you do make it I hope you enjoy both the taste and the fact that you didn’t have to fuss with a crust.

Happy Thanksgiving!