Free of dairy, gluten and refined sugar, this Spiced Butternut Squash Pecan Pie is a nice change from your classic pumpkin pie, and perhaps even better! What's best is you can easily make it with your own homemade butternut squash puree and ditch the canned pumpkin stuff!
Combine all the ingredients for the crust in a large bowl and mix with a fork until well combined and evenly distributed. Press firmly at the bottom and about 3/4 of the way up the sides of a 9" non-stick removable bottom deep pie dish; bake for 8 minutes and remove the crust from the oven but leave the oven on.
For the filling
Combine all the ingredients for the filling in a high speed blender or food processor and process until smooth and creamy, about one minute. Pour into the reserved pie crust and spread evenly with a spatula.
Bake the pie in the 350°F oven for 35-40 minutes, until the filling appears set and top gets significantly darker.
Turn off the oven and crack the door open. Allow pie to cool for a couple of hours, then take it out of the oven and let it cool completely before transferring it to the refrigerator, where you will leave it to cool for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.
When you take the pie out of the fridge, there's a big chance that the filling will have cracked a little. If that's the case, you can very easily smooth it out with a small offset spatula. It'll look good as new!
Garnish
To make your pie extra pretty, garnish its top with finely chopped pecans and a little bit of unsweetened shredded coconut.
Delicately remove the pie from the dish and serve. Note that the crust is very delicate and will not support the filling very well, so be sure to serve it with a pie server.
Notes
*To make the butternut squash puree, roast the butternut squash in the oven (see the post for instructions, but omit black pepper) or and then scoop the flesh out and puree it in a mini food processor. Let cool completely before using in this recipe (you might want to make it the previous day).