Eggless Pumpkin Pie

Cut the butter into little cubes and leave it out at room temperature for 30 minutes. If you live somewhere warm, make that 20 minutes.

Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl.

Drop the butter cubes onto the flour.

Using a dinner or butter knife, mix the butter cubes into the flour by making cutting motions. This will loosely mix the butter and flour.

Then, using only the tip of your fingers, gently rub the mixture between your fingers to mix. Do this for about 2-3 minutes, until you have a coarse mix. Don't worry about a few lumps of butter. They are good for creating flaky bits in your baked pastry.

Sprinkle 3 Tbsp of cold water over the flour mix and bring together lightly with your fingers first. Then, using your hands, bring it all together to form a dough that will leave the bowl clean and is not sticky. If it's too dry, wet your fingers lightly and sprinkle this over the dough and mix in LIGHTLY. We don't want to knead the pastry, so as to ensure a light crust.

Place on a sheet of clingfilm, press down to form a disc, then wrap and place in the fridge for 20 minutes to rest.

Flour your work surface and place the shortcrust pastry disc on. Lightly flour the disc too. Don't be afraid to flour your surface and pastry if you need it.

Roll out your pastry, making quarter turns initially to help keep a round-ish shape. At some point, your pastry will be too large to do that comfortably, so just be sure to roll it out from all sides. I won't insist you keep turning it.Place you pie tin upside down on the pastry to see if the pastry is big enough. You need an inch (2.5cm) all around to allow you to crimp the pastry edge and for any shrinking.

When done, roll the pastry onto your rolling pin, lift and carefully lay it out on your pastry tin (which should now be the right side up!). Gently fit the pastry into the corners of the tin, lifting the edge of the pastry to fit, not stretching it.

Using the knuckles of your fingers, crimp the pastry all around. Basically, 1 knuckle on the inside of the tin, and two on the other, and push. Or use a fork to create a patter at the edge.

Poke holes into the base with a fork. This will stop the pastry from rising, while it's baking. So no need for baking beans.Place in the fridge to rest for 10 minutes, and turn the oven on to 180℃ (350℉/160 Fan).

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Then take it out and leave to cool slightly while you prepare the filling.

Roll out the remaining pastry, and using cookie cutters, cut out shapes for topping your pie, if you like.

Grab a large bowl and make a paste with the cornflour and a little of the evaporated milk, squashing any lumps. You should be able to get a smooth paste easily.

Tip in the sugar. Light or dark brown, up to you. Dark brown sugar is tastier but will have hard lumps of sugar that will need to be mixed it well.

Follow this with the solid pack pumpkin puree.

Next add the pumpkin spice mix and vanilla.

Stir everything together until you have a smooth mix.

Finally, gradually add in the rest of the evaporated milk while stirring gently.

Pour this into your prepared shortcrust pastry and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. The middle of the pie should still be ever so slightly wobbly. If in doubt, leave it another 5 minutes.As you can see from the pictures, the crust didn't brown too much. However, take a look at 20 minutes. If your crust looks like it might be browning too much, cover the crust with some foil.

Leave to cool to room temperature before cutting and serving.