Learn how to make my dairy and gluten free version of bean pie. A sweet silky smooth dessert, made using my homemade gluten free pie crust, navy beans and some winter warming spices. Perfect to eat hot or cold, with your family, during the holiday season.

Not many people know what a bean pie is or that there is such a thing. This is a pie that originates from the Nation of Islam (I will go into more detail of its origins shortly).

This is my very own dairy free and gluten free spin off from such a tasty dessert.

My mom was the person who got me hooked on bean pie. She loves making different pies and I believe she made her first bean pie several years ago.

She watched someone make it on YouTube and then shared the recipe with me. Her version wasn't dairy free or gluten free so I decided to do my own version that I could share with my loyal readers.

What is bean pie?

In short, a bean pie is a custard type of pie that is made from legumes. Beans are the preferred choice, more specifically navy beans which are called haricot beans in the UK.

The beans are mashed or pureed along with eggs, evaporated milk, butter and spices. The spices that are used vary from person to person.

Vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon are the most popular spices but add ins include; cloves, ginger and some people like to add lemon extract/juice to their bean pie.

The mixture is baked in a whole wheat crust until a brown crust is formed on the top layer underneath the yellow-ish custard.

The history of the pie

While I won't go into the entire history of the pie, I will highlight the most important bits of information.

As I mentioned above, bean pies are associated with black muslims and the Black Power Movement, more specificially the Nation of Islam which was founded in the 1930s.

Lana Shabazz is said to be the creator of the pie. The whole concept behind the bean pie was to serve as an alternative to sweet potato pie (soul food).

Sweet potato pie is considered soul food which was frowned upon for its slavery roots, it was seen as an oppressive type of food.

The idea was for people to reliquish themselves from foods/ingredients that were associated with slavery that could impact their health.

Navy beans were considered a good crop and its consumption was encouraged along with a low sugar diet and non processed foods.

The bean pie is the northern states (think Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, Illinois) equvalent of the southern pumpkin, sweet potato and pecan pie.

Nowadays, its normal to see a bean pie sitting right next to a sweet potato pie.

Of course, there are still people who hold onto their own beliefs and will shun southern pies, but I believe there is room for all variations of pie.

What does bean pie taste like?

In my opinion the pie tastes very much like custard because it is silky smooth like custard with a crunchy crust on top.

There really isn't much difference in the taste of this pie compared to other pies which are made very similar.

The only difference is beans are being used in place of root vegetables.

Variations

There are other variations of this pie such as chocolate bean pie and the coconut custard bean pie.

Speaking of variations, there is no reason why you can't use another form of bean such as black beans, red kidney beans, pinto, butter beans and so fourth.

You are more than welcome to go one step further by making this pie with another type of bean.

Maybe you're a huge fan of black beans and want to use those instead of navy beans. The adaptations are endless, depending on how creative you want to be.

My version

As I mentioned before, my version of this wonderful navy bean pie is to serve my audience who are dairy and gluten free.

This means some slight adaptations have been made, the most obvious one is the pie crust.

Now that I'm getting into baking abit more than I used to, I have a homemade pie crust pie that I am starting to use on the blog.

Please check it out (I will link it in the notes section and recipe card), you will definitely find it useful and it works!

My choice in sugar is raw cane sugar, but I am not a huge fan of overly sweet desserts so about half a cup or just slightly over that is sweet enough for me.

The butter is dairy free, I like to use butter that is softened, but some people use melted.

In place of the flour I used starch instead, tapioca starch is my preferred starch as it is a clean starch.

The steps

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
Use the tines of a fork to pierce the bottom of the pie.
Cover the entire pie crust with parchment paper then fill with dried beans/rice
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Remove pie crust from the oven.
Carefully cover the edges of the crust with aluminium foil or a pie shield then set aside to cool down.

Steps 5-10 add the ingredients to the blender

Add the navy beans and coconut milk to a blender (or food processor) and blitz until smooth.
Add the tapioca starch, eggs, raw cane sugar, softened butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, pink salt and lemon juice.

Steps 11-16 pouring the batter into the pie crust

Blitz into a smooth consistency.
Pour the mixture into the pie crust.
Bake in the oven until the pie is set (it should be firm/jiggle when it is ready) this will take anything from 40 minutes to 1 hour (if the pie is browning too much (cover the top loosely with foil).
Remove the pie from the oven and allow the pie to cool for 2-3 hours before slicing it.

Notes and tips

If you cannot get navy beans use north beans, cannellini or lima beans instead.
You can use dried beans, just soak and cook them first but they need to be the equalavent to an 15.5oz of beans.
This is the pie crust recipe that you will need.
Navy beans are called haricot beans in the UK.
Feel free to add an additional spices such as allspice, ginger, mace or cloves.
This pie serves 6-8 people.
It is very important that you par-bake the pie crust before using it to avoid a soggy bottom.
Keep the pie refrigerated for up to 3 days.
To freeze the pie, wrap in saran/plastic wrap and then cover with aluminium foil but be sure to thaw the pie out before consuming it.
To prevent the pie crust edges from burning, it is very important to use a pie shield or cover with bits of aluminium foil.

Other baked goods to try

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Bean Pie Recipe (Gluten Free and Dairy Free)