100% Vegetarian Custard Pie

Custard means a dessert made with milk, sugar and eggs. For the people who does not like having eggs, this recipe serves as a best alternative to make a custard pie without using any eggs. Few days back I had few of my best buddies visiting my house after a long time, one of them was a vegan and I tried my best to prepare the food devoid of dairy and non-veg and that is the reason why I made this vegetarian custard pie.

Speaking about veganism brought me to an interesting topic, here in USA my world is very small I can barely count the people on my fingers whom I can call as my friends. In this small world, I observed that many of them are converting to a vegan diet and it is very interesting to know the reason behind their conversion.They all watched either "Forks over Kinfe" or "Veducated" movie on a Netflix. I was pretty amazed to see that a movie could impact someone so much that they prepared to leave their most favorite non-veg food and practice veganism. I watched both movies and could imagine how the meat eaters would have felt when they saw it. I'm a vegetarian so, I did not regret much but my heart broke apart after seeing how animals are treated, when they are raised for meat or milk production. May be I too will switch to vegan soon!!!!

Ingredients:

Ready made Pie crust-1 (I bought this from Kroger, you can find it in the frozen section)
Custard powder-5tbsp (You can buy this in any Indian store, make sure it says 100% vegetarian)
Sugar-1cup
Fruits of your choice (I used Apple, Blueberry & Raspberry)
For Jam: I used frozen Raspberry, Blueberry and Blackberry in equal quantities

Method
Blind baking: Pre-heat oven to 475F. Take pie out of the cover and with the help of fork poke some holes on the crust (It prevents the pie from raising) .Cover it on the top with parchment paper, then add any dry beans on top and bake at 475 F for 20 min. If you do not wish to blind bake you can just bake it directly.

Jam: Heat a small pot and add hand full of your favorite frozen fruit to it and mix well, soon the mixture starts converting to a thick mixture add 1tbsp of sugar to it and turnoff the stove.

Custard preparation: Heat a thick bottom pot and add 2 cups of water, 1 cup sugar, 1/2tbsp orange zest, 1/4cup orange juice and mix well. Take 1/4 cup of  warm water and add 4tbsp of custard and mix well. Add this custard mixture to the boiling sugar mixture in the pot and mix well. When the mixture is thick enough turn off the stove and let the mixture to cool little bit.

Custard pie: Arrange thinly sliced apple pieces at the bottom of a baked pie and spread prepared jam on it. Then add custard mixture and allow it to cool completely. Decorate with your desired fruits and serve cold with whipped cream on top or sprinkle some confectioners sugar on top like me.

For me this is the best vegetarian custard that I ever tasted and my friends liked it a lot.

Tips: If you do not have any problem in having milk you can substitute milk for water during custard preparation.
for real custard recipe, blind bake the pie and mix 6 large eggs, 2cups of sugar and 1cup of milk in a pan and pour this mixture on a pie and bake it @ 475  F till it turns golden brown and enjoy!!!!

I hope you like my recipe! Please leave your valuable comments!!! :)