With Thanksgiving on the way, a good alternative to pumpkin pie is mamey sapote pie. So much easier to make than pumpkin, because there is no cleaning and precooking the squash involved.

The mamey is a fresh fruit ready to add directly to the pie with little or no processing. It’s like processed canned pumpkin in a fruit!

Halve and scoop out the main pie filling

Mamey Sapote Pie:

• 3 cups of fresh, raw mamey sapote fruit
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbs of flour
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of clove
• 1/2 tsp of allspice
• 1/4 vanilla bean
• 2 tbs of butter or coconut oil– melted
• 9″ pie crust unbaked

Cut mamey in half and scoop out the fruit into a large mixing bowl. One nice sized mamey should be enough for 3 cups. With electric mixer beat in eggs, sugar, milk, butter or oil, flour and spices until smooth. Spoon filling into pie shell and bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes until pie is set and crust is golden.

You can find mamey sapote at The Locavore Store in Hilo, Island Naturals in Pahoa and Hilo and at Pam Lee’s tropical fruit booth at the Hilo Marketplace.