Line a tray with baking paper for the pumpkin. Cut the pumpkin into large chunks and brush with a light coating of olive oil. Place the pumpkin in the oven on the lower rack, and roast until you can easily slice a knife through the pumpkin. The idea here is to roast the flesh without developing a leathery skin, so preferably leave the skin on while you roast.

Once the pumpkin has cooked through thoroughly, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. When cooled completely, use your hands or a spoon to remove the pumpkin flesh from the skin, adding the flesh to a high speed blender. Ensure you have definitely scooped out all the pumpkin seeds or you’ll end up with little white chunks in your puree.

Puree the pumpkin until it is completely smooth. If you’re making it ahead of time, freeze it once it has cooled – it tends to go off quite quickly in the fridge, I’ve found.

If your pumpkin puree doesn’t need to be spooned out of the processor (you can pour it out instead) then it contains too much liquid. This will vary from pumpkin to pumpkin. To remove some liquid, simply pour the puree into a medium saucepan and cook over a low-medium heat until it reduces and thickens. Set aside for use.

Start by ensuring that all your liquid ingredients are super cold. Put the butter and sour cream in the freezer, and put ice in your water ahead of using it.

Mix the flours, sugar and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add the cubes of cold butter and coat them with the flour mix. Now, use your fingertips to gently rub the butter into the flour mixture. At first it will be slow and difficult, but gradually you’ll melt the butter with the heat of your hands and it will start to be more flexible. You don’t want to completely melt the butter – just rub it into the flour in little sheets. This is what makes the pastry puffy and flaky.

Think of the hand motion as being the same as the one you make to signal someone is rich. Use your thumbs to push the butter up and back into the bowl. I’ve linked a couple of Youtube tutorials if you’re more of a visual learner.

Once the butter has been rubbed into the flour mixture, it should look a bit like sand that had gotten a little wet.

Next, add the sour cream and use a spoon to agitate the mixture – distribute the sour cream without roughly mixing. Once most of the sour cream has been incorporated, use your hands to gently bring the dough together without smushing the butter bits.

Adding liquid here depends entirely on what your dough looks like at this point. If it comes together in a smooth-ish ball with no dry spots, don’t add any water. If it is still dry and crumbly, add the ice water, a teaspoon at a time. Use your hands to bring the dough together between each teaspoon, and stop as soon as the dough is smooth.

Tightly wrap the dough in a beeswax wrap (I don’t feel comfortable recommending cling film anymore) and place in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Generously grease the pie plate with butter and set aside.

Liberally flour a piece of baking paper with tapioca flour on a dry work surface. Place the pastry dough in the centre of the paper and flour it on the top too. I can’t stress this enough – use plenty of tapioca flour. It’s the only way you’ll come out with your sanity intact.

Gently roll the dough out, stopping every couple of rolls to flour both sides of the dough. ‘Turn’ the dough regularly (pick it up and flip it over) to prevent it from sticking. Once the dough gets too big to turn, take another piece of well floured baking paper and place it atop the dough. Working quickly, lift the dough up and flip it onto the newer piece of baking paper. Then you can continue rolling.

If at any point the dough becomes soft and hard to work with, place it flat in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.

Once you have rolled it out to a couple of sizes larger than the pie plate, place it flat in the freezer for about 5 minutes to get ready for the pie plate.

Gluten free pastry is pretty sensitive, so be ready to patch up tears with your hands.

Lay the pastry flat on a working surface like a table so you have a bit of space underneath for your hands. Place the pie plate gently in the centre of the pastry dough in whatever position maximises pastry overhang.

Use one hand to pull a corner of the baking paper towards you, and place the other directly underneath the centre of the pie dish. As you pull the pastry off the table, your other hand will push the pastry into the pie dish, after which you will quickly flip the dish, letting the pastry fall into it.

Don’t stretch the pastry into the dish – be generous with letting it fall into the dish. Patch up any tears as necessary, and then trim excessive overhang, redistributing it to places that may have none.

Once the whole pie has equal overhang, fold it into the back of the pie dish to create a little wall of pastry. Do this the whole way around.

To crimp the pastry, use a knuckle of one hand to push the dough one way, and your thumb and pointer of the other hand to push into your knuckle, creating a crimp. Repeat the entire way around.

Place the pie on a baking tray so that you don’t crush the crimps with fat oven mitt hands.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit. Generously brush the crimps of the pastry with egg wash.

Scrunch up a large piece of baking paper and gently place it into the pastry. This will act as a guard between the pastry and your pie weights.

Add the pie weights – they can be dried beans or real pie weights. Make sure they’re pushing up against the walls of the pie, as they will hold them firm and stable while cooking.

Place the pie in the oven for 20 minutes. After that time, very gently lift out the paper (it might have stuck to a few bits of pastry) and remove the pie weights. They will be very hot, so use the paper to transfer them to a heatproof dish to cool.

Place the pastry back in the oven for 10 minutes or until there are no raw looking bits of pastry on the bottom or edges.

Finally, brush the base, edges and crimps with one last eggwash (this acts as a barrier between the liquid filling and the pastry) and cook for 1-2 minutes until that has set.

Weigh out the spoonable pumpkin puree into a large mixing bowl, and crack in the eggs. Combine well, and then add the spices and salt. Set aside.

Pour the maple syrup into a medium sized saucepan and place over a medium heat. Once it starts bubbling, cook the maple syrup for 3-4 minutes. This removes liquid content from the maple and will create a quasi-condensed milk.

Add the cream in a couple of batches, stirring to combine before adding more. The mixture should look like a runny condensed milk and it should be hot but not crazy hot.

Gently stream the hot cream mixture into the pumpkin mixture, stirring well each time you add more. This will bring the eggs up to a warmer temperature and help create a silkier custard. If you add the hot cream too quickly you might curdle the eggs, so make sure you do it slowly.

Scrape down the sides of the pumpkin pie bowl one last time and then pour into the pie crust. Bang the tray gently a few times to remove any air that’s left in the pumpkin filling – this will prevent bubbles on the top of your pie.

Place the pie in the oven for 30 minutes. After this time, check regularly to ensure your pie still has a wobble in the middle and hasn’t gone crazy with cracks. Cracks are a sign that there was too much liquid in the pumpkin or that the pie has been overcooked.

As soon as the pie is cooked, turn the oven off. If you can, allow the pie to cool in the oven with the door held ajar by a wooden spoon. This will further assist in ensuring cracks don’t form.

Allow the pie to cool and set before eating.