Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees C
To make the base combine the flour, butter and icing sugar together in a mixing bowl, and using your fingers crumble the mixture together to make fine breadcrumbs.
Next add 1 tbsp cold water and mix together to form a dough, if too dry add a further tbsp water. You want the dough to be firm enough to roll out.
Sprinkle flour on to your work surface and roll out the dough to fit your pie dish.
Grease the inside of your pie dish and sprinkle flour on top.
Lay the pastry in the pie dish making sure it fits all the way round, don't worry if it hangs over the sides as you can trim these off once baked. Then using an oven proof dish or weight, blind bake to pastry for 10 minutes in the middle of the oven this will prevent the pastry rising.
While the pastry is in the over, its time to crack on with the filling
Place the cottage cheese into a food processor and blitz until creamy and there are no lumps.
Next combine the pumpkin, cottage cheese, sugar and eggs together to make your batter. Then add the spices and whey protein and stir gently to combine the mixture fully leaving no lumps.
Final step is to pour the pie batter into the pastry and smooth out, then place in the oven at 190 degrees C and bake for 30 minutes or until to pie is cooked all the way through by checking with a knife.
Best served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of maple syrup
