Practically Perfect Pumpkin Pie

[titaniumjunky]

I love pie. No really, me and pie? We’re like this (makes crossed finger gesture indicating I am either lying or that Pie and I have a serious thing going on). When folks ask me what kind of cake I want for my birthday I answer “Pie”.

I’m very proud of my Pumpkin Pie…

 

 

Firstly you need to make your own crust. Seriously just do it, it’s not that hard. You’ll thank me later.

 

Flaky Butter Pie Crust

PREP TIME 15 Min Ready in 4 hours

 

If your gonna eat pie, go all the way, make your crust with butter.

Make more than one at a time and freeze it.

As is this recipe makes one 9 inch crust

 

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced

1/4 cup ice water (If I’m making a sweet autumn pie I use leftover APPLE CIDER!!!)

 

Directions:

1. Cut your butter into ¼ inch cubes an keep them in the freezer until you’re ready to use them

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.

3. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Ideally use a pastry cutter, but two knives work almost as well and provide more of a work out.

4. Stir in liquid (water, cider whatever you’re using), a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

5. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. (I almost always have to roll my dough out between two pieces of plastic wrap) Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

6. Put your finished crust back in the fridge while you go work on the pie filling!

 

 

Pumpkin Pie filling

Fills one 9 inch pie

Prep: 15 min Cooking: 55 min Cooling time: 2 hrs cooling Yields: 8 servings

 

Canned pumpkins vs. Fresh pumpkins. They taste the same. Exactly the same. Use canned unless you for some reason hove 500 pumpkins you need to get rid of and are a masochist.

 

Do not use premade pumpkin pie filling. No! Bad. Put it down.

 

Go ahead and use your favorite Pumpkin Pie filling recipe. I’ll post mine in a tic. It’s slightly altered from the back of the libby’s can (because its cheap and I make like 10 of these every year) though, no one believes me. But there’s two tricks I picked up that make it amazing.

 

Ingredients

3/4 cup granulated sugar (I use brown sugar; you can do what you want!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I’m leaving in the spice measurements for those who want them, I just add them till it feels right)

(can we get some nutmeg up in here?)

(Also Honey, I have a serious thing for honey, again I use the buckwheat for fall baking)

(and I like a touch of Vanilla)

2 large eggs

1 can (15 oz.) Pumpkin

1 can (12 fl. oz.) Evaporated Milk

 

Directions

Now here’s where it gets crazy

 

Evaporated Milk, eggs, and vanilla together in medium bowl. Combine pumpkin, sugar, spices, (honey?) and salt in large heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring to sputtering simmer over medium heat, 5 to 7 minutes. Continue to simmer pumpkin mixture, stirring constantly until thick and shiny, 10 to 15 minutes. This can get MESSY.

 

Remove pan from heat and whisk in cream mixture until fully incorporated. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl, using back of ladle or spatula to press solids through strainer. Rewhisk mixture and transfer to pie shell.

 

Now sometimes a recipe wants you to prebake the pie shell sometimes it doesn’t. I never do, I’m lazy and I don’t have pie weights (or a decent substitute) My pies are always fine

 

Libby’s says to BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

 

I have a gas oven, baking times are funny. When in doubt, Keep an eye on your Pie.

 

The key really is cooking the filling and straining it. Your Pumpkin pie will be tops.

 

Comments

[annotated_em]

How does cooking and straining the filling change the pie? I don't think I've ever had a pie where the filling was pre-cooked--does it change the texture or the flavor? *interested*

Answers from the source

[titaniumjunky]

I though it was crazy too, but i decided to try it because hey, when has Cooks Illustrated ever been wrong? Here's what they have to say:

Simmering the filling for pumpkin pie is an unusual step, but its benefits are threefold. First, cooking the pumpkin drives off moisture and concentrates their taste. Second, cooking the spices along with the pumpkin allows their flavors to bloom. Third, heating the filling allows it to firm up quickly in the oven, rather than soaking into the pastry and causing the crust to become soggy.

As to straining the filling, they don’t explain but I think it's to help smooth out the texture even further. Pumpkin is a squash and can still have that squash like texture. Whatever it does it does it well!

Re: Answers from the source

[annotated_em]

Ah, fascinating! That makes a fair bit of sense, too. I'm going to have to give this a try.

[aquinasprime]

I'll have to try this for Thanksgiving. I will second your opinion on making your own pie crust. I use my mother's no-fail recipe she got out of a Betty Crocker cookbook ages ago. It takes me 15 min tops to make, but never fails. Its just too easy to do to bother with using a pre-made crust.

[zdashamber]

I heard something interesting I've been meaning to try: get the butter into pieces by grating the frozen stick with a frozen cheese grater.

[titaniumjunky]

I tried this once. I got a 1/4 way through the stick of butter and then cubed the rest. Maybe there was somethign i was missing but the part of the butter that I had to hold on to melted so fast i spent more time re-freezing the stick then i would have making the entire crust if i had just cubed it. And the Mess!!

[holyschist]

I hardly ever make crust because I just love pie filling, but butter crusts are the way to go! I also like to add allspice and cardamom to pumpkin pie--cardamom makes everything tastier.

Mmmm...time to make pie filling.