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Pumpkin Pie

Introduction & method

Americans love this flan, with its wobbly interior and crunchy buttery pastry. Pumpkin, like most squashes, tends to be somewhat bland in flavour, but the addition of spices makes pumpkin pie very tasty and autumnal.

 Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Make the Pumpkin Puree


If you can find pumpkin puree in a can, skip this step. Otherwise, preheat your oven to 180° C (356° F) for a fan oven, or 200° C (392° F) conventional. Quarter your pumpkin, scoop out the fibres and seeds, place the quarters on a roasting sheet with 2 tbsps water, and roast for about 30 minutes, until the flesh is tender. Remove it from the oven and when it is cool enough to handle scrape the flesh from the skin. Whizz into a paste with a stick blender, then wrap it in muslin cloth (cheesecloth), tie the corners together and hang it up over a bowl. When liquid has stopped dripping out, the puree is ready to use. You can speed up the process by squeezing the cloth a little.

Make the Pastry


Place the flour, sugars and salt into a large bowl and mix well. Grate the cold butter into the bowl and rub it in with your fingertips. The mixture should look like fine breadcrumbs. Break your eggs into a small bowl, whisk them together and stir into the pastry mix. Tip the mixture out onto your worktop and knead gently until you have a smooth ball of dough. Wrap this in plastic film and put it in the fridge to rest for half an hour.

Blind Bake the Pastry


You'll need to blind bake your pastry case to avoid getting a soggy bottom. Set your oven to 160° C (320° F) fan or 180° C (356° F) normal. Butter the inside of a deep cake tin (mine was 18cm / 7 inches diameter). Sprinkle flour on your worktop and roll the pastry out into a thin disc, about 3-4 millimetres (just under a quarter of an inch) thick. Loosely roll this around your rolling pin, then unroll it over your baking tin. Carefully press the pastry down into the bottom of the tin, and trim off the excess leaving a bit of a rim. Prick the bottom all over with a fork. Scrunch up some greaseproof paper and use it to line the pastry, then fill it with baking beans, dried beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the greaseproof paper and beans/rice and bake for a further 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Make and Bake the Pie


Put all the filling ingredients into a blender and whizz until smooth. Pour the filling into the cooled pastry case and smooth the top with a palette knife. Bake for 30 minutes, then check if it's done - you want the filling to have a slight wobble. If it is still too wobbly, bake for another 10 minutes or so. Remove from the oven and when it has cooled a little, remove the pie from the tin. Place it on a wire rack in the fridge for an hour or two until it is completely cool. Serve with whipped cream, Chantilly cream or ice cream.
 


The video above is from the Keef Cooks YouTube channel. Click here to see the video recipe of Pumpkin Pie on YouTube.

 
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Ingredients & Info


SWEET SHORTCRUST PASTRY
 150 grams plain (all-purpose) flour
 50 grams caster (powdered) sugar
 100 grams cold butter
 2 eggs
 pinch of salt
FILLING
 250 grams pumpkin puree
 100 grams granulated sugar
 65 grams light brown demerara sugar
 175 ml evaporated milk
 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
 1 tsp ground ginger
 ½ tsp ground cloves

PLUS

Pumpkin - the perfect orange pumpkins sold for making jack o'lanterns are not good for eating. You'll need to get a 'culinary' pumpkin, or even a butternut squash.


UNITS:
Metric
US Customary/Imperial

Makes 1 18cm (7 inch) diameter pie
Prep time: 30 minutes.
Setting time: 1 hour.
Cooking time: 40 minutes.
Total time: 2 hours 10 minutes.