Culture

Considering pumpkin is so bloody cheap at the moment, it seems sensible to incorporate this orange wonder food into as many meals as possible. Starting, logically, with dessert. I’ve become quite obsessed with the idea of pumpkin pie recently, which I attribute to a combination of the fact that I recently watched the Friends Thanksgiving episode, pumpkin pie’s scarcity in these parts, and our rapid descent into winter. It feels like time for pie.

Overwhelmed by the abundance of pumpkin pie recipes on the interwebs, I sought advice from some North American friends. Naturally I assumed that they would all have secret family recipes; if television is correct, they do eat it a lot up there. Unfortunately, no such luck. One suggested that I use canned pumpkin pie filling and was most shocked when I told him that such a thing was unlikely to exist in the antipodes. Luckily, an ex-flatmate of mine from Nova Scotia writes a really great food blog (lecarousel.blogspot.com) and a while ago she wrote a post about the very orange dessert I have been so desperate to make.
 
I have cheated by using pre-made sweet short crust pastry. Clearly canned pumpkin is completely normal in Canada, but where the original recipe suggests a ‘15oz can of pumpkin puree’ I have provided nice Kiwi-friendly cup measurement of hand-mashed pumpkin. Mashin’ like the pilgrims.
 
Pastry:
400g block of sweet short crust pastry
 
Filling:
2 cups of boiled and mashed pumpkin (about 700g)
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
250mls cream (1 cup)
2 tbsp. brandy/brandy essence (optional)
3 quarters of a cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1 and a half tsp. ground ginger
1 and a half tsp. ground cinnamon
Half a tsp. salt
1 eighth tsp. ground nutmeg
1 eighth tsp. black pepper
 
Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Roll out the pastry and place in a greased pie dish. Bake the pie crust for about 15 minutes without any filling in it. Weight the pastry down with some greaseproof paper filled with rice or pasta to prevent it rising.
 
While the crust is baking, boil and mash the pumpkin. Use a whisk to make it smooth; add eggs, egg yolk, cream and brandy. Whisk in brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, pepper. Pour the mixture into the now cooled and partially baked pie crust.
 
Decrease oven temperature to 160 degrees and bake the pie for an hour. (Honestly, such oven drama when I made this pie. I bust a fuse in the house and was convinced the oven was broken forever. It ended up just being a problem with the timer. Yeesh.) It should look reasonably set, but if it is a bit wobbly in the middle no matter, as it will continue to set as it cools.
 
Typically, cream is sold in 300ml bottles, so whisk up the remaining 50mls to serve with the pie. This dessert is popular enough in America to warrant pureed pumpkin in a can, and I can see why. The nutmeg/pumpkin combo is genius. It completely satisfied my pie craving.