Post-Thanksgiving Pumpkin

Since my mom couldn't be with us on Thanksgiving Day, she came down on the train the following week. After she finished packing the night before, she put in a request for me to save her a slice of pie. Little did she know that the Thanksgiving pie had been polished off long ago. Luckily, I had some pumpkin puree in the freezer and enough time to throw this pie (her favorite) together before she arrived. It was also the first time I got to try out my new holiday pie dish. I love it! The recipe used is the standby pumpkin version from older posts. For some reason blogger isn't letting me link to it right now.

Current Pie Tally: 68

Last BBQ Pumpkin and Apple Pies

I made these two pies for our first bbq at the neighbors' house. If the weather turns more unfavorable to outdoor soirees as it's supposed to, it also happened to be the last bbq they'll throw until Spring. What better way to send everyone home to hole up for winter than with bellies full of pie. Pumpkin Pie recipe can be found here and here's the Apple Pie recipe:

Apple Pie
top and bottom pie crusts
about 8 pie apples (Cortlands this time), peeled, cored, & sliced
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. freshly squeezed orange juice
3 T. flour
1 T. molasses
1 t. Penzey's apple pie spice

Mix bottom six ingredients in an extra large bowl. Fold in the apples. Pour into pie dish lined with bottom crust. Roll out top crust. Trim and fold edges, crimp, and seal. Cut a vent for the steam. Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 F and bake for 35-40 minutes more. Pie is done when goo bubbles in the center under the steam vent, the crust looks dry and golden brown, and the apples are tender when pierced with a fork (through the steam vent). Let cool and enjoy!

Current Pie Tally: 65

Old Friends Pumpkin Pie

A buddy of mine from college came up to visit from southern Maryland one Saturday, so I made this pumpkin pie with the rest of the butternut/sweet potato puree from the last pie (I froze it). He said it was the best pumpkin pie he ever had. Maybe he was being polite, but I like to think that I edged out grandma.

I think it's time I posted the go-to pumpkin pie recipe again in a more easy-to-read form, so here it is:

Pumpkin Pie
1 cooked pie shell (allow to cool at least 20 min.)
3 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk
2c. fresh pumpkin puree (roast at 400 for 1 hr., then puree)
3/4c. brown sugar
3/4t. cinnamon
1t. grated fresh ginger
1/2t. salt
1/8t. nutmeg
1c. heavy cream
1/2c. whole milk
1t. vanilla
1T. maple syrup
1/2t. Penzey's pumpkin pie spice mixture

Mix all the filling ingredients together with a whisk or electric mixer. Pour into cooked (and cooled) pie shell. Bake at 350 F for 40-45 min. When the pie is done, the filling will look set on the edges (about 2 inches in I'll say) and like it has a dry skin on top. The center should still be loose when you gently jostle the pie to check on it. *I should mention that I often use 1.5c. half-and-half instead of the heavy cream and milk. I usually already have that in the fridge for making quiche. Also, the Penzey's spice mixture is optional. If you don't use it, bump up the amounts of the other spices used.

Current Pie Tally: 63

First "Pumpkin" Pie of the Season

This is a pie I made for the couple who was renting our house before we moved in. Since local pumpkins weren't in full swing at the farmer's market or co-op yet, I used a combination of butternut squash and sweet potato. Probably half of a 3-lb. squash and half of an average sized sweet potato for one pie. Otherwise, the recipe is the same one used for my standby pumpkin pie. Tasted just like pumpkin to me!

Current Pie Tally: 62

Vinegar Chess and the Last Pumpkin

I finally used up the last of our pureed garden pumpkin from the freezer. The resulting pie went to the couple who babysat my son while my husband and I dined at the Belgian mussel bar in honor of Valentine's Day. After some strong, flavorful beer, foie gras, duck, and mussels, we were invited to have a slice of the pie with the babysitters. It was a sweet end to a hearty pumpkin pie season. In summary, I made 10 pumpkin pies with the pumpkins my husband and I grew in 2010. I probably could have made two more to round out an even dozen if I had portioned the puree better before freezing.

I also finally succumbed to trying out the Vinegar Chess Pie recipe from ReadyMade. I've made this style of pie once or twice before when I was in high school. I remember my dad liking it. This variation of the recipe is superb. The cream in particular really enriches and mellows the flavor and texture. Utter deliciousness and a perfect pie for a time of year when little fresh produce is available. I should also mention that I used yellow cornmeal instead of white, since that's what I had in the cupboard. I doubt it made much of a difference.

I made the Vinegar Chess Pie for a small, impromptu dinner party over the weekend. The guests were pleasantly surprised by the tastiness of a pie made with vinegar and one suggested that I look up the origins of such a strange pie. According to wikipedia.org, chess-style pie has no connection to the actual game of chess and hails from England. Chess pie recipes are very sweet (usually comprising eggs, sugar, butter, cornmeal, and vanilla) and have historically been common desserts in both New England and Virginia in the U.S. Vinegar Chess Pie is simply a chess pie that's had some vinegar added to bring the sweetness down a notch.

Current Pie Tally: 47

Snowed-In Pumpkin

I made this little delight in the calm before the first big Midwestern blizzard of 2011. It was supposed to be bartered in exchange for a night of babysitting while my husband and I enjoyed dinner out and a Baptism prep session. My husband and I ended up having to eat it ourselves since we got snowed in. Pity we couldn't try out the European mussel bar, but at least we got some delicious pie out of it. I used the Perfect Pumpkin Pie recipe again to make this one, except that I used 1.25 c. half and half and 1/4 c. milk instead of the proportions of heavy cream and milk called for in the recipe. I had quite a bit of half and half leftover from house guests that I needed to use up.

After about 48 min at 350, the pie came out marvelously as usual, which makes me wonder if my pie calling is to make pumpkin pie. Pumpkin and rhubarb medleys are definitely the top contenders right now. Though my husband says my pecan should be in the running too. Somehow I can't rationalize that one, since pecans grow nowhere near the great state of Wisconsin. Maybe I could make a version that uses local walnuts? Would it taste as fabulous, though?

In other pie news, I have been digging on the holiday issue of ReadyMade magazine. The pie spread in there is very inspirational. I'm particularly smitten with the Bittersweet Chocolate Cherry and Vinegar Chess. The Vinegar Chess Pie is a perfect "hunger gap" dessert, so I see that one getting made in the near future. The Dark Chocolate Cherry, on the other hand, is very festive and a bit more involved. Perhaps I'll treat myself for my birthday at the end of March.

Current Pie Tally: 45

Party-time Pumpkin

I made this pumpkin pie for one of the holiday parties my family attended. In many aspects, it was the best pumpkin pie I have made yet. The crust was perfect - even thickness, perfect browning, no slouchy or cracked walls. Because the crust was perfect, I was able to load it up a little higher with the filling. The result was pure indulgence. My one complaint was that the pumpkin was a little underdone for my liking. I roasted the enormous pie pumpkin I grew over the summer for this one. Even though I hacked it into manageable sections, I should have left it in the oven a bit longer. No one else noticed the difference luckily. In fact, one party guest admitted he didn't like pumpkin pie, but he sure liked mine. I feel the same way.

For a preview of Christmas pies, I bring you visions of pecan and apple...and hopefully an exciting surprise.

Current Pie Tally: 41

Thanksgiving Day Pies

I traveled down to Iowa City to spend Thanksgiving Day with my brother and sister in law and brought these two pies. I made my popular pumpkin and molasses pecan. Both turned out well, though I think the pecan was a bit too firm from either overcooking or not enough butter. For this version of the pecan pie, I used 1/3 c. unsulphured blackstrap molasses, which I left in the measuring cup and then topped it up to 3/4 c. with real maple syrup. The flavor was good, but boy is that molasses strong. It has an almost licorice bite to it. I'm finally almost out of the high octane stuff, so I'm excited to try local sorghum instead of molasses in the next one.

Current Pie Tally: 38

Turkey Feast Pumpkin

I celebrated to Thanksgiving meals with different groups of family this year. The first occurred the weekend before Thanksgiving, when my mother came to visit. She cooked us a true turkey feast with all of the fixings and I made us this creamy pumpkin pie from my latest recipe. My only regret is that I sloppily covered it with plastic wrap when it was time to put it in the fridge and I accidentally peeled off the top layer towards the middle of the pie. The leftovers were lacking in aesthetics, but still tasted fabulous.

Current Pie Tally: 36

An Orange Colored Day

I made this pie for some dinner guests last Friday. Since then, I've decided those particular dinner guests are my new pie muses. The pie just comes together for them. I made this pie the same as the last pumpkin batch, but I used closer to 2 c. of pureed pumpkin instead of 1.5.

Current Pie Tally: 34

Six Pies in a Day

It's over, so we can laugh about it now. Six pies in a day doesn't seem like such a bad idea when you've got plenty of sleep under your belt. But when it's 11pm, and the rest of your family has already been asleep for an hour as the apple pie crusts are falling apart beneath your fingertips, the novelty wears off. I got it all done, perhaps against my better judgement, and the pies all came out well - though the bottom apple crusts were definitely ugly. Hobo patch jobs abounded. Luckily the tops came out fine, so I could keep up appearances.

I ended up making four pumpkin pies, and two apple. If I had to do it again, I'd probably make pecan pie instead of apple. Granted the apple allowed me to mix up the filling and freeze the pies a day ahead of time, but the one crust and one-pot filling of the pecan would have been far less labor intensive. Maybe next year. The apple recipe I used is the same one as usual, with two modifications. I used a combination of lemon juice and orange juice for the fruit juice ingredient, and I added 1 t. of Penzey's apple pie spice instead of measuring out each of the different spices. I think the Penzey's mix lacks clove though, and I did miss the clove. I jazzed up the pumpkin recipe with the addition of the Penzey's pumpkin pie spice mix as well. I added 1/2 t. for each pie. The cooking time for the pumpkin was also extended since I baked the four pies all at once. It probably took 45 - 55 minutes for each pie, depending on which rack they were on and what kind of a dish they were in. Oh, and I did have enough filling from three batches of the filling to fill a fourth pie.

If you are curious about what I got done ahead of time, here is the breakdown of the schedule:
Wednesday - cook fresh pie pumpkin, puree, and put in fridge
Thursday - peel and cut apples and prepare apple pie filling and put in fridge
Friday - roll out all crusts, pre-bake pumpkin pie crusts, fill and freeze apple pies
Saturday - prepare pumpkin filling, fill pumpkin pies, and bake all pies

Feedback on the pies was all positive, with more comments being about the pumpkin. My two favorites were: "Do you take orders?" and "It's the fresh cream that really makes it." I will definitely be making quite a few more of these throughout the fall and holiday season.

Current Pie Tally: 33

Pumpkin Cream Pie

We got invited to dinner at our friends' place last night, which was the perfect opportunity to test out my new pumpkin pie recipe before my catering debut at my husband's conference. The resulting pie is more of a mousse-like cream pie than a traditional dense pumpkin. As such, it received rave reviews.

To create said recipe, I combined my favorite parts of two recipes sent to me by a friend in Virginia. The first is a pumpkin pie recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, and the second is a pumpkin pie recipe from the November & December 2008 issue of Cook's magazine. My aim was to create a pumpkin pie using as many fresh ingredients as possible.

I also should note that this tends to have extra filling leftover. I figure I have enough pumpkin puree from one of my mid-size pumpkins to make a total of four batches of the filling recipe. I'm counting on having enough leftover from that to make at least one extra pie. If you want a denser pie, I suspect you could add 1-2 more egg yolks to the recipe. For the next round of this recipe, I might increase the amount of spices slightly, but otherwise I'll keep it the same.

Pumpkin Cream Pie (makes one 9" pie)
crust
3 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk
1.5 c. fresh pumpkin puree
3/4 c. packed light-brown sugar
3/4 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. grated fresh ginger
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. whole milk
1 t. vanilla
1 T. real maple syrup

Combine filling ingredients and pour into cooked crust. Bake at 350 F for about 43 minutes. Enjoy!

Current Pie Tally: 27

A Challenge on the Horizon

My husband volunteered me to make half a dozen pies for a conference he is hosting the first weekend of October. Luckily, the pumpkin plant in our garden this year was very productive. I'll probably make 4 pumpkin and 2 of either apple or pecan, for those who don't care for pumpkin. I got to buy a bunch of new pie plates for this. I'm excited! Stay tuned.

Current Pie Tally = 26

Mini Pumpkin Tart Wedges

In my party-going and party-throwing experiences over the years, I've learned a thing or two. One is that bite-size desserts are much easier to eat. They tend to be more popular also, perhaps because the diminutive size offers less guilt. So, for the bash I threw recently, I decided to make these mini pumpkin tart wedges.

The recipe is adapted from the Pumpkin Pie recipe in "Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook." I did not get all fussy with the crust like she did. I used Anne Dimock's Pie Chart for Piecrust* in the book "Humble Pie" and made enough dough for a one-crust pie. I also used up a couple dough scraps I had in the freezer. The end result was six 4.5-inch tart shells. (Wedges from five are in the photo.)

Another adaptation lies in the preparation of the filling. My husband made the filling for these, and they aren't in the form of a true pie anyway, so they won't go toward the pie tally. For this filling, winter squash was used instead of pumpkin. Also, the exact proportions are probably a bit off compared to Martha's recipe. We use a higher ratio of squash to other ingredients, so that no squash is wasted. My husband initially made a large batch (maybe a double or triple recipe) and froze any extras. These tarts are the remnants of those frozen extras. Not a tart wedge was left standing at the end of the party, so I'd say they were a hit.

current pie tally: 13 (still)

*I use unsalted butter instead of shortening in my crust (in the same proportion).