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My adoring fan has requested that I share my favorite pumpkin pie with everyone. Traditionally, I bake this on Halloween.
Why not Thanksgiving? 1. I want to savor this pie on its own and not have it compete with other desserts. 2. I make a sinfully delicious pecan pie for Thanksgiving. 3. I experiment with other pumpkin desserts that are not pie.
So there.
My spicy pie has the usual beginning.
The filling looks the same as many other pumpkin pies, but contains a heap of spices. Enough to make your tongue tingle. (That's about as hard to type as to say.)
The next step is to let the pie cool. Always difficult. Those are knife marks, by the way. Two, because the pie had to bake a bit longer than usual. (I'm in control of the doneness, not the recipe.)
At last, it is ready to devour, with some whipped cream and a pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon. Because my daughter does not like pumpkin pie, I get this all to myself. Oh yes.
Here's the recipe in case you want to indulge in spiciness.
Pilgrim Pumpkin (or Squash) Pie
(adapted from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, 1963)
one unbaked 9" pie shell
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 can pumpkin (usually Libby's)
1 large can evaporated milk
2 eggs, well beaten
Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine all ingredients except pie shell. Beat until smooth, then pour into shell.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees F, and bake until custard is set, between 45 and 60 minutes. Test after 45 minutes with a clean knife. If it comes out clean, the pie is ready; if not, bake a bit longer.
Simple, easy, and spicy. (Note: I usually use heaping measures of the spices.)
The final FFwD recipe for the month of October was Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake, an easy-to-make cake loaded with apple chunks.
I chose four different kinds of apples for this cake: Fuji, Gala, Braeburn, and Granny Smith.
Basically, you whisk together a simple batter of flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. While the recipe calls for rum, I substituted Amaretto. When the batter is prepared, you fold in the chunks of the apples you selected and pour it into an 8-inch springform pan.
Bake for about an hour, cool,
then slice.
I know for sure that this cake won't last long. Because it is so easy to make, it's also a great dessert for parties and get-togethers.
Head over to French Fridays with Dorie to see how the other bakers fared. All of the recipes for our inaugural month were delicious and fun to make. Perhaps Dorie would be willing to choose our selections more often!
For the last Barefoot Blogger recipe for October, we tackled popovers, always an exciting thing to watch bake, like pita bread.
This time I used custard cups for the baking vessel instead of the usual cupcake/muffin tin. As I watched them bake (through the glass viewing screen), I was fascinated by the lop-sideness of them. How does that happen?
Guess I'll have to make them again. I made just a third of the recipe since there are only two of us, and four seemed to be the right amount. They are quick to make, so I'll be re-making them soon. The recipe can be found either in the Parties! cookbook, or on the website.
For lunch today, I made Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Curry Condiments. This soup looked and sounded so delicious that I wanted to give it a try.
I halved the soup recipe. First, I roasted one butternut squash, one apple, and one onion.
When the vegetables were very soft, I poured them into the food processor and pureed them with some chicken stock.
I put the puree in a saucepan, added some curry powder, salt, pepper, and more chicken stock to thin out the soup.
The toppings were toasted unsweetened coconut, sliced scallions, chopped cashews, and some chopped banana. This was a terrific combination of flavors.
The soup recipe can be found in the Back to Basics cookbook and probably online.
In November, we started using Ina's latest cookbook, How Easy Is That? I can hardly wait.
The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann, and Epicurious.
There were quite a few choices this month.
We could make yeast doughnuts, buttermilk cake doughnuts, pumpkin doughnuts, and bombolini, which are stuffed balls of fried goodness.
I happen to love maple bars, so that is what I made.
I added some vanilla to the basic yeast dough recipe, then added a maple glaze. Some doughnuts were topped with bacon (as a tribute to Voodoo Doughnuts).
I've been making doughnuts for many years. I always use my handy electric skillet, so I can easily monitor the temperature of the oil.
The resulting doughnuts were pretty close to the flavors I love. They actually tasted slightly better the next day and disappeared quickly after that.
Stop by the Daring Kitchen to find the recipes and see all the doughnuts that the Daring Bakers made.
Pies are some of my favorite desserts. Nearly any flavor will do.
This week, Emily, of Sandmuffin, chose Dorie's All-American All-Apple Pie, a most excellent choice.
I used a combination of Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Pink Lady apples. Mixed with spices, instant tapioca, lemon zest, and butter, they were fabulously delicious.
Normally, when I make apple pie, I saute the apples beforehand for two reasons: 1. I can use a whole lot more apples because they shrink ahead of time; and 2. the finished pie doesn't have this huge cavern of empty space above the apples. It is completely full of apples.
No matter how it's cooked, though, this pie is absolutely wonderful. If you can make it last a second day, the filling just melds together beautifully and tastes even better than on the first day.
There is one piece left. When I finish writing, I will settle down and enjoy every last crumb. Stop by Emily's blog for the recipe, so you can partake of this pie's apple-y goodness.
To see how the other bakers like this pie, head over to the Tuesdays with Dorie website.
One picture is definitely worth a thousand words. Does this photo give you a clue about our feelings for this week's FFwD recipe, Hachis Parmentier (or Shepherd's Pie)?
We did have a choice in the preparation between boiling pieces of beef and creating our own beef broth, or choosing a less complicated version that uses ground beef. Since I have a freezer full of ground beef, I chose the more simple route. The results, however, were not simple at all.
I sauteed the ground beef and sausage together, and when they were nearly all browned, I threw in some minced garlic and thyme along with the tomato paste and some beef broth. I seasoned the meats as they were cooking. (My sausage was sweet Italian sausage from Trader Joe's, easy to remove from the casing and crumble.)
The mashed potatoes were made as I always make them, hand-mashed with cream and butter.
I used a 9" pie plate for the cooking vessel, placing the meat layer on the bottom, followed by the mashed potato layer. I used a generous grating of Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses with dots of butter to top it off.
The end result was superb.
It was a good thing that I only made half a recipe, because the two of us polished it off in record time. Had I made a full recipe, we would have done the same. Clearly, it disappeared before the camera could record any servings. It was that good.
This is definitely one recipe that will become a regular around here. For more opinions, stop by the French Fridays with Dorie website.
I must confess that I am a pumpkin pie snob. The only pumpkin pie I really, really enjoy is my own.
When I was growing up, my father made the pies in the family. His specialty was pumpkin pie, and his were dark and spicy.
No one that I know of makes a dark and spicy pumpkin pie. Most pies are too squashy, too pale, too bland. Not mine. Mine are like my dad's.
Typically, I make my pumpkin pie on Halloween. When I bake it this year, I will post the recipe so you can compare.
This week we were tasked to make Dorie's Caramel Pumpkin Pie. The other bakers were raving about it, so I was hopeful that I could add another pie to my repertoire.
The main difference with this pie is that you caramelize sugar until it is dark amber and add that to the pumpkin filling.
Along with some spices and a splash of rum, It makes for a darker pie. However, there is also a touch of bitterness that is not particularly pleasant. I had two other taste testers this time, and they both agreed with that diagnosis.
As good as this pie is, it will not be replacing my favorite recipe.
I might just give this pie another try, except that I will only caramelize the sugar until it is a light to medium amber and leave out the rum, or at least reduce the quantity since it was bit overpowering.
This week's Caramel Pumpkin Pie was chosen by Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs. You can find the recipe on Janell's blog, after which you can stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie website and read about the other bakers' reactions.
My adoring fan has requested that I share my favorite pumpkin pie with everyone. Traditionally, I bake this on Halloween.
