Is there anything better than the fresh of baked goods wafting through the home on a cold winter’s day?
And nothing declares the arrival of winter than the arrival of pumpkin on our dining tables.
Especially on thanksgiving day.
A day of giving thanks (acknowledging that there are lots of historical inaccuracies about the day)
While it has been a challenging year, I have a lot to be thankful this year. I am especially grateful for all the love and support that you have all show me.
With this in mind, I am planning on celebrating with with this home made pumpkin pie. The crust is flaky and light and filling is creamy and delicious.
This is my go-to pie crust recipe but I decided to do something differently for the top crust rather than make a lattice top. I made the pie crust decorations in the shape of maple leaeves and then I blind baked (explained in the recipe steps) the decorations. This resulted in maple leaf decorations keeping their shape.
Also, I made the pumpin puree from scratch. Making pumpkin puree at home is almost as easy as opening a can of pumpkin puree (though it takes little longer than opening a can!)
I hope you this recipe for home made pumpkin pie a try.
Tag me on instagram if you do
Happy thanksgiving friends.
Servings 12 slices
Calories/Serving 524kcal
Ingredients
Pastry
- 400 gram plain flour maida in India and all-purpose flour in USA
- 320 gram unsalted butter very cold and cut into 1/2" cubes
- 250 gram sour cream cold; can replace with milk or cream if you can't find sour cream
- 2 tbsp bread crumbs or tbsp of plain flour
Pumpkin Puree
- 500 gram pumpkin or two cups of canned pumkin puree; a 500 gram fresh pumpkin will yield little over two cups of puree
Pumpkin filling
- 3 small eggs
- 250 gram brown sugar can use light or dark brown sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream or double cream
- 1/4 cup milk can use any fat %
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger powder
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
Make pumpkin puree (optional – can use canned puree)
- Cut the pumpkin in two halves
- Scoop out all the seeds and fibrous material using a spoon
- Rub a neutral oil all over the pumkin, inside and outside
- Place the pumpkin halves face down on a baking tray
- Bake at 200C for 30 minutes. To test if the pumkin is cooked, push a dinner knive through the pumpkin. If you don't feel any resistance, then the pumpkin is cooked
- Scoop out the pulp and mash it in blender to a smooth consistency (make sure that the pulp has cooled down before mashing it). If the pumpkin yielded more than two cups of puree, use the remaining puree for pumpkin soup or mini pumpkin pies
- Set it aside
Make Pie Dough
- Make sure the butter is very cold (important). It's key to have the visible butter pieces in the dough to make a flaky, light pie crust.
- Mix together the flour and butter in a mixer to get a crumbly mix. Use the mixer on pulse setting as you do not want to completely mix in the butter.
- Mix in 2/3rd of the sour cream to the mixer and and mix on the pulse setting for less than a minute. Add more cream if the mixture does not come together
- Pour the mix on a baking parchment and pat it down into a round circle or rectangle about 2 inches high. Do not knead as the heat from the hands will melt the butter
- Divide the dough into two parts – slightly larger for the bottom crust and smaller one to be used for the top crust or decorations
- Cover both parts completely in a parchment paper to make sure that the dough doesn't dry out and the smells of the fridge do not get into the dough
- At this point, you can leave the dough in the fridge overnight. But if making pie on the same day, leave it in the fridge for atleast 20 minutes
Make Pie Shell
- Take the larger portion of the dough out of the fridge. Use a rolling pin to make a circle about 3-4 mm thick and 12- 13 inch in diameter, large enough to completely cover the pie pan
- Sprinkle bread crumbs or plain flour on the bottom of a 10 inch pie pan (optional)
- Gently lift the rolled out pie and set it in the pie mould. Gently presss the dought to the sides of the pan (but don't over press it). Make sure to have some overhang over the edges as the pie shrinks when baked
- Cover the pie with a parchment paper and put it in the fridge for atleast 20 minutes
- Take it out of the fridge and prick the bottom of the pie with a fork just before setting in the oven
- Blind bake the pie: Cut out a large circle from the parchment paper. Cover the pie with the paper and add beans of any kind (or porcelain baking beads) on top of the parchment so that they completely fill the pie pan. The weight of the beans prevent the crust from rising. This is called blind baking the pie
- Bake for 15 minutes at 200C
- Take out the pie from oven, carefully remove the beans and the parchment paper
- Bake for another five minutes to get the beautiful golden colour. Set it aside to cool
Make Pastry Decorations
- Use the remaining dough to either make a lattice to cover the pie or you can make pastry decorations. I decided to make the decorations.
- Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it into a circle about 2-3mm thick
- Use a cutter to cut the decorations in any shape you want
- Set the decorations in the fridge for about 20 minutes before baking
- When ready to bake, line a baking tray with the parchment paper. I blind baked the decorations (see the section above on how to blind baking) as I wanted to keep the shape of the decorations. If not blind baked, the decorations puff up and lose their shape.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 200C. Carefully remove the baking beans and parchment paper.
- Bake for additional five minutes if more browning is needed (optional). Set aside to cool
Bake the pie
- Beat the eggs and then mix in cream, milk and pumpkin puree
- Add all the remaining ingredients and whisk so that everthing is combined well and there are no clumps. Mixture will be thick but of pouring consistency
- Sprinkle bread crumbs at the bottom of the pie shell and pour the mixture into the shell. Fill the shell only upto 3/4th of the
- Cover the edges of the pie with a ring cut-out from aluminium foil (or use a pie cover) to make sure that edges don't burn.
- Bake in oven at 200C for 10 minutes and then bake at 180C for further 40-50minutes until the centre is set.
- Take out of the oven and cool on a wire rack for couple of hours.
- Decorate with the baked leaves and serve with vanilla ice cream or with whipped cream
Notes
It’s important to make sure that the butter used in the pie crust is cold so that there are small chunks of solid butter in the pie dough. This makes for a flaky and light pie crust
Avoid mixing the pie dough with hands as the heat of the hands will melt the butter. But if you are using your hands to make the dough, make sure to run your hands under cold water before mixing the dough
For the puree, select a sweet variety of pumpkin called sugar pumpkin; bright orange pumpkins tend to be better for pies Can store the pie in the fridge for upto five days Â
For the puree, select a sweet variety of pumpkin called sugar pumpkin; bright orange pumpkins tend to be better for pies Can store the pie in the fridge for upto five days Â
Tried this recipe?Mention @Incredible.kitchen or tag #myincrediblekitchen!
