Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel

I made this delicious goodness for Thanksgiving. A new take on pumpkin pie! It requires some baby-sitting while it cooks but otherwise a delightful make.

I know, I know - I'm a disgrace because I don't make my own pie crusts. But look at that home-made pumpkin pie filling! I do the fluting on my own, does that count? (I always use my pie shields when I bake so the ruffled edges don't get too crispy.)

 

The streusel topping was amazing - however it still looked a bit "powdery" when it first came out of the oven. I think that particular spot didn't have a butter crumble. It eventually melted into the topping and it sure tasted just fine. 

It was soooo good warm out of the oven. I even have a piece leftover today for Post-Thanksgiving-Monday-afternoon-snack.

Recipe found here.

Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 1 unbaked pastry shell, 9-inch
• 1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin, or 2 cups puree
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• .
• Pecan Streusel Topping
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup firm butter
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preparation:

Heat oven to 400°. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices, and salt; blend well.
Streusel topping: Combine brown sugar and flour; cut in the butter until crumbly. Stir in chopped pecans. Set aside.
Pour pumpkin mixture into the unbaked pastry shell. Bake for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350°. Bake for 25 minutes longer. Sprinkle streusel topping over pie. Continue baking at 350° for about 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until golden brown and the filling is set.

Thanksgiving Pies 2009

The Davis-Dewald crew had another mellow Thanksgiving this year with new faces, babies and an all vegetarian meal gracing the table.

We enjoyed three pies, two delicious, one -ahem- experimental.
Also these are horrible pictures taken with my horrible camera.

To start, #1 is an experimental macrobiotic pecan pie, from an actual recipe followed diligently. Kebir called it the 'pie of courage' and that was about right - agar, brown rice syrup and arrowroot created a strange, not sweet gelatinous goo that we all enjoyed trying out. It's now in the compost. YUM!

I do believe I will revisit the oatmeal crust - it was superb.

#2 is a beautiful and amazing squash pie from Meghan. Delighting audiences year after year, or at the very least delighting me, I could eat an entire one of these myself.


#3 is redemption apple pie by me. No courage required. I used the same Angelica Kitchen recipe I always use, but I halved the crust and made a latticey top, which I think was an improvement. I used Northern Spies as suggested by the coop's apple guru, Jewels. Take his advice, ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to produce!


And don't forget the whipped cream. Amy's children discovered whipped cream this Thanksgiving, and let's just say their lives are forever changed. CREAM!
Happy Thanksgiving!

A Tale of Two Tarts

Zach, Renee and Neale pick apples

Let's begin at the start of these tarts, which was for me, an apple picking adventure to Ayers Orchard in Cana, VA, the closest orchard I could find. Apple picking is THE quintessential fall tradition in my book, and I convinced 2 carloads of friends to drive 2 hours (plus) to humor me in my stubborn adherence to it. After being led on a wild goose chase by the Australian woman in the GPS, we stopped at a country gas station, where we got directions "up the hill, down the hill, up the hill, and down the hill" to "his mama's house" from whence we were told to take "all lefts except for the right" to the orchard warehouse, where we were drawn a puzzling "map" by the orcardist, we FINALLY found the grove, enjoyed a lovely picnic, and picked a bushel each of Fujis and Arkansas Blacks.Stuffed my spoils in my (mama's) shirt

Back home on the Piedmont, I turned these apples into butter, grilled-cheese apple sandwiches, daily snacks, and tarts. For the first I used this recipe from Alice Waters/Smitten Kitchen. It calls for a food processor-mixed pastry, of which I was skeptical, but I had heard a lot of advocates of this practice, so I decided to give it a try. The dough came together easier than by hand, and the whole tart looked rather nice with its spiraled delicate apple slices, but I just don't think there's any comparison to pastry dough mixed by hand. The butter stays chunkier and melts less, making it so much flakier. It was still a tasty treat, and Neale and James came over to enjoy.Neale and James in the TEZ

For the second tart, I decided to go with what I know--the standard crust recipe, and the apple butter my friend Lora and I had just made and canned. Plus Miss Lapidus was visiting. We opted for the rustic tart, being the rustic tarts that we are. Here's the approximate recipe we used:

SIMPLE RUSTIC APPLE TART

Ingredients:
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust (at right), using all-purpose flour
2 lbs. apples (we used Arkansas Blacks)
5 Tblsp. sugar: white and turbinado mixture
1/2 c. homemade apple butter
1 Tblsp. lemon juice

Make pie crust, roll out in 10-in circle. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Core and cut apples into delicate thin slices. Toss apples with lemon juice, 3 Tblsp. sugar. Brush apple butter onto pastry dough. Arrange apples in concentric spiraling circles. Fold crust over edges. Sprinkle 2 Tblsp. sugar over top of apples and crust. Bake for 35-45 minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Enjoy!

You are what you eat: rustic tart for a rustic tart

In other news, I look forward to seeing what pies our Nothing-In-The-House correspondents will make for Thanksgiving, the #1 biggest pie day of the year!

WXYC Pecan Pumpkin Pie with Bourbon Whipped Cream

Why choose when you can have both? It's the time of the year when we turn to pies of nuts, storage vegetables, and dried fruits. I wanted to bring a (seasonal) pie to the WXYC DJ Thanksgiving potluck but I had already made the mini pecan pies last week, Kellen was already bringing a pumpkin, and I've recently had my fill of apple and pear tarts and pies. This hybrid from the Gourmet cookbook seemed like a good solution.

PECAN PUMPKIN PIE

Nothing-In-The-House crust with all-purpose flour (recipe at right)

Ingredients for pumpkin filling:
3/4 c. canned pumpkin purée
2 Tblsp. brown sugar, packed
1 egg, beaten
2 Tblsp. sour cream
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
Pinch of salt

Ingredients for pecan layer:
3/4 c. light corn syrup
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
3 eggs, beaten
3 Tblsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/3 c. pecans, lightly roasted

Make the pastry and refrigerate 30 min-hour. Preheat oven to 375 and roast pecans on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes. This is the key to a delicious pecan pie! Make pumpkin filling by whisking together all ingredients until smooth. Make the pecan layer by stirring corn syrup, brown sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, zest, lemon juice, and salt in separate bowl until combined. Add roasted pecans. Spread pumpkin filling evenly in pie shell. Carefully spoon pecan mixture over it. Bake until crust is golden and filling is puffed, about 45 minutes (center should still be a tad wobbly).

The original recipe called for pre-baking the crust, but this made for a done-crust when the filling was still a little goopy. Next time I won't pre-bake. I added some crust design elements and topped it off with bourbon whipped cream which was totally decadent and oh-so southern.

BOURBON WHIPPED CREAM
1/2 c. very cold heavy cream
1 Tblsp. brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. bourbon
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Beat all ingredients in mixer, food processor, or by hand (if you've got the GUNS). 

Roasting and leaving the pecans halved makes for a pretty and delicious PPP

Took the PPP to the DJs to enter the PEZ while listening to...ESG? COB? on XYC.

grape pie?!

why, i never!

but jill & co. did.

Life-Is-Suffering Pie

Welcome Steffen, a new Nothing-In-The-House correspondent who sent me this pie anecdote from his home in the Hudson River Valley (HRV) of New York. Steffen told me once that he was into "19th century pies," or perhaps the quote was "old-timey pies." Look forward to more pie posts from him.


Pie made for 84 and 85 year old hosts on the banks of the St. Lawrence seaway this weekend. Fortune (Schoharie Spy/Empire cross) and Black Twig apples. Black Twig being high on my list of good apple names. Tasty too. Fortune apples behave in a pie. Butter/Flour crust, kept it simple because elders can tell when Pie Is Adulterated. This pie was titled life-is-suffering pie for Moira, who is in that mode currently.
It's officially pie season from hereon out, so you'll be on my radar.

Personal Pecan Pies: Mini Tarts with a Heart

The Durham Food and Drink Club gathered for another bi-monthly potluck installment, this one with the theme of "Tiny Foods," which I like to call "PERSONAL CUPS." I made these personal pecan pies with a heart in the middle of the tart. Recipe adapted from Bake or Break.

PERSONAL PECAN PIES

Ingredients:
-3 eggs, beaten
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 cup light corn syrup
-1/4 cup butter, melted
-1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
-1 cup pecans, chopped
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-Pastry for one double-crust pie (recipe at right)

Using the mouth of a glass, cut mini-pie crust to fit in muffin tins. Press into greased and floured muffin tins. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together eggs, sugar, corn syrup, butter, and flour. Add pecans, vanilla, and salt. Pour into unbaked pie shells. Cut heart-shape with a heart cookie-cutter and place on top of filling. Bake for about 15 minutes or until done. Yields about 2 dozen mini pies.


They took their place at the table with other delicious tiny tarts, itty-bitty biscuits with pimento cheese, petit pizzas, stuffed cherry tomatoes, mini falafel(!), baby beers sipped from miniature mugs, whipped cream beat with a wee whisk, and so many other personal cups. WE FELT LIKE GIANTS!

One-Pie Pumpkin Pie

This can posed for me in the Rokeby back kitchen

Generally I am an advocate of using whole, local, and fresh foods. Baking from scratch. So I hope it doesn't seem blasphemous to confess that when it comes to pumpkin pie, I am all about canned purée. You should know that I arrived at this conclusion after many trials with both fresh and canned pumpkin. But when it comes down to it, I found that using fresh purée is overly laborious for its results--it's watery, and just doesn't taste as good! Even Martha Stewart says so. If you do insist on using fresh ingredients, though, I would opt for delicata or butternut squash over a pie pumpkin. The squashes have a more delicate flavor (hence the name),and are less watery, and stringy.

In the realm of the canned pumpkin, I DO have a definite favorite. One-Pie. Okay, so maybe it's only for the label and the fact that it's made in Maine. But seriously, it's real cute. And the recipe on the back isn't too bad either:

ONE-PIE NEW ENGLAND PUMPKIN PIE

Ingredients:
1 can ONE-PIE Pumpkin
1 tbsp. Cornstarch
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ginger
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tbsp. Butter (Melted)
1 1/2 cups Milk or 1-12 oz. can Evaporated Milk
1 cup Sugar
1/8 cup Molasses
2 Eggs (beaten)
+ Nothing-in-the-House Crust (recipe at right)

Directions:
Sift sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, ginger, & nutmeg together. Mix this with contents of one can ONE-PIE Pumpkin. Add eggs, beaten, melted butter, molasses, & milk. Add a dash of lemon juice (if desired). Line a 9-inch pie plate with crust, pour in contents. Preheat oven & bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Then reduce temp. to 350 & continue to bake for 50 minutes.

This isn't necessarily my go-to pumpkin pie recipe, but I do like it for the molasses and the ginger.
ONE-PIE!