It's getting chilly here, which means pumpkin - and pumpkin pie - season. This pumpkin pie is one of my most treasured recipes: I used to make it professionally, and I promise it will make you swoon. The filling is delicious and perfectly spiced, works with tinned American pumpkin or homemade puree, and needs only about 20 minutes of active prep. Consider yourself warned, Dear Reader - this is a pushy recipe and utterly perfect for Thanksgiving or any cosy autumn gathering.
Some of you may remember me telling you that I used to make Southern American style cakes and pies for a Southern restaurant. That was a long time ago and since then I've adapted and made my own spins on their classic American recipes. So here is the pumpkin pie in all of its delicious glory. You will notice one thing: there's no shortcrust crust in this pumpkin pie. It's replaced with a cookie crust (like with a cheesecake crust). Despite my reservations (I love pie crust!) I think that this makes it ever better! The mixture of cookies adds a delicious extra flavour and I promise you will not miss the pie crust. Plus a crumb crust is so much easier than a pie crust and the whole thing can be done in a food processor or Thermomix! Once it bakes it really does end up tasting similar to a shortcrust pie crust, just with more flavour. Trust me!
The Secret To This AMAZING Pumpkin Pie!
1 - For the pumpkin pie crust there is a combination of two types of cookies used: Malt o Milk and gingernut biscuits. In Australia it's really difficult to get Graham crackers and really this mixture of cookies or biscuits actually has more flavour than Graham crackers. I love the added ginger flavour from the gingernuts. You can of course use Graham crackers if you are in America and just add 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger.
2 - I use browned butter instead of melted butter in the crust for an extra nutty flavour. You can use melted too if you cannot be bothered browning butter. I just brown a whole lot of butter at the same time and keep it in the fridge ready for use. I've got a post on how to make browned butter here. It will also seem like not enough butter but trust me, it really comes together perfectly.
3 - A tin of Libby's pumpkin pie is crazy expensive here in Australia so the best thing is to make your own especially since pumpkin is available all year round. The best pumpkin in Australia to use in pumpkin pie is butternut pumpkin or squash. It's less stringy and has a really lovely, sweet flavour to it. I show you how to make your own pumpkin pie filling here from scratch!
4 - This recipe is perfect for a 22.5cm/9inch/1.4 quart pie dish. I use these glass pie dishes.
Apart from this there is nothing fancy or unusual to this classic pumpkin pie. But this is one of my favourite ever pies so I love baking it in Autumn when I get a lot of pumpkin in my vege box. And if you're interested, other recipes that I used to make for this restaurant are Pecan Pie and Red Velvet Cake. When Mr NQN gave some to our neighbour he sent Mr NQN a message back the next day. He had had a stressful day at work and was sleep deprived and physically and mentally exhausted. "I needed something to eat something but I just didn't feel like anything that was in the fridge and cupboard. Enter Lorraine's pumpkin pie. I can't think of a better example of "exactly what I needed to have" just materialising out of nowhere like that. Tell Lorraine her works of culinary art have now crossed over to being therapeutic. I had that pie and instantly the nausea left, the belly was satyisfied beyond belief and the stress if the day was dissolved. Slept like a fricken baby. How does she do it?" which was probably the nicest feedback I have ever had!
Using a flat bottomed glass to press down the crumbs (it's my cheesecake crust glass haha!)
Step 1 - First make the crumb crust. Preheat oven to 160C/320F fan forced and grease a glass pie dish (mine was a 1.4qt capacity, 22.5cm/9" diameter pie dish). Process all of the biscuits until very fine in texture. Thermomix directions: 10 seconds, speed #10. Mix with the melted browned butter until you get a dampish consistent texture. Press into a glass pie dish and make sure that the corners are not too thick. I use a glass to smooth it out. It will seem like you need more butter but you don't. Bake for 5 minutes and the remove from oven.
Pouring mixture in a thin stream so as not to dislodge the crumb crust
Step 2 - Blend the pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, cream, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and salt until smooth in texture. Thermomix directions: 15 seconds, speed #8. Gently pour it over the crumb crust (do this slowly so as not to dislodge the crumbs). Prick any air bubbles and slide into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Turn around halfway and bake for another 20-25 minutes. The centre will be a bit wobbly but will set upon cooling. Cool in the oven with the door ajar. You can eat it warm or refrigerate and eat cold with some whipped cream and extra cinnamon sprinkled on top.
Personal Note
Speaking of Autumn, now that the days are getting shorter I have to photograph everything really quickly. This puts a bit of pressure on things as the light disappears early (I only really shoot in natural light) but in our new house I have a few options. My studio faces west so the light lasts for a bit longer and I can shoot until 4-4:30pm (in our previous apartment, it faced east and I had to get photos done by 3pm or else). Most of the windows downstairs face west but one of the best windows in terms of light in on the east facing side of the house.
Unfortunately the venetian blind is broken there (we didn't realise it was broken until the day we moved in!) so I don't tend to use it much in summer but in autumn and winter when I need more options I decided to try my hand shooting there. It has the most beautiful light there so I pulled back the broken blind and stared at the window. The window frame was now white.
I asked Mr NQN, "Did you paint this window white?" and he shook his head. "It used to be brown," I said to him showing him a picture of a lemon crunch cake I had shot there a couple of years ago where the window frame was clearly brown. We deduced that our painter must have painted that but I hadn't asked him to and neither had Mr NQN. And a year on, we hadn't even noticed it!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you know every corner of your house? Do you ever notice something that has been changed a while back? And do you like pumpkin pie?
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