Pumpkin Pie – my favourite fall treat!
In just over 2 months it hasn’t been raining as much as I expected it to here in Scotland. Still, I am in an autumn mood and this year pumpkins are a big part of that for me. Tonight we will cook up a vegetable stew with friends. I prepared a pumpkin pie for dessert, but psst, most of them don’t know yet. I haven’t baked a pumpkin pie in a while so I’m kinda nervous how it will turn out. But the cookbook I used hasn’t failed me so far.
I was very excited when I found a Hokkaido pumpkin at Lidl. So far I had a lot of butternut squash but was not disappointed. Oven-roasted vegetables with a garlic cream sauce are my newest obsession!
But let’s make pumpkin pie!
For the pie crust make sure to use really cold butter. Cut it up into small cubes and toss them with the flour so they’re evenly coated in the flour. Using your hands grind the butter pieces into small floured flakes. It should look somewhat like this after.
Now add a few tablespoons of cold water to the dough. Start with 2 and add some more if the dough doesn’t come together. But a little goes a long way. You really don’t want to overwater the dough. Form a disc, wrap it in some cling wrap and chill the dough for at least 30 min.
Roll out the dough and fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Chill for another 30 minutes, then blind bake it for about 20 minutes at 200°C.
For the filling you can either buy pumpkin puree or make your own. I just cut up the hokkaido into small pieces and cooked it for 20 min. Then I strained and mashed the pumpkin. If you have too much pumpkin puree you can freeze the rest and use it some other time.
Mix the puree with the other ingredients. Pour the batter into the pie crust. Bake at 200°C fr 15 minuets then lower the temperature to 170°C and bake for another 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool down completely before serving.
Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 160 g flour all-purpose
- 115 g butter cold, in cubes
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 4 to 5 tbsp water cold
Pie Filling
- 1 can evaporated milk 12 oz
- 2 eggs
- 300 g pumpkin puree 15 oz
- 200 g brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin spice
Instructions
How to prepare the pie crust
- Cover the butter cubes with the flour and salt. Using your hands grind the butter pieces into small floured flakes.
- Add some ice cold water and form a disc.
- Wrap in cling foil and chill the dough for 30 min.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Roll out the dough and fit it into a 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate for another 30 min.
- Using parchment paper and pie weights, bake the pie crust for about 20 min.
How to prepare the pie filling
- Mix together all of the ingredients until well blended and smooth.
- Pout the mixture into the prepared crust.
- Bake at 200°C for 15 min then lower the temperature to 170°C and bake for another 50 min. If the edges start darken, cover the pie with aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 3 hours.
2 Comments
Leo
I had to use sweetened, condensed milk since I couldn’t find any evaporated milk. Instead, I cut down the brown sugar to only about a teaspoon, and it turned out really well!
I’m especially amazed by the crust, which was very nice and flaky. I’d never made pastry dough before, so I had never heard of stuff like “blind baking” or “pie weights” and was a bit intimidated, but the recipe was simple and straightforward and everything worked perfectly! Only thing I didn’t expect was this much shrinkage during the first round of baking, but I’ll just adjust for that next time 😀
Linda
Thank you, Leo! And as far as I can tell you did an amazing job on your first attempt!! 🙂