PUMPKIN PIE

Ok so I've been totally sucked in by that most American of holidays, Halloween. My inner child is skipping about excitedly, annoying all the adults nearby. And so the (very patient) American in my life promised to buy me a pumpkin to carve, with the quid pro quo that I made him pumpkin pie. Seemed like a fair deal. 

I made this guy

One of the things I'm struggling with here is the lack of ingredients / recipes to make things from scratch. Every place I look there's pre-made pie shells, pre-made pie fillings, pre-made everything, and it's difficult to find raw ingredients. I'm not crazy organic-focused (and please don't get me started on the 'food miles' myth), but I do kind of like to know what's gone into the food I'm making, and if possible I try to avoid the added salt / sugar / preservatives that comes in so much of the pre-prepared stuff here. Either way, I know I'm lucky that right now I have the time to make food from scratch, and there's just something I like about it. 

I also confess to not necessarily being a huge fan of traditional pumpkin pie. I do claim to eat anything - and I will, as the Grasshopper Incident of a couple of months ago will prove - but I wouldn't necessarily choose normal pumpkin pie (or indeed grasshoppers) in the ordinary course of events.

But a deal's a deal, so I decided to press on ahead and in a stunning (if I may say so myself) display of kiwi ingenuity, I have created my very own Pumpkin Pie From Scratch recipe. It's sort of a conglomeration of a range of other recipes, all switched up, and made with (mostly) fresh and raw ingredients. And made my own pastry. And used an actual pumpkin. I know!

This is a labour of love - by the time I'd hunted high and low for raw ingredients in the store and made everything from scratch, it did take a couple of hours. But the American did commend it as "pretty doggone good" (that's an actual quote), so I reckon it was worth it. Here is the recipe. Please steal it. 

PUMPKIN PIE FROM SCRATCH

Peel and clean one small pumpkin (you want about 15 ounces of cooked pumpkin).

Cut your pumpkin into small pieces and boil bout 15 minutes until soft. 

Once boiled, drain off the water and mash the pumpkin while still warm.

Refrigerate the mashed pumpkin pulp until cool. 

While the pumpkin is cooling, you can make the pastry. 

Pastry shell:

Blend 1 + 1/2 cups flour with 100g butter.

Add: 

1/2 cup of  white sugar 

1 tsp of cinnamon 

Pinch of salt. 

Blend in: 

3 egg yolks 

1/2 tsp vanilla.

Press dough into a greased 9in ring tin, extending up the sides.

uncooked pie shell. it cooks with the filling.
a stroke of genius, adapted from my Mum's peach pie recipe. 

Pie Filling:

Put cooled pumpkin mash into a large bowl, and add:

14 ounces of sweetened condensed milk

2 eggs

2 tbsp ground fresh ginger (or more to taste)

2 tsp corn starch 

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp maple syrup

pinch of salt

Pour the filling into the pastry shell. Bake at 425F for 15 minutes, then reduce to 350F for 30 minutes. 

Pie filling with maple. Nom.

Topping:

 

You could make the pie without this, but I don't know why you'd want to cos I reckon it's the best bit. I wanted to use walnuts to go with the maple in the pie, and for the rest I basically copied the classic kiwi apple crumble topping.

Combine:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white flour

1 tsp cinnamon

Rub in 3 tbsp butter

And add a cup of chopped nuts. (Due to lack of raw walnuts ANYWHERE, I used pecans which were awesome, but I reckon walnuts would be as good or better.)

Spread the mixture over the top of the pie, and bake for a further 8 minutes

Add a swirl of maple syrup around the top, and bake for a further 2 minutes.