Pumpkin pie recipe suggestions?

[beautifulduckweed]

Hey dudes,

So I'm going to make my first pumpkin pie ever this coming Saturday. I'm not a fan of them, but Robert and many of my friends decidedly are. Any suggestions for a good recipe? I'm eyeballing the Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar-Walnut Topping from Epicurious (subbing the walnuts with pecans, because fuck walnuts, pecans are totally sexier and tastier), since Epicurious has treated me right many, many times in the past. But I thought I'd consult the hivemind, too. Have any delicious suggestions for me? Post them in the comments nowwwww.

Comments

[ariiadne.livejournal.com]

1. Come to our house

2. Eat sous vide pumpkin pie filling in all sorts of Wacky Experimental Forms (I am attempting bite sized pie spheres for Thanksgiving II: Sciencegiving; Colin has his own experiments going)

3. DONE

4. Failing that, if you're willing to go balls to the wall, the cooks illustrated recipe is hard to beat. It be long, but here you go:

PUMPKIN PIE

Serves 8

If you do not have a food processor, the pumpkin may be put through a food mill or forced through a fine sieve with the back of a wooden spoon. Alternatively, you can cook the pumpkin, sugar, and spices together before pureeing, then whir the mixture in a blender, adding enough of the cream called for in the recipe to permit the pumpkin to flow easily over the blades. In either case, heat the pumpkin with the (remaining) cream and milk, as indicated, then slowly whisk the mixture into the beaten eggs.
Flaky pastry can be successfully produced using any all-purpose flour, but a low-protein brand (such as Gold Medal) produces a more tender crust. Doughs made with low-protein flours are also easier to handle, and, perhaps most important, they are less likely to buckle and shrink out of shape during baking. If you wish to blend the fat and flour with your fingertips or with a pastry tool instead of using a machine, decrease the butter to six tablespoons and add two tablespoons of chilled vegetable shortening. The pie may be served slightly warm, chilled, or — my preference — at room temperature.



Pumpkin Filling
2 cups (15 ounces) plain pumpkin puree, canned or fresh
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup milk
4 large eggs

1. Make a pie crust and put it in your pie plate with fluted edges(I deleted all their instrucitons here because clearly you already know how to do that)

2. Refrigerate for 20 minutes (or freeze for 5 minutes) to firm dough shell. Using a table fork, prick bottom and sides — including where they meet — at 1/2-inch intervals. Flatten a 12-inch square of aluminum foil inside shell, pressing it flush against corners, sides, and over rim. Prick foil bottom in about a dozen places with a fork. Chill shell for at least 30 minutes (preferably an hour or more), to allow dough to relax.

3. Adjust an oven rack to lowest position, and heat oven to 400 degrees. (Start preparing filling when you put shell into oven.) Bake 15 minutes, pressing down on foil with mitt-protected hands to flatten any puffs. Remove foil and bake shell for 8 to 10 minutes longer, or until interior just begins to color.

4. For filling, process first 7 ingredients in a food processor fitted with steel blade for 1 minute. Transfer pumpkin mixture to a 3-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring it to a sputtering simmer over medium-high heat. Cook pumpkin, stirring constantly, until thick and shiny, about 5 minutes. As soon as pie shell comes out of oven, whisk heavy cream and milk into pumpkin and bring to a bare simmer. Process eggs in food processor until whites and yolks are mixed, about 5 seconds. With motor running, slowly pour about half of hot pumpkin mixture through feed tube. Stop machine and scrape in remaining pumpkin. Process 30 seconds longer.

5. Immediately pour warm filling into hot pie shell. (Ladle any excess filling into pie after it has baked for 5 minutes or so — by this time filling will have settled.) Bake until filling is puffed, dry-looking, and lightly cracked around edges, and center wiggles like gelatin when pie is gently shaken, about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour.

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

This recipe goes a little way towards assuaging my feelings of betrayal that you and Colin aren't coming to Portland this year. (I mean, new kid, schmew kid.) BUT ONLY A LITTLE.

(In all seriousness: thanks for the recipe! The Epicurious recipe that's currently the front-runner looks a lot like this one, only halved, and without as many fancy instructions.)

[e-d-trix.livejournal.com]

I made this last year and loved it -- using milk and cream instead of evaporated milk gives it a softer, silkier texture, IMO.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moms-Pumpkin-Pie/Detail.aspx

Also, years ago I made an Apple-Pumpkin pie with a streusel topping that was probably something like this:

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/pie/pumpkin_dutch_apple_pie_recipe.html

It was delicious and perfect for the people who are not huge fans of pumpkin pie straight up. And who doesn't like streusel?

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD I'VE FORGOTTEN HOW CUTE YOUR USERPIC IS.

Also I miss you. And thanks for the recipes. That is all.

[e-d-trix.livejournal.com]

I miss you toooooo! I am currently on the West Coast and will be trekking up to Seattle for a week in December. On the list of things to do is a day trip to Portland. Might I hope we can possibly meet up for general awesomeness?

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

HOLY CRAP YESSSS. Come visit me in Portland. I will take you to amazing restaurants and we can check out Powell's together and and and and! Give me a call or poke me via e-mail to Arrange For Shenanigans.

[roler.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly with your views on walnuts vs pecans. And I'm also not a pumpkin pie fan, but agree that it's good to have for Thanksgiving because it pleases the crowd and it's just too darn traditional not to have around. But that's not stopping me from making an apple pie instead this year (I think someone else is bringing the pumpkin pie!). And yeah, epicurious is wonderful!

This comment is so useless, but you pretty much just echoed all my own views on this topic that I felt the need to comment and just say YES! XD

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

Well, I agree with your agreement! Hooray!

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

Oh man, that pumpkin cheesecake looks amazing. I am also way more on the sweet potato pie bandwagon than on the pumpkin bandwagon, because to my tastebuds, pumpkin = savory, whereas sweet potatoes are more of a switch-hitter. Next year, I'll have to try out one or both of those recipes.

[jennekirby.livejournal.com]

Thank you for asking this... I needed to ask the same question :):)

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

Hee! Glad my cluelessness helped inform the similarly clueless. <3!