Pumpkin Pie

Adapted from Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie Recipe.

Alix K's Pastry Crust

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 T sugar
• 1/2 C butter (in chunks)
• 6 T cold water

Directions:

Combine dry pastry ingredients, cut in butter. Add water gradually until pastry forms (handle as little as possible). 

For the Filling

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar of your preference
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of pumpkin puree (if using fresh, be sure to squeeze out the water!)
• 12 ounces of whole milk or cream

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.
• Combine sugar, salt, and spices.
• Beat eggs in a separate bowl and stir in sugar mixture and pumpkin.  Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
• Pour into the pie shell.  This can be in one big pie pan or a variety of mini ones.
• Bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce temperature for 350 degrees Farenheit and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (usually 40 to 50 for a large pie and 25 to 35 for smaller pies).
• Cool for two hours before serving.  Can be served warm or refrigerated.

Alix K's Apple or Pear Tarte Tatin with Recipe for Pastry Crust

Pastry Crust

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 T sugar
• 1/2 C butter (in chunks)
• 6 T cold water

Directions:
Combine dry pastry ingredients, cut in butter. Add water gradually until pastry forms (handle as little as possible). Shape into 5-in.-wide flat circle, wrap, and refrigerate 20 minutes.


Pie Filling

Ingredients:

• 3 flavorful apples or pears (red apples are especially pretty)
• 2 T sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 T butter in 12 pieces (I forgot this part)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• On a floured surface, roll out pastry into a rough circle at least 16 in. wide. Fold in half, transfer to a baking sheet, unfold (it will hang over the edges). Refrigerate.
• Wash fruit, do not peel. Quarter, core, and slice each quarter into six slices. 
• Get out pastry, spread fruit over it. (You can just dump the fruit onto the pastry, or to make it pretty, you can pinwheel the overlapping slices, innermost circle facing clockwise, next counterclockwise, etc.)
• Mix sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle over fruit. Top with pieces of butter. Fold edges of pastry up over fruit (will not cover the middle). 
• Bake 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden.

Note: for a fancy touch, you can cover 1/4 C raisins with 1 T of Calvados and warm gently (microwave) to plump the raisins. Sprinkle them, and drizzle any liquid, over the fruit before folding the pastry over (I did this with raisins, dried apples, and dried cherries in whiskey.  Excellent).

Note 2: as you will see from the ingredients, this is not very sweet at all. You can dress it up, of course, with pouring cream or whipped cream or crème anglaise or vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Pumpkin Spice Bread/Cake

A delicious take on Pumpkin Bread. Adapted from Martha Stewart's collection

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (112g) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin puree (if canned, there's no problem.  If you cook your own, make sure to squeeze out excess water ahead of time)
• 1/2 cup raisins or currants (optional)
• salted butter for serving (it's especially good if you mix honey into the butter!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.  Butter a 9-inch square baking pan or a loaf pan.
2. Whisk flour, basking soda, salt, and spices.  In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, butter, and pumpkin until combined.  Add the dry ingredients and mix gently just until smooth.  Over-mixing will cause the cake to peak.
3. Turn the batter into the pan and smooth it until it is even.  Bake until a toothpick in the center of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs.  The baking could take anywhere from 45 to 120 minutes depending on your oven and choice of pan (if it is baking a very long time, and the top looks like it might burn, tent with foil).  Let the cake cool in the pan for ten minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.
4. Top with butter or your favorite frosting.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Custard

2 cups cooked pumpkin (see below for instructions)

1/4 cup sugar (I prefer raw cane, and I don't like my custard to be very sweet.)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt
12 ounces milk (preferably whole for smoothest texture)
2 eggs

Mix pumpkin with sugar, salt, and spices.

Mix 12 ounces of milk (lower than two percent will lead to a not-as-pleasant texture) into the pumpkin mixture.  (You might need more or less depending on how moist your pumpkin or other winter squash is.)

Mix two eggs into the orange mess you have created.

Bake at 350F (or what seems to the the equivalent in our toaster oven (190C, not an actual mathematical equivalent) until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  This could take anywhere from an hour to an hour and forty-five minutes.  Enjoy!