Pumpkin pie is nothing but a tasty combination of pumpkin puree and cake, which we owe to the British culinary tradition of “pie” merged with the farming culture of lands newly discovered in the sixteenth century, and by the way vegetables such as pumpkin. Pumpkins were brought to Europe thanks to great geographical discoveries. How to make a pumpkin pie?
Tradition of pumpkin pie
Interestingly, pumpkin and pumpkin pie is also a traditional dish of today’s Australia. On the Antipodes, the first seeds of the hallow lanterns supposedly arrived as feed for pigs, but they liked the settlers so much that they landed on their plates instead of getting to the troughs of these otherwise nice animals, and pumpkin soup was breaking records in Australian restaurants.
The pie tradition itself is derived from medieval England, when the islanders put a meat or, over time, fruit dish in a pot, whose walls and bottom (as well as the top of the dish) were lined with dough, then baked in the fire. This is how the famous POT PIE was created – a cake pot. A similar method is still used today, e.g. in American apple pie, but with other baked goods, such as pumpkin pie, the fillings are no longer covered with dough.
How to prepare a pumpkin pie
Ingredients are as below.
Shortcrust pastry:
- 200 g wheat flour (gluten-free version: 100 g buckwheat flour, 60 g millet flour and 40 g potato starch)
- 100 g butter
- 40 g icing sugar
- 1 egg (size M)
Filling:
- 500 g puree of any pumpkin (puree recipe: “Pumpkin puree”)
- 200 g sweetened condensed milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- a pinch of ground cloves
- a pinch of ground ginger
Additionally:
- 400 g sweet cream 30 -36%
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- some cinnamon to sprinkle
- maple syrup (optional)
A method of preparing
Prepare a shortcrust pastry. Flour, cold butter (cut into small pieces), powdered sugar and egg, knead to a homogeneous mass. Transfer the dough into a piece of food foil, slightly flatten it, wrap it in foil and put in the fridge for 1 hour. Spread a butter tart mold with a bottom diameter of 23 cm. Stick the dough in the form, gluing the bottom and edges. Prick the dough with a fork, cover with baking paper and load with ceramic balls.
Bake in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes at 180 ° C (top-down heater). After this time, remove the paper with balls and bake for about 5-10 minutes, until the dough is lightly browned. Pull out of the oven.
Prepare the filling. In a bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, sweetened condensed milk, eggs and spices until smooth. Pour the mass onto the bottom. (Bottom may be hot). Bake for about 30 minutes at 180 ° C (top-down heater). Cool with the oven door slightly ajar, then cool in the fridge.
Whip the cream stiffly. At the end of whipping, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar. Put the whipped cream into a pastry sleeve or spokes with a star-shaped tip and squeeze the cream into the filling. Sprinkle with cinnamon in advance.
