Pumpkin Pie Au Natural Part 2

How to make the pie crust!

This recipe should give you 2 10-inch crust, plus a little more for cinnamon sugar cookies.

Mix 3 cups flour, 1 tsp kosher salt, and 1 tbsp sugar in a food processor and give it a quick mix. Add 12 tbsp cold, cubed, unsalted butter and 1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening. Pulse 8-12 times, until the butter breaks up into small pieces. Keep the processor running slowly and pour ice water into the bowl until the dough forms into a ball. You'll probably need 1/2 to 1 cup of ice water. Wrap the ball in some lightly floured plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. This ball of dough will actually last a long time in the freezer.

Now cut the ball in half and roll it out on a very floury board. Start from the center and roll outwards to make a circlish shape. Put the rolled out dough into a pie dish and cut the edges off. It's better to leave a little extra on the edges because they shrink when cooked. If you have trouble lifting the big sheet of dough, fold it in half, lift it onto the dish, and then unfold it to fit the dish. Repeat with the other half of the ball.


Now if you are smart and rich, you have a food processor or mixer. I have niether. So I mixed that dough the old fashioned way. And while I was endlessly mixing the really cold and hard butter, I was thinking, "Why does the butter have to be cold?! *!$&#@ Can't I just use soft butter so that I can finish mixing this sometime this century?! How did people make pie crust 200 years ago before they had refrigerators?? Seriously!!". So I found out.

I guess the goal is a flaky crust, so you are kind of deep fat frying the flour. When you are mixing the fat (butter) with the flour, you don't want to completely mix it, you just want to coat it. This is easier to do if the butter is cold and hard. People used to just cut in the butter and quickly mix it, but refrigerators and mixers have made this process faster and more efficient, so the butter doesn't have much time to melt and the chef doesn't get her hands dirty. You also don't want to work the dough too much because the molecules tend to stick better when you push them together, which makes the crust tough. Now doesn't that make things better? I am now at peace with my cold butter.

If you have extra crust, mold it into fun shapes, sprinkle a little cinnamon and sugar on them, and pop them in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes. They make great Christmas cookies!



Almost done!...

Pumpkin Pie Au Natural Part 1

This is my first time making pumpkin pie the old fashioned way. I kind of cheated though because I didn't use a wood burning stove. And I have a refrigerator.

This is also my first time putting up pictures! I saw another culinary blogger had put up really nice photos and I thought, "ooooooo, good idea!". I am not a photographer, so be prepared for some pretty mediocre cell phone pictures. The food, however, is fantastic!

I am going to start with the pumpkin preparation, move onto the pie shells, and finish up with the final pie fashioning, hence the "Part 1". This whole thing is actually really easy, it just takes a long time.

Preparing your pumpkin puree!

Step 1: Pick your pumpkin. DO NOT use your old Jack O Lantern. Ew. And don't use the huge ones that stores sell for Jack O Lanterns; they tend to be bland. Sugar Pies, Fairytales, Cinderellas, and pretty much any other pumpkin that doesn't look like a traditional pumpkin are good choices. Also, if they advertise it as food, it's probably pie material. I'm not 100% sure what my variety is called, but I think it's called Casper. It's 5-10 lbs, which should yield a good amount of pie filling.



Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and clean your pumpkin. Wash it off like you would any other vegetable and cut it in half. Scrape out the insides. I like to use a cookie cutter - it makes a perfect scraper. You can roast and salt the seeds at this point, but I don't like pumpkin seeds, so I'm not going to talk about it. (nyah!) Baste the insides of the pumpkin halves with butter or olive oil and lay the cut sides down on a cookie sheet or other oven safe dish. You can use cooking spray for a lower calorie alternative, but butter and olive oil really do give pumpkins a wonderful flavor. The dish should have a lip to it because pumpkins release a lot of water when they cook.


Step 3: Bake and wait. Every pumpkin will take a different amount of time to cook. I cooked mine for about an hour. You want it to be tender when you stick a fork or knife in it. It'll be hot, so let it cool before moving onto the next step. This would be a perfect opportunity to work on Part 2: The Pie Crust!


Step 4: Once your pumpkin halves are tender and cool, you should be able to peel the skin right off. Put a cheesecloth into a strainer and squeeze most of the liquid out of your pumpkins. You may need to let the pumpkins drain overnight if they are really moist. Soggy pumpkin puree means soggy pie, and no one likes soggy pie. Make sure to put it in the refrigerator if you intend to leave it overnight because bacteria LOVE pumpkins!


Step 5: Plop those babies right into a blender and push "puree" until it is silky smooth. This should make a fabulous, smooth base upon which you can let your imagination run wild! Visions of ravioli, soup, and sauces are running through my head. mmmmm. pumpkin. Anyway, we're going to use this particular piece of yummy for the pie, so set it aside for a few minutes so that you can finish your crust!



To be continued...