There was a pumpkin pie recipe calling my name these past few weeks and I finally had to answer. With rum, brown sugar and orange zest catching my eye in the list of ingredients, I knew I had to see if this would be a winner for our thanksgiving spread this year. I have adored Preppy kitchen‘s YouTube channel for a while now, and that’s where this recipe comes from. John, the baker and star of Preppy Kitchen, is like a male Martha Stewart; the guy knows his stuff and is so damn classy. Shout out to you, my friend. Here goes!
First thing you do is get your dry ingredients together. This is a gussied-up pie crust with spices in it, dudes. Spoiler alert: It’s delicious.
Throw it all into a processor with cut-up buttah. Pulse it until it resembles crumbs crumbly enough for a three-year-old to hardly resist herself (see below).
Autumn tested the texture, which was crumbly but could be molded if you squeezed some in your hand. That’s what your looking for. If you don’t have a three-year-old on hand, just test this yourself. As you can see, I turned this out onto a smooth surface and kneaded it by hand about five times to let the mixture come together. The mixture will still be pretty crumbly, but fear not. Just form it into two discs, put them in separate bags, freeze one, and put the other in the fridge to let it rest for about a half hour. This is what it looks like before going into the fridge:
You can see that it’s pretty crumbly still but it will come together once you roll out the dough, trust me 😉
When it comes out of the fridge you’ll flour your board, roll it out, and carefully place it onto your pie plate. I did it by slowly rolling it on to my rolling pin and then un-rolling it over the pie plate. Cut the excess and try to make it all pretty (pretty ugly) like I did.
Before blind-baking (baking just the crust before the filling goes in), you’ll need to line your crust with foil or parchment and throw in some pie weights. I am not put-together enough to have pie weights, so I’m using a random bag of lentils and, as you can see, Autumn approved. You can use dried beans, lentils, peat gravel – seriously, anything.
While the pie crust is baking, it will be the perfect time to get your filling ingredients laid out. This is the easy part: Dump all of it into a pot (I’ll explain this later) and stir.
Once the pie comes out of the oven, let it rest for a few min and put your pot on the stove to let the mixture come to room temperature. According to Preppy Kitchen, this is important because it will allow the custard to cook evenly. I just put it over low heat and stuck my finger in every now and again until it felt lukewarm and not cold.
The next step is to pour the custard into the pre-baked pie shell and line the crust with foil so it doesn’t burn. I rolled out a long strip of foil, folded it into a strip and wrapped it around the crust.
Bake the pie at 350 for 55 – 65 minutes. A long time, in other words. Chill the pie for at least two hours before serving. No one likes warm pumpkin pie.
Whip up a batch of whip cream (1 cup of heavy cream, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar) in your mixer and cover the whole thing with it! Or, you can do what I did and plop the cream in a sandwich bag with the corner tip cut out. Pipe little dollops all around the pie for a show-stopping presentation.
Okay, so I need more work in the show-stopping department. But look at those cute little hands!
LOOK AT IT. It’s creamy, it’s spicy, it’s orangey – wait. About that. This recipe called for orange zest, and honestly, I could have done without it. It just comes through a little too much for me, personally. If orange zest is your thing, though, go for it, man.
Anaway, spicy, orangey, a hint of rum flavor, and made more rich by a fluffy cloud of whip cream – guys, this is a definite permanent fixture on our Thanksgiving table. IT’S SO GOOD. God bless you, John, from Preppy Kitchen. I love you, man.
Recipe
Paraphrased from Preppy Kitchen:
Crust
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling)
- 4 tbs granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
- 4 tbs ice water
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp all-spice
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1 egg (egg wash)
Filling
- 1 can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp grated orange zest
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 2 tbs dark rum (I used Captain Morgan because I know nothing about rum)
For the Crust:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a large bowl or a food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt and spices. Pulse in cubed butter or cut into mixture with a pastry cutter until course crumbs develop (it will look like sand). Drizzle in ice water until the crust comes together when squeezed with your hand (you’ll likely use all 4 tbs)
- Turn out mixture onto a flat surface and knead the dough so that it comes together, roughly 4 – 5 times.
- Cut dough in half, shape each half into a disc and place each disk in a gallon-size bag or plastic wrap. Stick one in the freezer for later and place the other in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- With rolling pin, flatten out the disc on a floured surface into a circle that’s at least an inch larger than your pie plate. Fold the dough in half or roll the dough onto your rolling pin to transfer the crust onto your pie plate. Use your judgement here to cut the crust to size so that there is about an inch hanging over the pie plate. Crimp the edge of your pie with your fingers or with the tines of a fork.
- Take a fork and prick the bottom of the pie crust all over (not the edges, just the bottom) so that it does not bubble up while baking. Line your crust with foil or parchment and carefully place dried beans or pie weights 3/4 full in the pie to help hold its structure while it bakes.
- Whisk your egg in a bowl with a little bit of water and brush on the top of the crimped crust. I used my fingers as a brush. Weird, I know, but that’s all I had.
- Place in the oven for 10 minutes, take the weights (or beans) out and bake for 5 more minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
For the Filling:
- While the crust is baking, whisk together all ingredients in a medium pot until smooth.
- Place pot over the stove at low heat and, constantly stirring, check the temperature with your finger occasionally until it feels lukewarm to the touch and no longer cold.
- Place your crust on a cookie sheet so that it is easy to transfer in and out of the oven.
- Transfer the mixture into your pie crust.
- Using a long strip of foil, cover the crust by wrapping it around so it doesn’t burn. It’s in the oven for a long freakin’ time.
- Bake for 55-65 minutes, until the filling is set in the middle (it doesn’t wiggle when you give it a gentle shake). Once out of the oven, the pie will continue to bake to the perfect consistency.
- Set aside in the fridge to cool completely.
- COVER IT IN WHIP CREAM.
- GIVE THANKS. EAT.
For Whip Cream:
- Combine 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 tbs of powdered or regular sugar.
- Mix on high speed until stiff peaks form. That is, when you pick up your mixer the cream makes a nice peak on the end that doesn’t fall off. Yum!
Dad
That sounds way good taters! You left out the two most important ingredients, a little
Autumn and Walter in there. Nice little page you’re doing here. Keep it up! Love you, Dad.
admin
Thanks, pop! I’m sure a little of Autumn got in there with those little hands in everything! Love you!