Fall Harvest and Pumpkin Pie

Fall Harvest and Pumpkin Pie 

I see no reason Thanksgiving Day is the only day of the year it’s okay to make pumpkin pie. If you think about it, unless you burn a few pies before thanksgiving, how are you going to know that pie you take to the church bake sale, is the best you could have made.  

This is what Ya need to gather up for the Dough:  

  1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour  

  2 teaspoons sugar  

  1/8 teaspoon salt     

  1/2 cup cold butter   

  1 large egg, lightly beaten   

  Flour for rolling the dough  

The pie dough is the real secret to making great pie. If your dough is crisp on the edges and flake like a pastry, you could put week old hash in the middle and everyone’s goanna brag on your pie. I don’t recommend the hash. I don’t know why but I never did get a handle on liking hash there’s just something … O hell you got me side tracked on hash and this is a story about making pie.  Like I said once you master the crust people will think your god’s gift to the kitchen.   

First understand you can have good or you can have fast but there has never been a pie crust that’s good and fast. 

Start by mixing the flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Take a whisk and make sure everything is mixed good. Now take a knife and chop up that stick of butter into little chunks about the size of peanuts. By now the butter is starting to get warm so get it back in the icebox and let it cool back down. You probably just as well put the flour mixture in there as well so everything stayed cold as you can keep it. 

Once everything is cold, with your fingers work the butter chunks into the flower mixture, when they are evenly mixed, the butter probably has started to melt while you’re mixing, put it back in the icebox. The easy way to think of this is you want a bunch of peanut sized chunks of butter covered in the flower sugar and salt mixture. Around the edges if need, a fork works well for getting the small bits back to the middle. At this point I would toss it back in the icebox for another 20 min just to make sure the butter stays set. If you’re just figuring it out it is very critical you don’t let those little peanut size chunks of butter melt.   

Now that your sure everything is cold sprinkle a small bit of cold water over the mix so you can work it out of the mixing bowl and onto a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter. O yea I guess I should have mentioned you need to lay out a long piece of plastic wrap on the counter so you will have a place to set the dough when you take it out of the mixing bowl, sorry… Now form the dough into a disk, wrap with the plastic wrap, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour, overnight would be better. 

When ready to make pie filling, split open the pumpkins by cutting them in half and dig out the seeds. I normally take the seeds and put them on a dish cloth and let them dry so I can toast them up. They make a great snack food. Oven roasts the two halves in a baking dish with one inch of water at 350 degrees until flesh is soft. If your pumpkins are kind of small my might need to toss in two pumpkins to have enough filling.  

Takeem out and let set there on the counter to cool off, then remove flesh and blend into a puree, electric blender works well for this. 

This is what we’re going need to gather up for the Pie filling    

  3 eggs 

  1/2 cup brown sugar   

  1/4 cup sugar 

  2 cups cooked pie pumpkin    

  3/4 cup heavy whipping cream   

  1 tablespoon cornstarch   

  1/2 teaspoon kosher salt   

  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon  

  1/8 teaspoon allspice   

  1/8 teaspoon ground cloves  

In a mixing bowl, add 3 eggs and both sugars, whisk to combine. Take 2 cups of the cooked pumpkin add pumpkin puree, cream, cornstarch, salt, and spices to mixture, stir with a spatula until well combined.  

Remove dough from the refrigerator, using a rolling pin begin to roll out the dough on a slightly floured surface. Don’t get in a hurry or you’ll fowl up your perfect dough be as gentle as possible to get a bit stretched out even over the pie baking dish. Then press it gently into the corners and carefully make a small slice at the bottom of the pie crust to prevent bubbling while cooking.   

Trim excess pie crust at rim of dish and crimp the pie crust. With one index finger push the outside edge of the crust in and with your opposing hand use two fingers to pinch around the dough from the inside.  

Add your pie filling to the pie crust and bake for 1 hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Check the pie occasionally to make sure the crust is not cooking too fast, if so, adjust oven temperature slightly lower.   

The best way to know the pie is done when it wobbles slightly and the surface is raised or puffy appearing.  Take pie out when finished and let cool a few hours.   

Well, there you have it one homemade pie. I’m assuming if in you followed the directions it will be great.  

Also, when you take it to the table if you shake heavy whipping cream in a sealed mason jar for a bit until it thickens up it makes nice homemade whipped cream. To give your pie that extra fancy look.   

The Old Man