Have you tried Pumpkin Pie? I remember the first time I tried it, the idea of pumpkin in a pie as a dessert just didn’t sound right but I soon swallowed my words.

It’s smooth and creamy with a delicate balance of sweetness and spice, not overly rich and a little too easy to eat. Those American’s know what they’re doing on this one. I’ve no idea if this recipe is the same as what you would be served in the USA, but it doesn’t really matter because it is delicious! You can serve it with a dollop of cream but it doesn’t need it.

This recipe is really easy to prepare and the pastry doesn’t even need blind baking.

There’s only one negative about Pumpkin Pie – it is really hard to photograph! After trying and failing several times to take a photo which does it justice I have settled on using this one ^^ purely for the humour value. My pie slice took it’s inspiration from the house in the Wizard of Oz.

Now, I did my pastry gluten free as I do with most things. You don’t have to of course, but this simple GF recipe worked a treat. I was so excited when I rolled it and turned it into the pie tin because it didn’t break into 50 pieces for me to stick back together. It actually held together whilst I dropped it in which I thought was worthy of a photo.

Lastly, before we start on the recipe a quick word about pumpkin. It is notoriously hard to get a hold of pumpkin in the UK. The closest widely available is the butternut squash or those giant ones that spring up around Halloween. I have been able to find mini-ones from places such as Riverford which are quite tasty. If all else fails you can just buy a tin of “Pumpkin” puree which is what I did today. It’s actually pretty good although relatively expensive when compared to the cost of a whole pumpkin.

If using fresh pumpkin:

If you do use fresh pumpkin it must be cooked first, obviously. However, you must bake it in the oven, do not be tempted to steam or boil it for this recipe. It ends up too wet and your pie will not set well. So peel, cut into large pieces and bake in a moderate oven until cooked through. Go ahead and bake the entire pumpkin. Any left over can be stored in bags in the freezer for next time or turned into soup.

Blend the cooked pumpkin in your whizzy machine until it is very smooth. If there are stringy bits in it (stringyness varies by variety) you can push it through a sieve or if you can’t be bothered the pie just won’t be quite so smooth. To be honest, I never bother.

The Recipe…

Pastry

• 150 gm of Gluten Free Plain Flour (or regular plain flour)
• 1/2 tsp Xanthum Gum (omit is using regular flour)
• 1/2 tsp Fine Salt
• 80 gm Cold Butter, cut in cubes
• 40 gm Chilled Water

1. Add all ingredients except water to bowl. Mix 10 seconds, Speed 8.
2. Add 30 gm of the water. Turbo 2 seconds.
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. If it is holding together as a nice dough you can remove it. If not, add remaining chilled water and Turbo a further 2 seconds.
4. Scrape out onto a floured mat (the big flexible from ikea is great if you have one) and press into a ball shape. Roll to approximately 30cm diameter.
5. Gently place it into your pie tin. I try and gently lower it in to cover the base then with my left hand lift the ‘skirt’ of the pastry up to allow it to naturally fall farther down into the tin working my way around. carefully push it into the corners.
6. Trim the edges and pop it into the fridge whilst you prepare the filling.

Pie Filling

• ~400 gm can of Condensed Milk
• ~400 gm Pumpkin Puree (tinned or fresh, don’t be afraid to throw in a bit extra up to as much as 450gm if you’ve got it)
• 2 Tbl Cornflour (2 Australian 20ml Tablespoons or 3 UK 15ml Tablespoons)
• 2 tsp Ground Allspice
• 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Fine Salt

1. Preheat oven to 200 Degrees Celsius
2. Add all ingredients to the bowl (try not to tip the spices on top of the blade centre). Whizz 10 seconds, Speed 4.
3. Scrape down sides of bowl, whizz a further 5 seconds, Speed 4.
4. Tip into chilled pastry case, place on baking tray in the heated oven.
5. Bake 40 mins and then check the pie. If the centre is wobbles when you give it a jiggle give it another 10 minutes and check again. You want it to be firm in the middle. My oven is terrible and it took closer to 1 hour.

When it comes out of the oven it will look lovely and rounded like this one; after it cools it will flatten out. Don’t despair, it always does this. Ok, now go ahead and try it! Coincidentally it is Thanksgiving this week, if you’ve got some American friends why not surprise them with a pie?