Pumpkin Pie

Here is our first attempt at a pumpkin pie! We made a ginger and cinnamon flavoured sweet shortcrust pastry, filled with a lightly spiced custard made using fresh pumpkin. Best served chilled!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
250 grams plain flour
140 grams cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
Two egg yolks mixed with 3 tablespoons of cold water
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the filling:
700 grams pumpkin, peeled, de-seeded and chopped into 2cm chunks
120g caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
30g melted butter
175ml milk

Method:

Make the pastry and chill it:

1. Put the flour, butter cubes and spices into a food processor and pulse until you get a breadcrumb texture.
2. Transfer to a large bowl then add 2-3 table spoons of the egg/water mixture and quickly cut through the mixture with the knife while shaking the bowl to incorporate. Test with your hand if the mix comes together when you scrunch it with your hand, if not, add more liquid until it does. We have tried this pastry recipe several times and find that using all of the egg / water mix typically results in an easier to handle pastry.
3. Turn out onto a work surface and combine to form dough (shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds of ‘bringing together’). You don’t want to kneed it like bread to create gluten as you want it to be short.
4. Shape into a round slab around an inch thick, wrap in cling film, and place in fridge (to harden – for 30-45 minutes).

Blind bake the tart case:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees / gas 6.
2. Roll the pastry out so it is large enough to cover a 23cm tart tin. We have increasingly made our tart cases 1-2mm thinner than the usual “pound coin” thickness that people recommend. This results in around 25% of the dough being left behind (for another smaller tart, or for freezing).
3. Line the tin with the pastry. We like to leave some hanging over the edge and trim it with a sharp knife post bake for a neater finish. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes – or even better – place it in the freezer for 30 minutes. This is important as if it isn’t cold, it will shrink when baking.
4. Prick the pastry with a fork to minimize rise (if not frozen).
5. Blind bake by using parchment paper, or grease proof paper to line the tin and fold over edges to protect, and fill with rice or baking beans.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes. It should look around half cooked, still pale on the base, with maybe some browning on the sides. Remove the parchment and baking beans and bake for another 5 or so minutes after brushing with an egg yolk to seal. Leave to cool.

Make the filling (can do this while pastry is in fridge / freezer) and bake:

1. Boil the cut pumpkin in water until soft. This takes around 20 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.
2. Mix the melted butter, spices, eggs, milk and sugar.
3. Push the pumpkin through a sieve to create a smooth puree.
4. Add this to the liquid mix and fill the tart case.
5. Bake at 180c fan for around 40-50 minutes. The filling should be just set and have a slight wobble.
6. Best served chilled with some cream!