Shown here made by my son on a trip in South Africa with his love, Ali Friedman. This has always been his birthday treat & this year away was no exception. The pie must go on! and it did, with love.
From Luc; "The two tips I would give to this great recipe is that we did all the mixing by hand without a food processor and I really liked how it turned out! the filling was a really nice consistency and you could visibly see some small bits of pumpkin that didn’t get pureed which was actually really nice. and then folding over the crust makes it look more rustic and everybody always loves more of this crust!"
Crust:
3 tbl. water
2 tsp. corn starch
1.25 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
5 oz. butter, cut up
2 Tbl. sour cream
Filling:
1 sugar pumpkin or kabocha squash (need 2 cups processed puree)
3 eggs
½ cup cream
3/4 of a cup maple sugar or coconut sugar or regular
½ tsp. each of cinnamon, allspice and ground dry ginger
1/3 tsp. salt
Good grind of nutmeg or two pinches
(If you have a food processor, here’s the instructions, however, if you don’t, just mix and mash by hand like the photos above & it will be just as glorious.)
IN ADVANCE: whisk together the water and cornstarch. Microwave until set, 20-30 seconds, stirring halfway through and at the end. Chill it. In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt and process 5 seconds. Add the chilled cornstarch mixture and pulse about 5 pulses. Add the sour cream & cold cut up butter. process until the dough just comes together and begins to collect around the blade, 20 to 30 seconds. Pat the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
On a well-floured surface roll out the disc of dough separately with the firm push of a rolling pin to about an 1/8 of an inch thick. With a thin spatula, lift one side of the first crust and flop it over your pin, then gently roll the dough around the pin to transfer it to the pie shell, if it tears you can mend it with a bit of water. Trim & crimp the edges (or just flop them over after it’s filled like Luc did above). Set the crust in the refrigerator if not filling right away.
Steam or roast pumpkin, get 2 cups processed puree per pie.
Blend filling & bake on the BOTTOM rack of the oven 375 45-50 minutes.
With love,
Lynette La Mere, Executive Chef, Pure Joy Catering
Photos & tips by Lucas Oliver Oswald
