Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pecan Pie

Happy Thanksgiving. This year we're roasting a turkey from Fair Valley Farm and trying it this way, with the legs splayed and braised. It smells delicious. 

For dessert I roasted our last kabocha squash from Camas Swale Farm, and I baked my favorite pumpkin pecan praline pie.

When we sit down to our feast, we will express our many thanks to the local growers who are providers of delicious food and stewards of our environment.

Prune and Almond Pie

I couldn't let today, Pi Day (3.14.15), go by without baking a pie. 

I'd recently remembered an old favorite recipe from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking: Tart aux Pruneaux et aux Amandes. Technically a tart, but certainly in the phylum pie. Prunes are soaked in strong black tea (I used the dregs of a pot of this), and then bathed in a ground almond and creme fraiche filling. Wells spikes hers with plum eau-de-vie, which I didn't happen to have on hand (mon dieu!), so I added a bit of vanilla extract, for a more kid-friendly version. A lovely way to celebrate this memorable, once in a century day.

Tart aux Pruneaux et aux Amandes

from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking

2 cups brewed strong black tea
1 lb (500 g) prunes, pitted
1/4 cup (35 g) whole unblanched almonds
1 large egg
5 Tbsp (60 g) granulated sugar
2 Tbsp plum eau-de-vie or brandy (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
3/5 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream
1 Pate Sucre shell (recipe below) partially baked and cooled
1 Tbsp confectioners' sugar to garnish (optional)

Pate Sucre
1 1/4 cup (175 g) all purpose flour
8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
~4 Tbsp ice water

1. Make the dough. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter pieces and pulse about 20 times until the butter is in pea sized pieces. Add the ice water and pulse about 8 more times until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a silicone mat or work surface and shape into a disc. Wrap in the silicone mat or saran wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

2. Shape the tart shell. Lightly flour the dough and roll it out on the silicone mat or a floured work surface, rotating to ensure the dough is not sticking, into a 12 inch wide disc. Transfer to a 10 1/2 inch loose-bottomed black tart tin and gently press the dough into the corners. Trim the overhang, leaving one inch of dough. Tuck the overhand inside and fortify any thin parts with the trimmed dough. Shape the edges and prick the bottom all over with a fork. Chill the shaped dough for at least 20 minutes. 

3. Partially bake the shell. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the shell with aluminum foil and some pie weights (some rice or dried beans that you can reuse for years). Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and bake another 10 minutes. Cool completely.

Prune and Almond Tart
1. At least 1 hour before preparing the tart, pour the hot tea over the prunes and set aside to marinate.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

3. In a food processor, grind the almonds to a fine powder. Add the egg, sugar, liquor (or vanilla extract), and creme fraiche. Process until very smooth.

4. Thoroughly drain the prunes, discarding the soaking liquid. Carefully arrange the prunes in the cooled tart shell. Pour the almond filling over the prunes.

5. Place the tart in the center of the oven, and bake until the filling is set and the tart shell is nicely browned, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven. If you like, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Pumpkin Pecan Praline Pie

Hopefully you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. Before you drift off into a tryptophan stupor, I'd like to address a Thanksgiving debate of the best pie choice, if you are limited to a single one. I know some are proponents of the pecan pie, but with a corn syrup base, these can be cloyingly sweet. Others couldn't imagine a Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, but I find that they can be a bit monotonous in texture. Instead, I have a favorite combination pumpkin pecan praline pie that is the perfect marriage of the two standbys. This recipe has special meaning because it comes from the pastry chef Christine Law who baked our wedding cake, and appeared in the San Jose Mercury News in the week before our first Thanksgiving as a married couple.

First you prepare a pie crust. You can do this in a food processor, but if you want to feel more like a Pilgrim you can attempt it by hand, cutting butter into flour and then mixing in just enough ice cold water to get the dough to come together. Then chill the dough before you roll it out and transferring it to a pie pan (a decidedly modern silicone mat makes this part manageable).

Before prebaking it, you cream some butter with brown sugar and pecans, and line the bottom of your crust.

As the crust cools, you can prepare the pumpkin filling. This is best with pumpkin puree from a freshly roasted pumpkin, but you can also use unsweetened canned pumpkin. I've modified the original spicing, omitting the nutmeg, which I dislike, and increasing the ginger, but you can adjust these to your taste. The final pie is delicious on its own, or with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Pumpkin Pecan Praline Pie

adapted from Christine Law

Pie crust

1 1/2 cups flour

8 Tbsp chilled butter (1 stick) or use part butter and part vegetable shortening

1/2 tsp salt

~5 Tbsp ice cold water

Praline layer

3 Tbsp soft butter 

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup pecan pieces

Pumpkin filling

1 sugar pie pumpkin (for 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree, with more for other uses)

1 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1. To prepare the pumpkin, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast cut side down on an oiled baking sheet until the flesh is very soft, about an hour. Scrape out the flesh from the skin and puree in a food processor. Reserve 1 1/2 cups for the pie and save the remainder for another use (pumpkin bread, pumpkin and ricotta ravioli, etc.).

2. For the crust, combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and work into the flour with a pastry cutter until it has the texture of cornmeal. Add water gradually and mix with a spatula until it just comes together into a ball. Wrap in a silicone map or plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, and chill for an hour or freeze for 10 minutes. Roll out to fit into your pie dish. Prick all over with a fork.

3. To prepare the praline layer, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cream together the butter and brown sugar and add in the pecans. Spread over the bottom of the prepared pie crust and bake for 10 minutes. Allow the crust to cool completely.

4. Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees. To prepare the pumpkin filling, heat the evaporated milk until scalding. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and spices. Mix in pumpkin puree, and then gradually mix in the hot milk. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake until the filling has set and does not jiggle, about an hour and 10 minutes.