Halloween Homemade Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
Sweet Pastry
- 250 g of plain flour (or 325g of gluten free flour if you're gluten free) plus extra for dusting
- 125 g of butter plus a bit extra for greasing
- 80 ml 1/3 cup of cold water
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- Baking beans or just a few good handfuls of uncooked rice.
Filling
- 530 g of peeled fresh pumpkin cut into inch thick dices
- 30 g of butter
- 2 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon of nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons of cornflour
- 14 oz 395g of sweetened condensed milk.
- A pinch of salt
Instructions
Pastry:
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Put the flour and butter in a large bowl, then use your fingertips to pinch the cubes of butter in the flour. Keep doing this until the mixture resembles a breadcrumb consistency.
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Next, add the sugar and the water, then use a wooden spoon or a spatula to stir the mixture until it starts binding.
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Pour the rough dough out onto a flat surface, then use your hands to firmly push the pastry together until you get a nice smooth, sweet pastry.
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Wrap the sweet pastry in cling film, then let it rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
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Lightly grease a tart tin with butter. Dust some flour over it so it sticks to the butter, Once you have coated the tart case with the flour, shake off the excess and set aside.
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Take your pastry out of the fridge and unwrap it. Lightly dust a flat clean surface and a rolling pin with flour then roll your pastry until it's about 5mm thick. If the mixture starts sticking to the surface or the rolling pin, just add a touch more flour.
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Gently lift the pastry by rolling it up on the rolling pin, then carefully unroll it over the tart tin. Carefully ease the pastry into the bottom edges. Use a fork to just lightly poke a few holes in the pastry. Chill in the fridge again for another 20 minutes. At this point, start pre-heating your oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees F).
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Take your pastry out of the fridge. Get a sheet of baking paper, scrunch it up, soak it in water, squeeze out the excess water, open it up again then place it in your tart case over the pastry. Then fill with your baking beans or your uncooked rice to weigh the paper down.
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Place in the oven and cook/blind bake for 10 minutes. Take the pastry out of the oven, remove the beans/rice and baking paper, then put the pastry back in the oven and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Filling:
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Turn the heat of the oven down to 150 degrees Celsius (300 degrees F).
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Get a large pot of salted water and add your pumpkin. Bring the water to a boil. Once boiling, cook the pumpkin for a further 8-10 minutes until cooked through. Drain the pumpkin, then transfer on a plate lined kitchen paper to dry the pumpkin out.
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Put your butter in a small pot or pan and melt on low heat. Once the butter starts bubbling, simmer it for another 5 minutes until it develops a brown colour (be careful not to burn it).
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Put your cooked pumpkin, brown butter, eggs, your egg yolk, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, cornflour, condensed milk and a pinch of salt in a food processor, then blitz until you have a smooth mixture.
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Alternatively (if you don't have a food processor), you could put the browned butter and cooked pumpkin in a large bowl and mash together with a fork until the pumpkin gets a nice puree consistency. Add your eggs, egg yolk, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornflour and a pinch of salt then whisk together until well combined.
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Put the blind-baked tart case on a baking tray.
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Transfer the filling to a measuring jug, then you can easily pour it in the pastry case.
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Start pouring the pumpkin filling in the pastry case. Once the pastry case is almost filled up (meaning you may not need to add all the filling). Carefully place in the oven and cook for 1 hour.
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Once the pie is done, let it cool. Then you can top it with whatever you like. I topped it with some toasted pumpkin seeds, crushed store bought meringue and a strawberry coulis.
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And now you are ready to serve your homemade pumpkin pie! Enjoy.
Recipe Notes
- Making the pastry in advance can make your life much easier.
- When you add the water to the butter and flour mixture, make sure it's nice and cold.
- Do not knead the pastry, just firmly push it together until it's a nice smooth pastry.
- When you dust your surface and your rolling pin, dust lightly. Too much flour will dry out the pastry.
- If you don't have baking beans to weigh down the pastry, use raw rice instead.
- If you use gluten free flour instead of regular flour, use 325g instead of 250g.
- If you don't have a food processor to process the ingredients for the filling, mash the brown butter and cooked pumpkin together with a fork until pureed, then add the other ingredients and whisk through.
- When you add the filling to the pastry case, make sure it doesn't overflow.
- Transfer the pie on a tray before placing in the oven in case there is any spillage.
- Bake the pie low and slow to get that nice, smooth pumpkin pie filling.
- You can keep the pie in the fridge for about 3-4 days.
- You can also freeze the pumpkin pie. Just make sure you defrost it in the oven.