Perfect Pumpkin Pie with a Secret Ingredient

Thanksgiving and Pumpkin Pie.  What more can I say?  These are two of my favorite things. While I love turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and homemade cranberry sauce-- I always leave room for pumpkin pie.  I acknowledge that there are pumpkin pie haters in this world. Thank you.  That means I have more cans of pumpkin puree to hoard for the rest of the year! Yes, I have been known to make my own pumpkin puree. But, I'll be honest.  I really don't taste a dramatic difference between the Organic Trader Joe's brand of pumpkin puree vs. homemade.  I will say that it's fun to try making it for yourself, at least once. (Plus, you get the bonus of making your own roasted pumpkin seeds.)

However, I much prefer homemade pumpkin pie vs. store bought.   I can overlook if someone buys pre-made pie crusts.  I used to do that, until I realized the secrets of making pie crusts.  I cannot believe that people actually buy canned pumpkin pie filling, however!  Really?!   Pumpkin pie filling is so easy to make! For the last few decades, I've always made trust Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie Recipe.  It's fool-proof.   I rarely use Evaporated Milk, but I truly believe that this ingredient is what makes pumpkin pie creamy and delicious.  This year, I decided to try one of my most trusted sources of recipes and baking ingredients-- King Arthur Flour.  There was an ingredient that I found a bit peculiar. In fact, I debated if I wanted to risk KAF's recipe vs. Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie.   

Pumpkin Pie Filling only requires a whisk, folks!  Of course, I've been playing with my OXO Egg Beater that I won at the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival.  It's a really cool gadget, priced at under $20.00, and I'm using it a lot!  The ingredients you need are: white and brown sugar, eggs, evaporated milk, spices, a touch of flour, and pumpkin puree (a printable recipe card is at the end of this post.)

Whisk the ingredients together. There really isn't a need to use a hand or stand mixer.   Pour into a pie shell.  NOTE: I actually made the pumpkin pie filling the day before making the pie.  King Arthur Flour recommends this so that the spices can have a chance to really blend.

TIPS: Place the prepared pie plate onto a baking sheet to prevent spills. King Arthur Flour gave me a great tip: "Pumpkin pie filling is basically a custard; the eggs in the filling will continue cooking as the heat from the edge of the pie moves toward the center, which is why it's important to remove the pie from the oven before the center is completely set. Leaving it in the oven too long will cause the eggs to overcook, tightening the proteins and causing the pie to crack in the center."

I made this pie the night before Thanksgiving, so that it would be well-chilled. 

In my previous post, I showed how I made King Arthur Flour's Traditional American Pie Crust recipe. 

I was so anxious excited to taste this pie, that I sliced it on Thanksgiving morning.  I figured I wanted to photograph it before my kitchen and dining room table Thanksgiving Dinner carnage had begun. Really!

VERDICT:  Full disclosure: I'm biased. I love pumpkin pie.  Ready?  I loved this recipe. It was creamy, and I loved the spice blend ratio.  I could taste the ginger and cinnamon, but not the black pepper.  My guess is that, somehow, black pepper brings out the spice flavor to perfection.  I was so glad that I baked this pie in a 9" deep pie dish.  The rest of my family loved the pumpkin pie.  I'm glad that I made a smaller pie for the next day...

Because pumpkin pie, for breakfast, is a very nice way to start the day.  Especially, with coffee.

I'm posting a printable recipe for pie crust and the pumpkin pie below.  You can also view King Arthur Flour's video on how to make this by click here.

American Pie Crust - A quirky, but succesful, method from King Arthur Flour

American Pie.  The pie crust is the key, isn't it?  It is to pie lovers, like my husband.  My son, too.  A pie crust has to be tender and flaky.  Am I right?  The debate goes on as to which is better-- an all butter crust vs. using shortening.  In my beginning baking years, I used to buy Mrs. Smith's frozen pies.  I was too intimidated to try making pie crust, from scratch.  Then, I transitioned to buying ready made pie crusts.  Eventually, I started to make pie crusts with my food processor.  I'd whir the dough around for an eternity, not realizing that I was doing a fabulous job of building up the gluten.  My pie crusts were tough, but at that time I didn't really notice. That's because  I don't eat the crust.  I'm one of those pie eaters, who scoops out the contents of the pie and tosses away the rest.

I married a man who loves pie. He loves pie crust. A lot. Seriously. He could eat pie for breakfast, and be totally content.  His favorite summer pie is "Olallieberry Pie".  I shared this all butter pie crust (from Ina Garten) as a tutorial (and it's gotten a lot of views).

In the Fall, I believe that Pumpkin Pie is one of the most traditional desserts that graces a Thanksgiving table.  Pecan comes in as a close second. Some years, I like to try new pumpkin desserts-- like Pumpkin Ice Cream, or Pumpkin Pana Cota.  This year, I wanted to make traditional pumpkin pie.  I wanted to try the shortening and butter approach of making a pie crust.  One of my most trusted internet  recipes sources, King Arthur Flour, had several pie crust recipes.  I watched their video, and I was totally sold on making a pie crust without a food processor!     There are four kitchen tools/supplies that you need, for this technique--  a rolling pin, parchment paper, a pastry cutter (you could use two forks)  and and a spray bottle. For those of you who say you hate to bake-- and worse, that believe you can't make pie crusts...  watch and see.

I've own a pie crust shield for years, to prevent my pie crusts from turning too dark.  The problem is, it ruins my pie crusts because I tend to use a deep-dish pie plate.  I now prefer to roll foil to fit my pie plate.  Spray the pie plate, so that the pie slices are easier to remove. You're welcome.

Measure your 3 cups of unbleached flour (of course, I only use King Arthur Flour), salt  and 1/2 cup shortening (a printable recipe card is at the end of this post).  Cut the shortening in until it's the size of small peas.   I have to admit, it wasn't hard work at all.

I usually grate my cold cheese. But, like the recipe instructed me to, I cut the butter into thin slices and added it to the coarse flour and shortening.  Very gently, with my hands, I mixed the butter with the flour. Then broke the butter to about the size of my thumbnail.

 Ice water is important-- not cold tap water.  The recipe said between 6-9 Tablespoons of water.  I quit at 9 Tablespoons, while stirring it with a fork.  I wasn't quite sure when to quit-- as the recipe said to quite when the dough is "shaggy" and "almost moist".  So, remember that parchment paper and spray bottle I mentioned?  Here's the quirky part:

Spread the shaggy dough on top of parchment paper.  Take one side of the parchment paper and fold it over the dough and press down. 

See? The dough is a bit dry, still (I should have added one or two more Tablespoons of water.)

Now spray with water, until the dough is moistened.  The theory-- which makes complete sense to me, now-- is that we are not going to overwork the dough.  We also want to allow those pieces of butter to stay whole.  I press the dough, almost like a letter, to build layers.   Finally, it all came together.

 I cut the dough into unequal halves. Why? Because one pie plate is deeper and larger than the other!

I'm holding a cross section.  Those will become tender layers of flavor. I totally have faith in that.

Gently pat the dough into a circle, wrap in plastic, refrigerate,  and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.  You can certainly make the pie crust dough several days in advance.

 Rolling pins... I have finally fallen in-love with my tapered rolling pin.  As long as I run a little flour over the rolling pin, I don't have a problem with the pie dough sticking.

I finally mastered the simple art of rolling pie dough.  Start from the center and roll out.  I no longer roll back and forth, and now my pie crusts don't stick and they aren't tough, from being overworked. One last tip-- turn the dough a quarter turn.  If the dough sticks, then add a little flour underneath.  All my broken pie crust problems have been solved!

Can you see that nice chunk of butter in the right corner?  It's simple science-- the butter causes the crust to steam = tender and delicious crust.   I find that wrapping my pin around the dough, and then unwrapping it onto my pie plate works perfectly-- every time.

My crust was a little unevenly shaped. I simply took some excess trimmings, and added it underneath the area that needed more.  Crimping will hide that patch job.

It's fun to play with my food.

Here's a more traditional crimp.

Here's how I did it, from an earlier post for a two-crust pie.

For my second pie, I snipped the dough with kitchen shears...

That's kind of fun-- a checkerboard crust.

FINAL NOTES: The prepared pie crusts should be chilled for at least 30 minutes before using. Yes, you can freeze these as well, and use them another time-- like the day after. 

I simply don't see a need to buy pre-made pie crusts.  Have you read the ingredients lately?  I actually find pie crusts on the therapeutic side to make.  There's something really satisfying when I roll out a pie crust and crimp it.  It feels like a true accomplishment.  Of course, the question is-- is this a good recipe?

VERDICT:  This dough is very easy to work with, and rolls out beautifully.  I found the pie crust to be truly tender.  My husband really liked the pie crust a lot.  He says it's just like his mom's old-fashioned pie crust. I still am a big fan of all-butter crusts, and I'm a tart kinda gal.  I gave my husband the crust, and gutted the pumpkin pie.  Considering I had some rather generous helpings of my revised sweet potato casserole (coming up soon), that was probably a better idea.

Here's a sneak preview to the pumpkin pie recipe, that was new to me.  It was excellent.  Yes, I will be sharing that one, too.

I was hoping to embed the King Arthur Video on this post, but I'm a little leery about playing around with HTML codes within my template.  So, instead, here's the link to see this really cool pie crust technique.

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post, and at the end of the video.

I keep saying-- King Arthur Flour doesn't pay me to promote their products, website or recipes.  I do it, because I'm a very happy customer, and I have great results with their recipes.  Plus, they're nice people to deal with on the phone.

King Arthur Flour , and Baked Doughnuts -- The Non "Krispy Kreme"

Who doesn't love a fresh doughnut?  I recall the first time I walked inside a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. It was the late 90's and we were in Southern California.  My son's eyes grew as big as doughnuts as he watched freshly baked doughnuts coming out of vats of oil, and then roll down a conveyor belt and into a glaze "jacuzzi".  As we both bit into a warm doughnut, we were in sugar heaven.  I don't want to think about how many fat grams we indulged in, but they sure were good! It's a very good thing that we don't have a Krispy Kreme store anywhere less than a 90-minute drive away.  There is a local doughnut shop (Red's Doughnuts) where we live that makes some of the tastiest assortment of doughnuts I've ever had.  I avoid that place, because I wouldn't be able to decide between their custard-filled bar with chocolate glaze, applesauce, devil's food or glazed old-fashioned doughnuts.    By sheer willpower, I've avoided doughnut shops for a few years, because I don't need the guilt of over-indulging. I love baked goods far more than I should.  I have another weakness, however.  It's called "Cost Plus/World Market" stores.  We have two within 15 minutes of where I live and work.  They send me coupons, and I can't let them go to waste. 

At World Market, I spotted a Mini-Doughnut pan for about $10.00. I must have picked it up and set it back down several times.  King Arthur Flour sells them for $15.95, plus shipping...and I had a coupon.  I gave in, and it came home with me. This is the time of year when many of us try to lose those extra Thanksgiving and Christmas pounds.  Still, a baked treat can't be all that bad. Can it?  I settled on making a recipe for baked doughnuts that I found on the King Arthur Flour Recipe Website.  I carefully read the reviews, many of which were positive.  Whenever someone writes a negative review, I try to figure out what might have gone wrong and what can I do to improve it.  I have a bag of Arrow Mills Organic Pastry Flour, so I decided to use that instead of cake flour.  According to their website site, "it is made from soft wheat berries grown each Spring in the fertile San Luis Valley of Colorado, Arrowhead Mills Pastry Flour provides a finer texture and lighter consistency with low gluten content. It's perfect for flaky and delicate pastries and cakes." I keep 1% buttermilk on hand, so I decided not to use buttermilk powder.  

Since the doughnuts won't be deep-fried, I read that it's important to heavily grease use a non-stick spray-- even though the pan is non-stick. Done.

The pastry flour is unbleached (and I never buy bleached flour).  Though it has whole grain, it's milled very fine.

So, here are the dry ingredients-- pastry flour (you can use unbleached all-purpose, but pastry flour is supposed to yield a tender cake), nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder and sugar. For the wet ingredients, I used 3 Tablespoons of 1% Buttermilk, and 3 Tablespoons ofcanola oil (instead of vegetable oil). 

I believe I've mentioned my addiction to the King Arthur Shopping Website, and I'm not paid to say so.  I've also touted my fondness for their Buttery Sweet Dough Bakery Emulsion.  I can best describe the aroma as smelling like yellow cake batter. Trust me, you want to drink it, but I add a teaspoon of this to most of my baked goods.  (Otherwise, I recommend adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.) I've been using their Cake Enhancer with great success. I don't fully understand the chemistry behind why it works, but it does-- it makes my cakes stay extra-moist, for several days.  Pour the liquid ingredients all at once into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. 

I gently folded the batter, but didn't work up the gluten. (That makes for tough pastries, ya know).  You can see the wheat in the flour, because of the dark brown color.  There is pastry flour that has less wheat it in it, so use that if you prefer. Some reviewers suggested pouring the batter into a ziploc bag (I was too lazy busy to dig out my pastry bags).

I was cautioned not to overfill each well, or the "whole" would fuse together and it won't look like a doughnut. I think you could spoon these in just as well.

Bake the doughnuts in a preheated 375°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes. When done, they’ll spring back when touched lightly, and will be quite brown on the top. (Mine took about 9 minutes.)

Remove the doughnuts from the oven, remove them from the pan, and allow them to cool on rack. To me, they looked like flat muffins. I wasn't sure if I was impressed.  I could have dipped them in melted chocolate and called it a day.  I could have sprinkled them, and that would have been lovely.  But, I'm trying to make these as guilt-free as possible.

I decided to go with cinnamon-sugar. Since the doughnuts weren't fried in oil, I decided to spritz them, lightly, with some water (rather than melted butter).

 

That did the trick!  I brewed a cup of coffee and decided to give these a taste test.

VERDICT:  At first bite, I thought the doughnut was less than exciting.  I questioned my wisdom in using a whole wheat pastry flour.  They were tender, yes, but I wasn't digging the wheatiness of the flavor.  I was underwhelmed, as was my husband. But, wait!  The very next morning, something magical happened when I tried them again.  The doughnuts were stored in an air-tight container, the night before.  The flavor had changed, and to the better!  In all honesty, these baked doughnuts won't fool any kind of doughnut connoisseur.   But, with a cup of hot coffee these remind me a bit of Mexican Churros (without the grease).  

 I see possibilities with this recipe, and I'll try them again.  Next tie,  I'll use regular pastry flour, or a mixture of whole wheat and all-purpose.  Rather than glazing these, or dipping them in melted chocolate-- I'll just make the real thing if I'm going to spring for a fat and sugar-rush of that caliber.  Sometimes, you just have to indulge in a traditional doughnut and I plan to make traditional doughnuts, in the future-- just so I can say I learned how to do it.  This recipe is certainly quick to put together, and a lot less messier than heating oil.  They're also easier on the arteries and waistline, and that's a good thing.  On a scale of 1-5 for flavor, I give these 3 1/2 stars. With some tweaking, next time, I think these could earn an extra star or two.

 

Healthy Healthier Baking!

Christmas Easy German Stollen

Whatever happened to my childhood Christmas time-line? As a kid, it seemed as though that special day of our family gathering to celebrate on Christmas Eve would never come.  Being of German descent, my mother would make a traditional German dinner and then the kids would disappear into our bedrooms. We couldn't come out until we heard Mutti ringing a bell to signal that the "Krist Kindlein" (Christ Child) had come. Our parents weren't particularly well-to-do, but my memories were that gifts were abundant.


Now that my parents are gone, I try to carry on the traditions to my own son and niece.  German Stollen is very much a part of my Christmas childhood memories.  I've never made my own Stollen, and it's been my Recipe Bucket List for several Christmas's past. In the meantime,  I have resorted to buying German Stollen's from Trader Joe's. They're not bad, as long as you eat a slice with a cup of coffee.  A few days ago, I spotted King Arthur Flour's recipe for their Easiest Stollen. Traditional Stollen is made with yeast; this version uses ricotta cheese and baking powder. I was intrigued, and grateful, to find a short-cut since December 23rd was the first-- and only-- day that I had to bake something to give as gifts.

There are two ingredients that King Arthur recommends to make this recipe-- Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor and Lemon Oil.  I fell in-love with the Buttery Sweet Dough flavor, about a year ago.  It smells like yellow cake batter, and it gives a special flavor to any of your baked goods.  Trust me, this is one of my favorite products that I order from King Arthur Flour's website (yes, I pay for it... I'm not given this for free).  The lemon oil is a great product, because it's a natural product, made from the lemon rind (unlike lemon extract).  Is it required that you use these?  No.  The lemon oil is a shortcut from having to zest lemons, and I think it packs a great punch of lemon citrus.  Of course, you need pure vanilla.

As you can see, I shop, often, online at KAF-- I bought this European candied mix peel, last Christmas. It was destined to become Stollen.  It never happened, so I used half to make an Easter Ricotta Pie.  The other half was exactly enough to make this stollen recipe-- and it was still good to go!  You can use any kind of dried fruit-- cranberries, raisins... whatever you like.  If I didn't have this fruit, I would have chosen golden raisins because they are very traditional.

Almonds are the traditional nut to add to Stollen. I didn't have slivered almonds, but I always keep a bag of sliced almonds on hand.  These are already toasted, which really brings out the flavor.

For the dry ingredients, we need flour, salt, baking powder and salt...

For the wet ingredients, we need ricotta cheese, vanilla. Add lemon zest or use the optional lemon oil and Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor...

...give it whisk and smell.  Wow!  The aroma smells so good with the vanilla, lemon and emulsion!

The dry ingredients are whisked together, and then the nuts and dried fruit is added...

Now, we need COLD butter.  

 My shortcut is to grate cold (or frozen) butter. It works great!

Time to make dough!

With a stand-mixer, it takes a minute or two (or, you can do this by hand).

Perfect!

Now, we add the wet ingredients...

...and mix until the flour is just moistened. Don't overwork it!

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead it two or three times, until it holds together.

Cut the dough in half. In my case, I cut the dough into thirds. I was going to give two away, and keep one for "us".

My own "twist" to this recipe was to add a very traditional ingredient-- Marzipan.  I love it.  Skip it if you don't like it...

I decided to make one Stollen without marzipan and two with (guess which one is for "us"?) Now fold the Stollen in half, leaving the top half a little short of the edge. (I have read that the shape is to symbolize the Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes.)

These are baked at 325F for about 40 minutes. Because these are smaller (at 3 Stollen), I set my timer for 25 minutes. They are perfect and smell really great!  To me, they seemed more like a large cookie..but I carried on with the next few steps:

Remove the stollen from the oven, and transfer to a rack. Brush them each with 2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle heavily with confectioners’ sugar.

Allow the stollen to cool, then brush with butter again, and sprinkle with sugar again. I know this appears to be a bit excessive, but trust me-- it's how the German's roll (said with affection).

Now, for the moment of truth...

VERDICT: This recipe gets the O-M-G rating from me!  The stollen reminds me of Biscotti, without the crunch of a second bake.  The outside texture is a little crunchy, which isn't how must authentic stollens are.  However, the inside is moist and has just the right amount of density to it. The flavor... (rolls eyes).  I think the Buttery Sweet Dough flavor is something you have to experience.  The flavor tastes like vanilla, lemon and butter. The fruit is just the right amount.  The powdered sugar coating give just the right amount of balance.  I'm beginning to have my first pangs of greed selfishness.

One Stollen was devoured by my husband and son.  They loved it!  I set one Stollen on the table, unsliced.  Is this a subliminal message "look, but don't eat"?

The next day, I unwrapped the third Stollen, and gave it  a fresh dusting of powdered sugar.

VERDICT #2: I think these taste better after a day...or two. The spirit of giving is alive and well!  OK, so I didn't give these away. I shared them. This is a new Christmas tradition for me to make, only I'll quadruple how much I make.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I like this recipe better than the yeast type of bread. Seriously. I don't think I'll wait an entire year to make this again.  A slice, or two, of this with a hot cup of coffee brings back memories of watching my Mutti dunk hers with glee.  

The Stollen recipe is posted below:

Merry Christmas 2010!