Pumpkin Pie - A pictorial

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Hello everyone!  I’m sure the extended weekend was reason enough to give thanks!  How was your Thanksgiving dinner? How many of you filled up your houses with  Black Friday shopping? Did you  wait outside the stores to grab the door busters ?
Most of my shopping was done online or on Saturday.  I have never been to see the mad rush at the opening hours on Friday, and I don't think that I would ever do it sacrificing my precious sleep ;-)

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving Turkey dinner at our friend's place! Everybody had a great time with so much fun and lots of good food. My daughter made me promise to make a pumpkin pie for her this year and I did. It came out so well, and I'm glad to share the recipe with you all.  Next time I will try to make the pumpkin puree also at home :-)

My family loved it and I can assure you that it is much better than the store bought ones :-)And I loved the Pate Brisse



Now a pictorial of the process
Disclaimer: The pictures are not the best. I had to manage the process, the camera , a 9 year old and a toddler who is still in his terrible 2 ;-)

The first 4 steps of pie crust making.  Cutting the butter, mixing the flour with salt and sugar, mixing in the butter and adding water



Make a disc out of the dough, cover it and chill.Also rolling out



Transferring the disc and pinching the sides.



The final steps. Making the filling and baking the pie



And last but not the least, a slice for you ;-)



Ingredients

For Pie crust(Pate Brisse):

Flour- 1 1/4 cup
Salt- 1/2 tsp
Sugar- 2 tsp
Ice cold water- 3-4 Tbsp(I used 3 1/2 Tbsp)
Butter- 8 Tbsp

For Pumpkin Pie filling:

Pumpkin puree -2 cups (I used store bought organic puree)
Eggs -3
Brown sugar- 3/4 cup
White sugar -1/4 cup
Salt -1/4 tsp
Cinnamon -2 tsp
Ginger powder -1/2 tsp
Cloves -1/4 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg - 1/8 tsp
Heavy cream -1/2 cup

Method:

1.Whisk together the flour, salt and sugar or pulse them together in the mixing bowl of your food processor.
2.Cut the butter into 1 inch cubes and add it to the flour mixture.
3.Process till the mixture turns little crumbly, but still there is some butter fragments.
4.Add the ice cold water 1 Tbsp at a time and run the processor.Add a couple of tablespoons more and mix well.After adding 3 Tbsp, try to hold the mixture together. If it is coming together, you are done. If not add a little more water and mix again.
5.Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface using your hand, till everything comes together.Do not over knead. Make a dics out of the dough and chill it for at least half an hour or up to a couple of hours.
6.Just before you start to make the filling, take out the dough from refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for 10-12 minutes.Also preheat the oven at 425 degree F.
7.For making the filling, mix together the eggs and sugars first.Addthe rest of the ingredients and mix well.
8.Roll out the dough into a 1/4 to 1/3 inch disc which is about 13 inches in diameter.I rolled it on the plastic wrap so that it doesn't stick anywhere.Or else you could flour the surface lightly and check frequently for the sticking dough.
9.Invert the greased pie pan on the top of the crust and invert everything including the plastic wrap.(This is much more easier for transferring the crust when compared to all other methods I've tried so far :-)
10.Take out the wrap and gently press in the crust to fit it inside the pie pan.
11.Now gently take out the extra sides hanging out of the pan. (I didn't have much though)
12.Pinch the sides carefully so that you get a nice pattern.
13.Keep the crust covered and let sit chilled for about 10 minutes. This helps the pie crust to retain it's shape. I didn't have time to do this step and you can see that, though I pinched the sides well the end product doesn't have a beautiful outer edge.
14.Slowly pour in the prepared filling and bake at 425 degree F for 15 minutes.
15.Then reduce the temperature to 350 degree F and bake for about 50-55 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Notes:

1.The filling is moderately sweet. If you like it sweeter please feel free to add more sugar.
2.If you do not have a food processor, use a hand blender to mix the pie crust dough.  You could use your hand too, but the warmth of your hand might make the butter melt.  If you need a really flaky crust, the butter should be in bits and pieces in the dough.

Contributor: Namitha
Recipe Courtesy: Various internet sites

Pecan Pie and an Award

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Marigolds and roses, Bees and flies
Oh, Isn't it a wonderful path ?
Butterflies and caterpillars, rainbows and lightning
Makes an extraordinary path together
As the Earth spins
We'll forever remember the path of Nature

   No, it's not mine. It's my 8 year old's :-) When she was wondering what to do for the talent show in her class, she was confused and couldn't decide and I was no help either. After a lot of pondering, she made up her mind and told me she wants to write a poem and recite it. She doesn't write poems that often although she writes stories and gives her own illustrations. As such, I was flabbergasted to say the least to see this poem, titled "Nature's Path". I cannot figure out for my life where she comes up with these ideas.  I knew then I had to do something to show her how proud I am of her efforts. 

  After deliberating about how to congratulate her I decided to make some goodies of her choice. There was this long awaited request from her to make Pecan Pie and being the official arbitrator on these matters made my decision.  Pecan Pie, it shall be!  I was supposed to make this for Thanksgiving but never got around to it for some reason.  Either ways, my daughter won me over and I made her her pie.  I think in all respects this was a good decision.  Enjoy!



We tasted this pie in one of the Thanksgiving parties, soon after reaching US. It tasted divine and and my husband and daughter requested me to make it at home. Then I started searching the net and collected info from friends for making Pecan pie. Once you taste this, I am sure you will never like store brought pecan pie :-)

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:

It is the same as in Apple pie. Only thing I want to point out is that the crust becomes flaky only when you use butter and shortening together.

For Filling:

Roasted Pecans- 1 cup
Light Corn syrup - Little less than 1 cup
Brown Sugar -1/2 cup
Salt - A pinch
Melted Butter - 5 1/2 Tbsp
Pure Vanilla Extract - 1tsp
Eggs - 2



Method:
1. Prepare the dough for the crust and follow the method here.
2. Roast the Pecans in a microwave oven. This may take 2-3 minutes, turn the pecans after every minute and stop when you think it is roasted well. It took me 2 minutes in my microwave .
3.Cut the pecan halves into 2 when it is cool enough to handle.Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.
4.Mix together everything except eggs listed under filling, using a spatula.
5.Whisk the eggs together in another bowl, very lightly.
6.Mix the egg also in the above mixture and see that the eggs are mixed well.
7.Roll out the dough to get a 1/8 inch thick disk.
8.Transfer this into the pie pan and cut off the extra edges.
9.Pinch the sides to get a wavy look for the sides. [Mine is not perfect, since I was in a hurry :( ]
10.Pour in the prepared mixture and sprinkle the pecan slices.
11.Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. It took me 60 minutes.
12.Take out from the oven and let the pie cool well before you cut it.Serve with whipped cream or ice cream of your choice.



Notes:

1.This pie recipe will give you a moderately sweet one, not too sweet like you get from the shops.
2.Roll out the dough on a rolling pin for transferring into the pan, since it is really brittle.
3.Please do not skip the roasting step, since it makes a huge difference.
4.Be careful when you add water to the dough. Use icecold water and pour only a spoon at a time. I had to add only 1 1/2 Tbsp. When I made it for the first time I added a lil more water and I had a hard time in rolling out the crust !

Award

Malar Gandhi of Kitchen tantra- tease your palate has shared a beautiful award with us. Thanks a bunch Malar, we really appreciate it


We would like to share it with all our blogger friends. Pl accept it and post it in your blog :-) Happy blogging and a happy Holiday season to all !!!!

Contributor: Namitha

Apple Pie

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My husbands favorite and a very common dessert in American homes I thought it makes sense to post this for Thanksgiving.  My version has been inspired by quite a few recipes online and also an old better homes book.  I make the pie crust at home and I promise you its' worth your while.  Hot, flaky, buttery goodness of the crust makes all the difference to the pie.  The filling is pudding like tasting sweet, tangy and cinnamony.  Serve the pie hot topped with vanilla icecream and be sure to share your pie to see how their faces light up in awe!

Ingredients: (To make the Crust)
All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1 Tbspn
Salt - 1 tspn
Butter/Cisco shortening - 12 tbspn (you could also try using half of both or just any one)  I have also tried it with 1/2 butter and 1/2 canola oil and it was just fine)
Ice cold water - 5-7 tbspn

The measurment is for a 8-9 inch pie pan.

Method:
1. Mix flour, salt and sugar.
2. Cut the butter into the flour.  Make sure you integrate the butter and flour well slowly keeping the consistency powdery and not kneading together. (If you are using all oil make sure you add 1 tbspn oil at a time wetting the dough all over)
3. Once you have incorporated the butter or oil slowly add the cold water a spoon at a time bringing the dough together which you can roll out into discs.
4. Leave the dough in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour and start working on your filling.

Ingredients: ( For Filling)
1. Granny Smith Apple - 5-6 nos (I used the red colored apple which is meant for apple pie.  The trick here is to buy only the sour green apple or the red apple meant for pie which is also slightly sour
2. Sugar - 3/4 to 1 cup
3. Cinnamon - 1/2 - 1 tspn
4. Salt - a pinch
5. Nutmeg - optional.. I made mine with only cinnamon
6. Flour - 2 Tbspn
7. Butter - 1- 2 Tbspn

Method:
1. Pear and cut the apples into thin slices
2. Mix all the ingredients together and add the sliced apples in
3. Divide the dough into two halves
4. Roll one half of the dough and line the pie pan.
5. Spoon in the filling
6. Roll out the other half of the dough and place it one top.  You could also do a lattice work on top by cutting strips of the dough and lining it up on the top.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 D F for 45 to 50 mins.

P.S:
1. Sqeeze some lemon on the cut apples to keep it from being discolored
2. When baking a lot of juice tend to boil over and out of the pan messing the oven.  Keep a cookie sheet under the pan to make cleaning easier or even better avoiding spill over into the oven.
3. Close the edges using a tinfoil to avoid over burning of the sides.  Cut a long strip of tin foil just enough to cover only the edges...

Happy Thanksgiving to you from all at Collaborative Curry!

Contributor: Sunitha