Pamp-keen Pie!

So if you don't get the title of this post, let me explain...then we'll get on to the goodness!

I won a trip to Barcelona, Spain two years ago through work (people who had the highest sales goals got to go, that kind of thing). Many of you who know me know that Spain is my favorite place in the world, and I have some great friends there, Cristina and Lalis and their family. So of course I worked it out with them to meet up one day while there and have lunch. During lunch it was a crowd of me, my friend Anne (also American), my two Spanish friends, one of their boyfriends, and a German exchange student. So to sum up the languages being spoken at our table: English, Spanish, Catalan, and German. We were quite the international crowd.

During this lunch, we somehow got to talking about funny-sounding words in different languages, and all of the Spaniards at the table agreed that "Pumpkin" was the strangest word they had ever heard. So for the rest of lunch they kept saying "Pamp-keen!" with their Spanish accents and laughing like crazy. Ever since, I have never been able to say "Pumpkin" like a normal person, this way is just so much better :). As for crazy sounding Spanish words? I've always been a fan of "Habichuelas," or green beans, pronounced "ah-bee-CHWAY-lahs." Also, "albondigas" always struck me as kind of funny too (meatballs-"al-BOHN-dee-gahs").

ANYWAY! Enough rambling-I know what you're here for. You're here to unlock the secrets to a perfect pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving? That was just a test run. Now you've got some practice under your belt and you're ready to pull out the big guns! Well this pumpkin pie is the big daddy of all pumpkin pies (if I do say so myself). The fresh ginger and bourbon in it totally send it over the edge! So I now want you to listen very carefully:

• go to your freezer
• politely break it off with your Sara Lee pumpkin pie...that means YOU, Mom! (you're growing apart, your culinary skills have improved, and you need something else that will challenge you as a budding bakery goddess...or god...you get my drift)
• now throw it away, and follow this recipe...

Pumpkin Pie

Courtesy of Brock Kuhlman, of Hill's Kitchen in Washington, DC

par-baked 9” pie crust

1 T all-purpose flour

1 t cinnamon, ground

1 t salt

¼ t nutmeg, ground

2 c fresh or canned pumpkin puree, unsweetened

1 1/3 c heavy cream
3 large eggs

1/3 c brown sugar

1/3 c sugar

1 T vanilla extract

2 t finely grated peeled ginger

*for those of you who love bourbon: reduce the heavy cream to 1 cup.  Add 1/3 cup of bourbon to the filling, along with 2 tablespoons of melted butter.  You should love bourbon.

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg.

In the bowl of a mixer, whip the pumpkin, eggs, cream, sugars, vanilla, and grated ginger until smooth.  Add the dry ingredients and blend just until combined.  Fill the parbaked shell and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the middle of the custard jiggles but doesn't slosh.

Cool at least three hours before cutting.  This pie really improves after sitting overnight- the spice flavors really smooth out and become luscious. 

Butter/Shortening Pie Crust*

single crust

1 ½ c all-purpose flour

¼ t salt

5 T cold unsalted butter

3 T cold shortening

4-5 T cold water

double crust

2 c all-purpose flour

½ t salt

7 T cold unsalted butter

4 T cold shortening

5-6 T cold water

Measure out the water for the crust and then chill in the freezer.

Measure out the flour and salt into a cold bowl and whisk until well mixed.

Coat the stick of butter in the flour, and then using a bench knife or chef's knife, cut length ways into four long pieces.  Coat in flour.  Cut the long pieces into ¼” cubes (1” pieces for a food processor) and coat in flour.  Using a pastry cutter, press the tines straight down through the fat and flour mixture repeatedly until the largest pieces of fat are the size of large peas and the smallest are the size of lentils.  Don't over do it- range of fat pieces makes for a flaky pastry.  Rechill if your kitchen is warm.  (if using a food processor, pulse a few times until the fat is cut into a range of sizes as indicated above.  Do not run the processor continuously- only pulse. Transfer to a cold bowl.)

Be stingy with the water.  Add a tablespoon at a time, tossing the dough between each addition, not mixing or smearing.  Work the dough as little as possible.  Add just enough water that there is no more dry flour at the bottom of the bowl- you want all the flour to be incorporated until there are only little cobble like bits hanging together.  Add the last bit of water in drips, or flicks.  To test, pat together a tennis ball size piece of dough- if it falls apart or has big, floury cracks, you need to add a few more drops of water.  Too much dough makes a tough dough, so be judicious at this point.  If you get your dough too wet, throw it away and start over.  It can't be recovered.

For a single crust, form into a ball.  For a double crust, divide into two balls, one slightly larger than the other (the bottom crust will need to be bigger to fit the pan).  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour. 

*Working with pastry is a bit of an art, but one that can be mastered if you remember two things.  The dough has to have enough water to be cohesive, but too much water (which paradoxically makes the dough easier to work with) will make it tough.  Second, the fat always has to be cold.  Always.  Warm fat will never make a good crust.  If it seems too warm, stop and chill it a few minutes in the freezer.

Blind Baking/ Par-Baking a Pie Shell

Roll out the pastry and fill a 9” pie tin, crimping the edge.  Refrigerate for 10 minutes.  Prick the bottom of the pie shell with a fork to keep it from bubbling up, and then line the pie shell with parchement paper or aluminum foil.  Fill the pie with pie weights or kidney beans and bake as follows:

For a par-baked crust (for pumpkin pie), bake the bean/weight filled crust for 15-20 minutes at 450 F, or until the edges look blonde and slightly blistered.

For a blind baked crust (for a fresh fruit tart), bake the bean/weight filled crust as above, but then remove the weights/beans, turn the oven down to 375 F, and then bake it for ten minutes or so until the crust edges and bottom are golden brown. 

First off, let's be honest here.  I've slacked on the blog.  I used to write it on my lunch hours at work, but now I've taken to not taking lunch hours.  If you work in front of a computer screen like me, you know you don't want to even SEE a keyboard after work!  I know, excuses excuses.  So why I am I giving you this now?  Truthfully, I wrote this LAST year around this time...but I lost my recipes!  They were in a packet that got thrown away.  I just got around to asking Brock for the packet, and he was nice enough to send it to me.  Why is it a big deal that he was nice enough to send it to me?  Because he lives in THAILAND now.  Yah.  The man is awesome.  You should check out his blog here.

Me waiting around on this draft for a year and still posting also tells you something...this pie is GOOD!  Like really good.  And Brock's right, add the bourbon.  Between the bourbon and the fresh ginger and the regular pumpkin pie deliciousness, it's heavenly.  I'm thinking I might make this for Christmas in San Diego.  I'm thinking you should too, wherever you are.

Happy Holidays!  :) I promise to try and write more!  And remember...

Best. Pie. EVER.

There's just not a whole lot to say about this pie.  I saw it on (I know, I know, I tend to obsess when I find something good) Smitten Kitchen and thought, "Ooh that looks yummy.  It will be perfect for the cookout with Beth and Justin!"  Just all non-chalant like that.  Not that I didn't think it would be good...I just didn't think it would be "Oh my god I could eat this whole pie by MYSELF" good.  Yeah.  For serious.

So back to the story! We had our friends Beth and Justin and their little cutie Henry over for a barbeque.  We just made some steaks, a green bean potato salad, and some grilled veggies.  It was so nice to spend time with our friends, and the weather here in DC has been just gorgeous!  I wanted to have something cold for dessert, but didn't want to give up on a big "bang" of flavor, so I searched Smitten Kitchen's arsenal of pie recipes, and came across the recipe for Chocolate Pudding Pie. 

The first obstacle I ran into was that I had a packet of pie recipes with an EXCELLENT pie crust recipe, but I lost it!  I was so forlorn.  How would I make pie?!  Well, I decided that Deb could never do me wrong, so I used the all-butter pie crust recipe she had on the site.  OH my gosh.  I'll never go back.  So buttery, flaky, delicious.  The pudding?  I'm not sure I'll ever make it out of the box again.  And the very lightly sweetened whipped cream on top?  The perfect compliment to the rich, thick pudding.  I'm telling you.  Make this.  How good was it, you ask?  I had a piece.  I tried to pawn the rest off on Justin and Beth, but they wouldn't take it.  They left.  I had another piece.  I put it in the fridge.  I came back to it the next day.  I had another piece.  Midway through that last piece I shouted "NO MORE!! I need to throw this #@*% pie AWAY!" as I felt it's chocolatey buttery goodness settling in on my hips.  It pained me, but I knew it was for my own good.

Worry not, friends.  I have a feeling this pie will be making an appearance again soon!  We're moving in the next couple weeks to a new, and much bigger apartment.  I'm thinking there's a housewarming barbeque in our future...and I'm thinking this chocolate pudding pie will be our guest of honor!

Now on to the recipe (straight from Smitten Kitchen)!

Chocolate Pudding Pie

Adapted from Gourmet

One of my favorite things about this — besides the whole CHOCOLATE and PUDDING and PIE thing — is the way that despite its all-id, kid-like nature, this pie is surprisingly unsweet and not heavy. There’s barely a half cup of sugar in the whole she-bang and the lack of excessive richness (it’s a milk and cornstarch pudding, not a weighty egg yolk and cream custard) makes for something you can easily crave on a hot summer day, although you’ve already been warned that that craving may strike without warning.

One half-recipe of All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough, wrapped and chilled for at least 30 minutes


Pudding filling:
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao), finely chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chilled heavy cream
Bittersweet chocolate shavings for garnish (optional)
Prepare pie dough: Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 11-inch round, then fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang under and crimp edge decoratively. Prick bottom and side of shell all over with a fork, then chill shell 30 minutes. While shell chills, preheat oven to 375°F with a baking sheet on middle rack. Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights*.
Bake on baking sheet until pastry is set and edge is pale golden, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove weights and foil, then bake shell on baking sheet until pale golden all over, 15 to 20 minutes more. Cool shell.
Make pudding filling: Whisk together cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then gradually whisk [tips alert!] in milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, then boil, whisking, two minutes (mixture will thicken). Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and vanilla until smooth.

Pour filling into cooled shell and chill, its surface covered with wax paper (if you want to prevent a skin from forming), until cold, at least two hours.

Just before serving, beat cream with remaining two tablespoons sugar until it just holds soft peaks. Spoon onto pie and garnish with bittersweet chocolate shavings, if you’re feeling fancy.

Do ahead: Pie dough can be made and chilled up to two days. Pie, without whipped cream, can be chilled up to one day before serving. Whipped cream is best added at the last minute, however, I did find that ours held up surprisingly well for a day (so far), if you feel like winging it.

* Detour! This is where I admit that I for reasons both lengthy and boring, I really loathe working with pie weights and use a different technique to blind bake pie and pastry shells. Instead, I freeze my rolled-out shells for 20 to 30 minutes until solid, press a piece of buttered foil, buttered side down, very tightly against the frozen shell and blind bake it according to regular directions. When it is time to remove the weights, I carefully pull back the foil, and press any part of the crust that has bubbled up gently back with the back of a spoon and continue baking the shell. Try it!

Natalie note: I used a bag of uncooked kidney beans as my pie weights.  Works every time!!
 
Seriously guys.  Make this pie.  But don't blame me when you sit on your couch rubbing your belly and cursing it's chocolatey goodness.  It can't help that it's got Mary Poppins Syndrome!  You know...it's practically perfect in every way? Har har har!  Okay, and there's your daily dose of cheesey jokes.  Enjoy!!

But I would be proud to partake in your...

Pecan Pieeee!

Chocolate pecan pie to be exact. *gracefully receives "ooh"s and "aah"s from the peanut gallery. A-thank you, a-thank you*

Here's a little back story:

I had such a wonderful weekend. I took off work on Friday because my wonderful mom came to visit! We spent the weekend shopping, eating at awesome restaurants around DC (Seventh Hill, Co Co Sala, and Chef Geoff's to name a few), and of course made a stop at the incredible Georgetown Cupcake. We always have the best time when she's in town, and I'm always sad to see her go. So she left this morning, and I was admittedly a little mopey. What better to lift my spirits than baking?!

I started off with a pie crust recipe that I got from a cooking class at Hill's Kitchen. It's a Butter/Shortening pie crust that creates nothing short of heaven. Any other day I would post it here, but it's so involved and so tricky, that I would just recommend looking up a recipe on your own, and working through it. Pie crust seems to be a tricky beast to tame, and while it's been edible the two times I've made it, it's a serious science to figure out the consistency of the perfect crust.

Here's my step by step process for tonight's baking fun:

First: Make the dough!

Would ya look at that pretty little dough ball? Well after I let it sit in the fridge for 2 hours (it needs at least 30 minutes to chill) I rolled it out to find an extremely cracked hunk of dough. Lucky for me I had that handy-dandy glass of water there to help me. I have found, also, that this little baby makes pie dough a piece of cake...well...a piece of pie at the very least:

Meet my mean, green, dough making machine:

This little baby makes cutting butter and shortening into flour a cinch. No forks, no knives, just pulse! It's a beauty, and I doubt I'd be as adventurous about making pie if I didn't have it.

Next I followed Paula Deen's recipe for Chocolate Pecan Pie and used some adorable little mini fall cookie cutters that my mom got me this weekend from Hill's Kitchen. Seriously, if you haven't been to that store here on the Hill, it's just awesome. If you like cooking the tiniest bit, you will *love* this store! Here's what I ended up with (pre-baked):

How cute are those little leaves?! And here's what it looks like post-baked:

HA! Just kidding, I didn't eat the whole thing...just a slice. Bringing it to work tomorrow, though, because leaving it in my house is a dangerous dangerous thing!

Hope you all have a Happy Monday!