Pumpkin Everything

Well not quite Pumpkin Everything...
But Pumpkin Pie!

I made this Pumpkin Pie last autumn and basically shot from the hip. Pumpkin Pie is not popular in Sweden, and I had never been fortunate enough to have a piece of Pumpkin Pie when I've been to America so I really had no idea what I was getting myself into upon embarking on the adventure of Pumpkin Pie baking.

I didn't know what it was supposed to taste like, which texture it was supposed to have or what it should look like, but I went for it and spent the longest time I ever have on baking a pie. First of all, all the recipes call for pumpkin purée which seems to usually be bought in a tin. I scrutinised the entire town for a tin of pumpkin purée and didn't find a single one. So I had to make the purée myself, which isn't hard to do or time consuming, but I hardly knew what I was doing since I'd never done it before.

Most recipes also said to use evaporated milk, and for some reason there seemed to be a shortage just as I was making this pie, because I couldn't find it anywhere and ended up substituting the evaporated milk and sugar for sweetened condensed milk. Finally to make this bake even more challenging I decided for some reason to decorate the pie with individually hand-cut leaves made out of dough, which took me a good two-three hours or so, and halfway through I thought I'd lose my mind. They were so tiny, and I had made so many, but they hardly even showed on the pie!

So when the pie came out of the oven looking alright and we ate it, I couldn't have been more proud of myself. To this day it's probably one of the bakes I'm most proud of. People will probably laugh at me if I confess of what a trial it was to make a simple Pumpkin Pie - but so it may be! I'm just happy I persevered.

Pumpkin Pie

Pie Crust

INGREDIENTS

• 260 grams of flour 
• 110 grams butter
• 1-2 tablespoons water

DIRECTIONS

Mix the flour and butter either with hand or a mixer with a paddle attachment until you get a sand-like consistency. Add 1 tablespoon cold water and mix until you have a firm dough. If you need to add the other tablespoon water to get the dough nice and smooth. Wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest for an hour.

Roll out on a floured surface and line pie tin with the dough. Trim the edges and leave to rest in the fridge. Do not pre-bake the crust.

Pie Filling

INGREDIENTS

• 1 egg
• 425 grams of pumpkin purée (one tin apparently)
• 397 grams (one tin) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon flour

DIRECTIONS

Mix everything together in a bowl and pour into the pie crust. Bake at 170°C for 30 to 40 minutes or until the filling has set.

If you're making dough decorations, add them to the pie after baking it for 30 minutes, brush dough decorations with milk and bake for another 10 minutes.

Leave the pie to cool completely, and serve with whipped cream.