Pumpkin Pie

It's been about two months now since we joined a friends CSA program for his small farm.  It has been really opening up my creativity in the kitchen, challenging to cook with ingredients I might not normally pick out.  The last two weeks I have been delivered butternut squash, and last week I got a sugar pumpkin.  When I was a kid my mom would bake butternut squash and eat it out of the shell with some butter.  I hated the vegetable and she wouldn't force it upon me and just split the lovely gourd with my father.  I have tried baking them, as my mother would do, but they always seem to turn out a bit hard and dry and cooking them seems to take forever.  So when searching on the internet for recipes on making pumpkin pie from scratch and not from canned pumpkin pie filling, I stumbled upon this informative Pumpkin Pie Recipe that explained several different ways to cook pumpkin, one of which was steaming.  So I thought I'd give that technique a try.  I also read on that website that most canned pumpkin products are made of butternut squash and not pumpkin, so I went ahead and cooked one of each and decided to use a combination of the two.  

The first step to prepare my pumpkin and butternut squash was to slice them open with a serrated knife and scrape out the seeds and stringing fascia that coats the meat of the vegetable.  I separated that pulpy goop from the seeds and fed it to my happy chickens and soaked the seeds in some water to further rinse them.  Later I rinsed those seeds off, salted them and roasted them for about 10 minutes at 350.  I sliced the squash and pumpkin up into smaller chunks and steamed each separately for thirty minutes.  I was really happy with how they turned out, moist, well cooked, and not taking too much time!

My jungle fowl, Penny, snacking on some pumpkin scraps.

Butternut Squash cleaned and cut up and into the steamer for 30 minutes.

When finished cooking I allowed the squash to cool and then I removed the skin.  Next I mashed up the flesh with a heavy duty whisk.  You could use a hand mixer or blender instead.  I could see why butternut squash is used in canned pie filling instead of actual pumpkin.  It created a much smoother pulp with a more vibrant orange color.

Removing the skin from the pumpkin, let it cool first!

Mashing up the pumpkin with a heavy duty whisk.

Left: Butternut Squash, Right: Pumpkin

Once I finished my two squash pulps I got started on my pie crusts.  Pie crusts are made of pastry dough with is a rich but simple combination of mainly flour and butter.  Here is a recipe for Pastry Dough from Martha Stewart that I consulted.  I start by dicing up butter into little pieces and then place that chopped butter into the freezer for a few minutes to make it firm.  I used about:

1 2/3 stick of butter

2 cups flour, I sifted my flour for smooth consistency

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of sugar

Once the butter is firm begin to work the pieces through the flour mixture, flattening and crumbling the butter and flour together.  You are looking for a bread crumb consistency.  Once you reach that add in 3-5 tablespoons of cold water, working the dough with your hands until a smooth even texture is reached but don't over mix.  Separate the dough in two pieces, form into round disks and wrap in saran wrap.  Let rest for thirty minutes.  If you won't use it all you can refrigerate and use in the next week or freeze and use in the next few months.  Just defrost or remove from the fridge and allow some time to soften before working the dough.  From this batch of dough I made four pies, two open topped pumpkin pies and two covered chicken pies.  

Once the pie crusts are ready, it's time to mix the filling I made a variation on the recipe listed at the top of this post.  I whisked together:

2 cup pumpkin pulp
1 cup butternut squash pulp
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 eggs
12 ounces whipped coconut milk

And then I poured it into my pie crusts.  I made two small pies.  I baked them for 15 minutes at 400 and 30 minutes at 325.  We ate the pie with vanilla ice cream.  Delicious!  I made the two pies I second time the next week (because my farmer kept delivering pumpkins!).  I skipped mashing the pumpkin up into a pulp and instead I just placed the skinned pumpkin chunks in the blender with all of the other ingredients for the filling and gave it a whirl!  So easy!

Here's the roasted pumpkin seeds, I snacked on them as I finished the pie.