On Thanksgiving, I did most of the cooking and my sis-in-law brought desserts. It’s her turn to cook the main meal on Christmas Eve, and so I will bring the desserts. (We trade off.)
Anyway, she brought two pies from our favorite pie place in Seattle: A la Mode Pies. There was a Holiday Pumpkin Pie and a spiced Apple-Pear Pie. I was SO full from the turkey meal, so I really didn’t have any wiggle room for cramming in pie that night. My mom loathes it when we leave them with all the leftovers haha, so I took quite a bit home, so that I could experiment making a Thanksgiving Turkey Pot Pie the next day with all of the leftovers.
As I was dishing myself up some leftovers, I looked at the pies, and the Apple-Pear pie looked kind of watery (not my fave; I hate soggy pastries). So that left Pumpkin Pie. But man, was it UGLY. I’m not kidding. It was just this medium-dark brown with a dark crust, and barely a dollop of cream on top. Even though I knew it was from A la Mode Pie, and there’s no way they would sell a bad pie, it was seriously the ugliest pumpkin pie I’d ever seen. But, despite that, I took a small slice home. A day or two later, I finally noticed it in the fridge and thought I’d better not waste it, and so I ate it.
Without one ounce of hyperbole, it was the best pumpkin pie I’ve eaten. And I am not even a fan of pumpkin pie. I mean, I like it but I don’t love it. I won’t go out of my way to get or make it. This one completely surprised me, though. It had crunchies. Let me detail it out for you.
It had a graham/ginger crust, a very rich pumpkin filling, a crème brûleé top, with chopped pumpkin-seed brittle strewn on top. I immediately went to their web site to see if I could order one, but it was sold out after Thanksgiving. Not only that, but they switch up their Holiday Pumpkin Pie slightly each year, so it would be different next year. So I was BEREFT, that I was never going to experience this pie again!
While on their website, I saw that they do pie baking classes. On a whim, I looked to see if they listed which pies the students make in the class. Well, one of the classes remaining this year listed the Holiday Pumpkin Pie as one of the pies you make in the class. Well, it was an absolute no-brainer to slap down $125 to go to this class to learn how to make it. I even skipped my beloved Taco Tuesday family dinner night in order to go.
I am happy to say that I now have the recipe IN MY HANDS of the ugliest, best pumpkin pie. And now I will share it with you. One part I had to improvise as the recipe was for a slightly different version (their last-year’s pie recipe); and another part I tweaked (using ginger snap crust instead of a graham cracker crust). I also do the burnt sugar differently on top because when I did it their way, it never did turn crunchy and basically just burnt. So, I didn’t get a perfect recipe, but I’ve narrowed it down to the perfect elements, with the perfect flavor profile. A spicy ginger custard with a caramel overtone and a toffee-like crunch.
The process goes like this:
- Make the brittle topping.
- Prepare and par-bake the crust.
- Prepare the pie filling and pour it into crust.
- Bake the pie.
- Let the pie cool completely.
- Add a crunchy sugar (brûleé-style) topping.
- Garnish with whipped cream and brittle pieces.
Implements
- Candy thermometer
- A rimmed, nonstick baking sheet
- Spatula
- Large saucepan
- Mixer (hand-held or stand)
- 9″ standard pie plate (use a metal one, if you are using the broil method for the brûleé top, instead of a kitchen torch)
- Chopper or food processor
- Measuring cups
- Aluminum foil (with pie weights, or dried beans)
- Kitchen torch for brûleé (burnt cream) top (if you don’t have one, you can use your broiler, but only if you are using a metal pie plate; ceramic or glass shouldn’t be placed under a broiler)
Brittle Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup roasted, dried, or raw nuts (I used raw, hulled pumpkin seeds called pepitas)
- Fleur de sel (I used Maldon sea salt)
Crust Ingredients
- 2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
- 2 Tbsp (26g) brown sugar, packed
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp ground or grated nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 cup (113g or 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Pie Filling Ingredients
- 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
- 3/4 C (96g) brown sugar, packed
- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (if you only have artificial vanilla, that will still work)
Burnt Sugar Crust ingredient
- 1.5 cups raw (turbinado) sugar
Instructions
A day before you make the pie, begin by making the brittle.
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, water, and corn syrup. Bring this mixture to a boil and continue to cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. It is done when the mixture is a light brown caramel color, and a candy thermometer reads 300F. This will be roughly 10 minutes or so.
Remove from the candy mixture from the heat and stir in the baking soda, which will cause the mixture to bubble. Stir in the nuts and then immediately dump the brittle onto a large rimmed, nonstick baking sheet. Using an oiled spatula (the oil will keep it from sticking), spread out the brittle mixture into a very thin, even layer. Sprinkle with sea salt and then let cool completely, about one hour. Once it is cool, break into shards, put in a chopper or food processor, and pulse a few times. They should be little nutty toffee-like brittle bits. You can make this up to a few days ahead.
When you’re ready to start on the pie, preheat your oven to 350F.
Finely pulse the ginger snap cookies in a chopper or food processor. Measure out 2 cups of cookie crumbs and add that much back to the food processor. Add the remaining ingredients (including the butter) to the chopped cookies and pulse a few more times. The coarse cookie crumbs should feel almost like wet sand.
Place the cookie crumb mixture into an ungreased, standard-size (9″) pie plate. Pat it down using your fingers, around the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate, to create that crumb crust. Now put a layer of aluminum foil over the pie crust (up over the sides too; none of the crust should be showing) and fill the foil in the pie plate with uncooked, raw beans to weigh it down. Par-bake the pie crust for 8 minutes at 350F and while that is baking, you can get to work on the filling. When the 8 minutes is over, remove from oven, remove the foil and beans, and let cool.
Using a mixer and a large bowl, mix all of the pie filling ingredients together until smooth. Pour the mixture into the cooled pie crust. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F. then turn the heat down to 325F, cover the pie with foil (to keep it from getting too brown) and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 3 hours or until it’s cooled and set.
Add a thick layer of raw (turbinado) sugar on top of the pie filling and then torch it using until the sugar has melted, bubbled up, and browned. If you don’t have a kitchen torch, and if you are using a metal pie plate, then you can place the pie under a broiler for 5-7 minutes. Cool until the brûleé crust is hard and set, just a couple of minutes.
Serve with whipped cream and the chopped pepita brittle.
Enjoy!
That Infernal Itch 