Butternut Squash > Pumpkin.

As you might recall, my last attempt at pumpkin pie wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't a resounding success, either.  The crust was a bit chewy, the filling rather bland, and the texture just a bit off. Determined to do a better job, I scoured the internet for other recipes, and finally decided to heck with it; I'll make my own.  I've been too nervous to do more than make a minor change or two to already well-established recipes.  The crust recipe wasn't my own; I made the Perfect Pie Crust from The Pioneer Woman (whose recipes are always awesome).   OK, so I did use lard instead of shortening and brushed the crust with egg and sprinkled it with sugar before baking.  If you're wary of the additives in shortening and/or aren't vegan/vegetarian, I don't think the end product turned out much different. The crusts turned out nice and golden and flaky even after spending a week and a half in the freezer.

√-1 2³ Σ π.

Yum.

Instead of "what I did wrong" here, because I went over that in my last post, I'll take you through how I went about making up this version. The recipe I originally used called for two eggs and a can of evaporated milk. Looking at other recipes, this seems like a fairly common addition.  Thinking about it, I knew that pumpkin pie sets in the oven almost like a cheesecake, even though the texture is different throughout the baking process. It puffs up around the edges and should still be slightly wobbly in the middle when ready to take out of the oven. To make a fluffier pie, then, why not add more egg and maybe a bit less milk?  To add richness with less milk, I decided to use heavy cream.  Yes, it has more fat and calories than evaporated milk.  But this is pie, not salad.

I also knew I wanted to try using butternut squash instead of pumpkin, because a) you can get a lot more puree out of one squash than you can one pumpkin, b) the flavor is supposed to be richer, and c) I was just curious.  See the bottom of the post for puree instructions.*  I decided to use brown sugar instead of granulated white sugar and just a little rum for more depth to the flavor.  The spices I used were fairly typical pumpkin pie spices, although I added more of the ones I liked and less of the ones that, like nutmeg, can overpower the others (too much nutmeg in particular can add a soapy flavor to foods).  

So on to the recipe:

3 eggs

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp packed light brown sugar 

1 cup heavy cream

Almost 2 cups butternut squash puree (technically 15 oz)

1 tbsp rum

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/8 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp salt

Pinch nutmeg

I doubled this recipe to make two pies, so in the following pictures, if it looks like a lot of filling, that's because it is!

The salt and vanilla were too large to fit in the original picture.

(Oh, all right.  I forgot to include them.  And the ginger must have sneaked behind its friends.)

I started off by beating the eggs.  Not until fluffy or expanded, just until the whites and yolks were thoroughly whisked together.

Then I blended in the brown sugar, making sure to break up any lumps, before whisking in the cream. Don't beat too vigorously; the goal is to make sure everything is evenly distributed, not to whip the cream.

Then I mixed in the squash puree.

Finally, I stirred in the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, salt and nutmeg before adding the rum and vanilla.

Here, if you can, I'd pour the filling into a measuring cup with a spout so that it can be easily poured directly into a par-baked crust in the oven (or an unbaked crust; your preference.  It also depends on the crust recipe. Most will give a recommendation.).   This makes it much easier, so you're not precariously using oven-mitted** hands to carry a hot pie pan filled with liquid back to the oven. I preheated the oven to 350°F, put the crust in for 10 minutes, then added the filling

I baked the pie for about an hour, until a knife inserted about 2" from the edge came out clean and the center wobbled just a bit but looked solid. Unless you don't mind gooey pie slices that don't hold their shape (and sometimes, it's worth it just to taste something right out of the oven), you will likely need to wait anywhere from 15-30 minutes before cutting into it, just to let it firm up.

Because I made two pies and used two separate ovens, one baked faster than the other.

It didn't magically change pie plates!

I like to eat my pie slightly warm with whipped cream and a little extra cinnamon. Pumpkin (well, squash!) pie is usually best served either warm or at room temperature.  If you like it cold, though, go for it!

DEEMS THIS RECIPE:

... easy as pie.  

*To make butternut squash puree:
Cut the stem off the squash and cut it in half lengthwise.  Scoop out seeds and stringy pulp.  Sprinkle lightly with salt and place on a baking sheet with sides, pouring ~1/3 cup water around it.  Bake at 350°F for ~45 minutes until fork-tender.  Once out of the oven, let cool until you can easily handle it, then remove the skin.  The skin should almost fall off on its own.  Cut into chunks and place in a blender/food processor, add two tablespoons of butter--you can soften the butter if the squash has gotten too cool to melt it on its own--and blend until pureed.  Puree can be used immediately or frozen for 9-12 months (the flavor will not be as intense after 5-6, but it will still be good).  Note that refreezing any food is never recommended; freeze in batches if you know you'll need only a bit at a time.

**This is not a word.  But it should be.

Banana Pudding in a Pie.

For a Father's Day dinner, I decided to make a banana cream pie.  I found this recipe and used it for the filling.  Instead of using a pastry crust, I used a vanilla wafer crust.   It didn't come out in nice, even slices, because the crust, even when I greased the pie plate, stuck to the bottom and crumbled when I tried to slice it.  But this was not a problem, because it tasted very good.  Just like banana pudding, in fact.  So you can always put this in a trifle dish or other serving dish and serve it as a pudding instead of a pie.

I did make a few changes to the original recipe:
1) Used ~45 vanilla wafers, 1/4 cup of softened butter, and 1 tbsp sugar for the crust instead of a pastry crust.
2) Added 1 1/2 tbsp banana liqueur to the filling with the butter and vanilla.
3) Didn't bake the pie.  I've never seen another baked cream pie (besides baking the crust).  The texture is just right as is, as long as you cook the filling long enough on the stove top.

For the crust, I combined the wafers, softened butter, and sugar in a food processor, pulsed until well combined, pressed the mixture into a pie plate, and baked at 350°F for 10 minutes.

I set aside the crust to cool and put it in the fridge after that.  Using a completely cooled crust helps the filling set once it has been poured in.  I then chopped two bananas, tossed them with a sprinkling of lemon juice so that the acidity would counteract the browning, and covered them and set them aside.  

Then I put the dry ingredients in a saucepan and added the milk over medium heat, stirring and cooking until the mixture was bubbly.  You should notice a change in the appearance right before it boils--it will look almost like a shiny film at the top of the mixture--and then it will rapidly start thickening.  Some reviews said that the mixture didn't thicken properly; if using flour, this process does take a few more minutes than it does using cornstarch, 3 tbsp of which is a viable substitute.*

I tried to catch the mixture at the beginning and just before it boiled.

It might be hard to see the difference here.

Sometimes I think I need an extra pair of hands.

I tempered the eggs, ladling a little of the bubbling mixture into the eggs and stirring before pouring the yolks into the saucepan off the heat.  This raises the temperature of the yolks gradually and prevents scrambled eggs.

Pay no attention to the socked feet in front of the counter.

I placed it all back on the burner for about a minute, then took it off the heat to add the butter, vanilla, and liqueur, stirring until smooth.  Then I lined the crust with the banana slices and poured the filling on top of them.  I then placed the pie in the fridge.  It took about two hours to set completely.

Finally, I used the same whipped cream recipe I used for the French silk pie as a topping and sliced another banana on top.  

And then it was ready to serve! I would suggest using a large serving spoon instead of a pie server or spatula, though.  It really does come out like pudding...

DEEMS THIS RECIPE

As easy as very easy pie.  I mean pudding. I mean pie.

*I used flour, and it really did work, so I wouldn't panic if you don't keep cornstarch around!

Scrambling to Make a Pie.

Reading through a Bitchin' Kitchen cookbook, one recipe caught my eye right away: Dark Chocolate and Caramelized Banana Pie.  I thought, It has chocolate.  It has bananas.  I must make it.

That was before I realized that the recipe was vegan.  I have nothing against tofu on principle, but I'm not able to make my taste buds overrule my brain's insistence that I am, in fact, eating soybean curd.  It's like how some people can't bring themselves to eat calamari.  So I followed the recipe with two changes: I used unsalted butter in place of the cocoa butter* for the crust and substituted cream cheese for the tofu.  It turned out OK, more like a no-bake cheesecake ("No!  Really?").  The crust was a bit greasy and the bananas a little soggy.  I also decided that the bananas would have worked much better with a more "pie-like" filling.  Determined to make a better version, I looked up French silk pie recipes, and found this one.  I chose it because not only does it have good reviews; unlike most French silk pie recipes, it doesn't contain raw eggs.

Ah, the eggs.  I've made a custard before, so I should have known better.  I really should have.  But the dog wanted inside and my phone battery was alerting me of its untimely death, so I left the eggs and sugar on the stove top (It'll just be a moment!). When I came back, I noticed a very distinctive smell.

It smelled like breakfast.

  

Those white bits are never a good sign.

What I did wrong with both the original pie and then the new pie:
1) Put too much butter in the crust.
2) Didn't put the bananas on paper towels out of the oven, so the melted sugar made the pie soggy.
3) Stopped stirring and walked away from eggs on the stove top, resulting in scrambled eggs.

I did start out with the original crust recipe, still using unsalted butter in place of the cocoa butter.  I doubled the recipe as well, because I used a 9" pie pan instead of a 7" mold.

I used just enough of the melted butter to make the ingredients stick lightly together. Even so, there still seemed to be too much, so I pressed it into the pan using a paper towel.

Like shortbread crusts, this one has a tendency to puff up in the oven.  So once it was slightly cooled, I ran the back of a spoon over it.  

Finished crust.

I also doubled the filling recipe, which gave me enough for about 1 1/2 pies.**  The first thing I did was make the whipped cream and set it aside.  Using cold heavy cream and a chilled bowl and whisk will make your cream whip faster.*** Some people use a bowl inside another bowl containing ice water, but I just put my bowl and whisk in the freezer for a couple minutes and then wipe off any condensation.

Whipping to "stiff peaks" means that you can lift the whisk,
and the cream will form a peak at the top

which won't fall to one side or the other (that would be "soft peaks").

I creamed the butter after that, so that it would be ready to pour the chocolate mixture into it.  Next, I cooked the eggs and sugar on the lowest heat setting on the stove top.  Remember to stir continuously to prevent any accidental omelettes!  I used a candy/deep-fry thermometer to reach 160°F, but as the recipe says, you can also see if it coats the back of a metal spoon to see if it's done.  Then I added the chocolate off the heat and after cooling, and that was all beaten together with the butter.

I didn't realize that the bowl reflected so much light from that angle.

When incorporating ingredients like egg whites or whipped cream, you're aiming for a light, fluffy texture, so you don't want to beat or stir vigorously.  Carefully fold in the whipped cream until no white streaks remain.

The filling should be about the texture of pudding. Then just pour it into the pie crust and chill in the fridge.

On to the caramelized bananas.  If you watch the video that goes along with the recipe, Nadia doesn't bake the bananas; she broils them.  I think this is a more efficient way to caramelize the sugar, so I chopped 2 small bananas (I didn't want to cover the whole pie), dipped each side in the raw sugar, shook off the excess, and placed them under the broiler on a baking sheet for about 3 minutes.  You'll see the sugar start to melt and bubble.  Take the bananas out when the tops are lightly brown.

I put the bananas onto a paper towel to get rid of excess moisture; they'll still be shiny and sticky.  Then I made more whipped cream (I made it with a cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon of granulated sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla and a tablespoon of rum****, so enough to have about half left over), spread that on the chilled pie, topped with bananas, et voilà:

You can, of course, top the pie with as much whipped cream and as many or as few bananas as you like.  After putting my desired amount on, I had extras.  So I ate them.  And they were good.

DEEMS THIS RECIPE: 
Easy enough... 
for pie, that is.

*I don't live close to a place that sells cocoa butter for baking purposes, otherwise I would have used that.  For some recipes calling for cocoa butter, you can substitute white chocolate and reduce some of the sugar.  You'd have to check the ingredients on the white chocolate first, because cheaper, generic brands might not be made with cocoa butter.

**Chocolate "mousse" shots with leftover pie filling, possibly?

***Basic explanation here.  

****Because why not?  And see (**).