Pumpkin pie revisited

Pumpkin pacman

Hubby had his wish fulfilled today, a filled to the brim sort of pumpkin pie.  To satisfy his pumpkin urge, there was medium sized and personal sized pies - all for him. Now what he needs is a good jog to work off those yummy calories.

Makes 2 medium pies.

Pumpkin filling :

2 cups fresh pumpkin puree, cooled

120 ml cooking cream

110g light brown sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t salt

3 small eggs

Method :

Use a manual whisk to combine all of the above, one item at a time, in a single direction. Do not aerate and introduce bubbles.

Chill until ready to use.

Pie base , pate sucre :

260g plain flour

1/4 t salt

1TBSP  fine sugar  (2 TBSP if a sweeter pastry is preferred )

180g cold ,near frozen butter, small cubes

3-4 T ice water

1/4 tsp cider vinegar

Almond padding :

20g x 2 almond meal

Logistics :

7 inch tray x 2

4 big pieces of parchment

Method :

Grease and flour two 7-inch pie trays. Tap off excess flour. Chill in the freezer until ready to use.

In a food processor, blend pastry ( dry ) ingredients. Pulse butter cubes until big, uneven lumps appear.

Add ice water, 1 TBSP at a time, and pulse. Stop when the dough  gathers to  make big clumps. I used 3.5 TBSP of ice water.

Lastly, add vinegar and pulse. Vinegar prevents further gluten formation and helps the pastry to be flaky.

Divide dough to 2 portions.  While working on one portion, chill the other.

For each portion, transfer pastry to a big parchment paper. Cover with another parchment.

Use a rolling pin and roll out the pastry, 9-10 inches in diameter. Repeat for the other pastry.

Chill the rolled out pastry, 30 minutes or more.

Transfer and line frozen ( greased, floured ) pastry tray with chilled pastry.

Cut out excess dough from the edge of pastry tray.

Water proof the 2 trays with almond meal evenly.

Freeze tray with pastry, 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 190C.

Fill  frozen pastry lined tray with the chilled pumpkin filling.

Bake immediately at 190C for 40-45 minutes for each pie.

Pie is ready when its center is barely jiggly. It continues to cook when taken out of the oven. Do not over bake or else the filling pulls in and cracks will form.