Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin Pie

Baking is one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon, especially if there are bowls and spoons around covered in delicious cake mix. At this time of year, pumpkins and squashes are a common ingredient in both sweet and savoury recipes, but I realised recently that I have never made - nor eaten - a pumpkin pie, that all-American traditional dessert that seems to be so popular over there, but not really a thing over here? Determined to give anything edible a chance, I thought I’d experiment with my own version of a pumpkin pie. Firstly, I tried to reduce the sugar content as much as possible because I always find American recipes a little too sweet. I’ve also swapped pumpkins for any kind of squash, because they all taste lovely and have a similar enough texture to make the recipe work. Plus there’s always an abandoned butternut squash lying in the bottom of the vegetable drawer at this time of year, needing a bit of purpose…

Ingredients

750g pumpkin or other autumn squashes
350-375g savoury shortcrust pastry (ready rolled is easiest!)
140g caster sugar
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Three crunches of black pepper from a grinder
1 pinch of sea salt
2 eggs, beaten
100ml double cream
75ml whole milk

Method

1. Peel, de-seed and chop the squash into 1-2 inch chunks. Place them in a saucepan of water and boil for 15 minutes, until soft and mushy. Drain as much of the water away as possible (I used a spoon to squeeze them inside a colander), then leave to cool for a few minutes. When they have cooled, you can either pulp them up by hand, or use a blender or Nutri Bullet-type device to pulp them into a smooth puree.
2. Roll the pastry out flat and use it to line a 22cm pie dish or cake tin. Trim away any excess and use it to fill in any cracks, thicken up the crust, or put it to one side to make a decorative shape for the top.
3. Fill the pastry with a layer of greaseproof paper, then pour in a tub of baking beans, if you have them. These help make the pie crust more crispy, but if you’re not fussed about that, you can skip this step. Place the pastry in the oven at around 180°C and bake for around 20 minutes (keep an eye that it doesn’t burn if you’re not using the baking beans). Remove from the oven and place to one side.
4. Combine the sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and salt in a separate bowl, then add the eggs, cream, milk and pumpkin/squash, stirring well to mix into a smoothish batter.
5. Pour the batter into the pie crust and place in the oven for around 30 minutes, checking regularly to make sure the pastry doesn’t burn. If it does, cover the top with foil or baking paper. When baked, the consistency should set like an egg custard tart.
6. Leave to cool or eat slightly warm, topped with an extra dollop of double cream.