Apologies for the delay in wrapping up Thanksgiving Week here.  I managed to catch a killer cold from my Wife and I’ve spent the last couple days convalescing with my “Man-Cold”.

I was going to tackle the turkey to wrap up the week, but in all honesty, that wasn’t my purview with our dinner, so I’ll leave you with this.  Break out the olive oil and rub down the bird.  Don’t go crazy with the seasoning.  Salt and pepper will work just fine.  Cut up some slices of butter and pull the skin up from the bird and place those dollops of butter underneath.  That’s about it really.  Bake as per the directions on the bird itself, you’ll want to make an aluminum foil tent over the bird for about 2/3rd of your cooking time.  And that’s all the advice I can give on that front besides this: don’t try to eat the whole bird in one sitting.  I learned my lesson the hard way this year.  😦

Okay, with that said, let’s break down the big finish of Thanksgiving Week on the blog, and why not wrap it up with the big finish to dinner itself?  Pumpkin Pie!  I actually made this up the afternoon before our big feed.  It holds well in the refrigerator.  All you’ll really need to do on the big day is whip up some whipped cream (don’t you even DARE think about using pre-fab cream in a can!).  Okay, fine, do what you do.  There’s no judgement here.

First up is the crust.  If you’re ever doing a standard fruit pie, you’ll want to do a blind bake on this.  As pumpkin pie has a much longer bake time than most, you can just whack it all into the oven at the same time if you like.

Basic Pie Crust

This should make enough for a 10″ pie crust. If you want to put a lid on your pie, just double the recipe.

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (very cold)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 to 4 (if not more) tbsp ice water

Put some water and ice cubes in a cup.

Mix flour, salt and sugar.  Cut the butter into 1/2 inch cube and then combine with a pastry cutter, fork or two knives until the flour/butter mixture is crumbly.  Don’t overwork it too much, you don’t want the butter to melt.

Slowly add water until dough forms a ball.  Don’t get it too wet.  Knead once or twice on a floured surface, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour until ready to use.

After an hour, on floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8″ thick.  Fit into pie plate and trim off excess with knife.  Back in the fridge it goes for 30 minutes.

Take a fork and prick the bottom of the pie a bit.  You’ll want a fair number of little holes scattered across the dough (stops the pie from rising or bubbling away from the bottom of the plate).

Okay.  As we’re making pumpkin pie,  I’ll cut that recipe short as you won’t do any of the blind baking that’s required for that one.  Instead, we now default to the pumpkin pie recipe.

Point of note: I’m not a big pumpkin pie fan.  There aren’t many I have ever come across that I’ve enjoyed, but THIS one I like.  It’s going to feel pretty soupy when you’re making it, but it WILL thicken up just nicely in the oven.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

This will very nicely fill a 10″ pie

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 12 fl oz can of evaporated milk (350ml for us Canadians)
• 1 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp of pumpkin puree
• 1 tbsp flour

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs lightly.  Stir in the pumpkin puree and the dry ingredients from the small bowl.

Gradually stir in the evaporated milk.

Pour into your unbaked pie shell.  This will be a very runny soup at the moment, that’s fine.

Cover the pie with foil and bake at 425 for 15 minutes.  Remove the foil and reduce heat to 350 degrees, you’ll want to bake for another 40-50 minutes or until you can stick a knife in the centre and have it come out clean.

If you’re baking this on the big day, cool for a couple minutes, add your whipped cream and enjoy!  Otherwise, cool on a rack for a good hour or more, then put some plastic wrap up against the filling and chuck it all into the fridge overnight.

I don’t think I rolled my dough thin enough when I was making it as it didn’t give me enough excess to really get a crust up and over the edge of the pie plate.  My dough was also pretty crumbly.  In the ‘add water’ phase, the 3 to 4 tbsp is a suggestion.  It will really depend on the humidity where you are.  I put in 5 tbsp and should have done a bit more I think to really give me a solid dough to work with.  It felt dry to me, I really should have trusted my instincts on that front.  That said, it all worked out and tasted great, so that’s just me being self-critical and learning for next time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-g