Prize-Winning Pumpkin Ginger Pie

Ginger and pumpkin are a winning combo. So much so that I won the pumpkin pie contest at Wednesday's Woodstock Farm Festival with this here pie! Actually, I tied for first with a woman named Nancy - here's a photo of our big moment -- I'm on the left with my eyes closed, oh well...

When I began plotting my path to victory, I knew two things -- I wanted to use fresh pumpkin rather than canned and I wanted to highlight the warm, spicy flavor of ginger. As a result, the recipe below is a Frankenstein made up of bits and pieces that I liked the sound of -- Faith Durand's ginger pumpkin pie, the crust from this pie, and Simply Recipes' old-fashioned pumpkin pie.

The pumpkin part turned out to be easy. Our younger son had a field trip to Kelder's Farm last week and the first stop on the hayride was a field where each child was invited to pick one pumpkin. The vines were a bit too prickly for my son's taste so I yanked the pumpkin from its vine in the dusty field while the sun shone down from the bright blue sky -- it made a marvelously satisfying cracking noise.

A few days later, I cut the pumpkin in half and scooped out the seeds and guts -- I saved my seeds to roast -- they make a great, healthy snack.

I placed the halves cut-side-down on a baking sheet and roasted them for almost an hour at 350 degrees, until I could easily pierce them with a fork.

Once they'd cooled down enough to handle, I scooped the flesh out with a spoon. Boom! Done! Not quite as easy as buying a can of pumpkin puree but a heck of a lot tastier, plus we got to eat the seeds.

As for the ginger, I used it three ways just like the Chopped contestants do when they want to impress the judges...

I used a bag of organic ginger snaps to amp up the gingery flavor of the crust.

I also chopped up some crystallized ginger to add to the cookie crumbs for the crust.

And, last but not least, I added a healthy dose of shredded, fresh ginger root to the pumpkin custard filling.

The crust was very easy. I pulsed the cookie crumbs and ginger with a little sugar, then added plenty of melted butter and mixed it all together with my hands. Then I patted it into the pie pan and put it in the oven for a short while to pre-bake while I got the filling together.

Other than the fresh ginger, the ingredients I used in the filling were fairly standard -- organic heavy cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest, salt, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. I don't think this photo sells it very well... If you want your final, cooked pie filling to look more orange, use white sugar instead of brown.

Then I poured the custard filling into the pre-baked crust and put it in the oven for a long bake at 375 until the center was set, covering the crust partway through as it was getting pretty dark. I love the way it "cracked".

A warm, rich, spiced custard in a delightfully gingery cookie crumb crust that won the Woodstock Farm Festival pumpkin pie contest! Serve with fresh whipped cream sweetened with a jot of maple syrup.

Hope you enjoy it!

-- print recipe --Ginger Pumpkin Pie with Graham Cracker Crust
Makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients

For the crust:
* 1 1/4 cups finely ground gingersnap cookie crumbs (about 25 cookies)
* 2 Tbsps sugar
* 3 Tbsps finely minced crystallized ginger
* 6 Tbsps unsalted organic butter, melted

For the filling:
* 1 3/4 cups (or 1 can) pumpkin puree
* 2 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk
* 1 1/2 cups organic heavy cream
* 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
* 3 Tbsps grated fresh ginger
* 1/2 tsp lemon zest
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
* 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

1. Make the crust: preheat the oven to 350°F. Pulse the gingersnap cookie crumbs, sugar and ginger several times then add the melted butter and stir until the mixture is eventy moistened (I used my fingers.) Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish and press the buttery crumbs firmly and evenly into the bottom and up the sides to the top of the dish. Bake the crust until firm and slightly darker in color, about 8 minutes. Remove and let cool.

2. While the crust is baking, turn the oven up to 375°F and then make the filling: whisk the pumpkin puree with the eggs, egg yolk, and brown sugar. Grate the ginger using a Microplane or fine grater - you don't want any of the fibrous stringy bits to remain. Add the grated ginger, spices, lemon zest and cream to the pumpkin mixture and whisk well to combine.

3. Pour the mixture into the graham cracker crust and bake for about 50 minutes or until the filling is just set - it will continue to set a bit more after it comes out of the oven. After about half an hour, check the pie, rotate it and tent with foil if the edges of the crust seem to be browning too quickly.

4. Remove to a rack and let cool. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

You might also like:

Roasted Butternut Squash Pie

Maggie's Maple Chocolate Pecan Pie

Old-Fashioned Cnnamon Apple Pie

Roasted Butternut Squash Pie

Last Wednesday was bittersweet. Not only was it our final CSA pick-up of the year, it was also the last Woodstock Farm Festival of the season. The weather was fittingly depressing - cold and gray with strong gusts of wind and needle-like rain. The tents at the farmer's market threatened to blow away a number of times.

At the market, I stocked up on essentials - carrots, onions and apples. Also, Twisted Jeanne's delicious pretzel croissants and the world's best apple cider doughnuts from Wrights Farm... The haul from our CSA included a dozen pasture-raised eggs, a bag of potatoes, a bag of sweet potatoes (though we're pretty well set in that area), two heads of beautiful broccoli, some lovely leeks, green lettuce, garlic and two butternut squash. I could barely see the kitchen countertops after unpacking it all...

Given my gray mood and the chilly weather, I decided to roast the butternut squash and turn them into a sweet, hearty pie. Why should pumpkins get all the glory, after all?

I could have steamed the squash but I love the way roasting deepens its flavor and enhances its natural sweetness. While they were roasting, I turned my attention to making the dough for the pie crust. Through some miracle, all you need is flour, fat (butter, in my case) and water. You can use a pastry cutter or a food processor to combine it but, either way, try to touch it as little as possible as you're getting it to clump together and then again when you're rolling it out in order to prevent it from getting tough. I wrapped my dough (hurray for an extra one in the freezer!) in waxed paper and let it rest for half an hour in the fridge before rolling it out and laying it in the pie plate.

Then I tucked the edges under and crimped them with the tines of a fork. I also poked the bottom of the crust with the fork to keep it from ballooning up when I blind baked it. If you're not familiar with the term, blind baking means baking the crust for a time before you add the pie filling and can be helpful when you're using a more liquid filling.

While the crust was blind-baking, I prepared the pie filling by blending two cups of the roasted squash flesh with pasture-raised eggs from our CSA (our last dozen until next spring, sniff), sugar, spices, vanilla extract and roughly half a can of organic coconut milk.

Puree it all then pour the mixture into the warm pie crust and into the waiting oven.

Bake until the filling is partly set but jiggles when you move it - basically the consistency of jello.

I recommend serving it warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream but it is also mighty tasty cold the next day for breakfast.

-- print recipe --Roasted Butternut Squash Pie 
Adapted from Andrea Chesman's coconut-pumpkin pie in her excellent cookbook, Recipes from the Root Cellar
Makes one nine-inch pie

Ingredients

* 2 cups pureed butternut squash from 1 large or two small squash (you can use pumpkin, of course)
* 2 eggs (try to find pasture-raised eggs from a farmer near you)
* 1 pie crust (you can follow this recipe for pate brisee or use whatever crust recipe is your favorite)
* 1 cup coconut milk
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1/2 tsp sea salt
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp ground cloves
* 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
* 1/4 tsp ground allspice

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the pie dough and lay it over the pie pan. Fold the edges under themselves and then either crimp the edges with a fork or flute them with our fingers. Using a fork, punch holes evenly across the bottom of the crust and put it in the oven to pre-bake for 15 minutes, checking once or twice to see if it is ballooning up (if it is, poke another tiny hole with your fork to let the hot air escape and gently push the dough back down with your fork) then remove it and set it aside.

2. Prepare the filling: place the squash, eggs, coconut milk, sugar, salt and spices in the bowl of a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

3. Pour the filling into the blind-baked pie crust and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 350 and cook for 45-50 minutes longer. The crust should be nicely browned (should it start to get too brown, you can remove it for a moment and cover it with a pie crust shield or some narrow strips of aluminum foil - just be careful not to burn your fingers in the process) and the filling should be partially set - it should jiggle a little when you shake the pie pan - similar to the consistency of Jello.

4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving with your choice of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or another creamy-non-dairy alternative.

You might also like:

• Pumpkin Bread Two Ways
• Pumpkin Pie with Pat-in-the-Pan Butter Crust
• Apple Pie

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