Super Pumpkiny Pumpkin Pie

I've been making a version of Flour Bakery + Cafe owner Joanne Chang's  banana bread for years, and thought it fitting that I inaugurate the recent addition of her new cookbook, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe, to my library by making her Super Pumkiny Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving. I have a soft spot for pastry chefs such as Chang who use adjectives like "pumpkiny," and write their recipes with instructions to "unfurl" and "pleat," which sound a lot like "twirl in your pleated skirt."

True to its name, this pie is super pumpkiny -- the result of cooking the pumpkin down to a paste so that it withstands the shocking quantities of milk and cream in the recipe. (This pie is not for the faint of heart.) True to form, I took some minor liberties with it. I used homemade pumpkin purée (something I always go to the trouble to make because I prefer the taste so); cooked it down for 7 minutes instead of 40 to 45;  and added 1/4 cup pure maple syrup and 1 tablespoon brandy.

A word to the wise: although Chang states that the recipes for both the filling and the Pate Brisee II (see below) yield enough for one 9-inch pie, I found that both made enough for at least two pies. No worries. I happened to be simultaneously making Bobby Flay's Pumpkin Bread Pudding, so I substituted the extra pie filling for the custard in his recipe, and froze the extra dough. If you're not in the same predicament (and what a predicament it was), halve the recipe, make two pies or visit Food Network for a version that appears to yield a single pie.

Happy baking, and be sure to unfurl and pleat as instructed.


Laird thinks I should trademark this, um, interesting pie angle.


Super Pumpkiny Pumpkin Pie
Makes (ahem) one 9-inch pie.

Pate Brisee II (recipe follows)
One 16 ounce can pumpkin purée (I made my own.)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar (I used dark brown, as it's all I had.)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

My additions:
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon brandy

1. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. On a well-floured work surface, roll out the dough into a circle about 12 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Roll the dough circle around the pin and then unfurl it on top of a 9-inch aluminum pie pan or glass pie dish. Press the dough gently into the bottom and sides of the pan. Evenly pleat the overhanging dough with your fingers to create a decorative edge, or use scissors to trim the overhang, leaving a 1/4-inch lip (to allow for shrinkage in the oven). Refrigerate the pie shell for at least 30 minutes. (The pie shell can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 1 day or frozen for up to 2 weeks. Bake directly from the refrigerator or freezer.)

2. Position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Line pie shell with parchment paper, fill with pie weights, and blind bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the entire shell is light brown all the way through.

4. Meanwhile, scrape the pumpkin purée into a medium saucepan and stir in the brown sugar. Place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the pumpkin has reduced to a somewhat thick paste and darkened. Remove from the heat and whisk in the ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Then whisk in the sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk.

5. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolk until blended. Slowly whisk in the cream and vanilla (and the maple syrup and brandy, if using), then gradually whisk in the pumpkin mixture and continue whisking until thoroughly mixed.

6. When the pie shell is ready, remove from the oven and leave the oven set at 350 degrees F. Remove the weights and parchment, and pour the pumpkin custard into the shell.

7. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until the custard is just set. The edges of the custard will puff up a little and the center should still have a little wiggle in it. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours. Serve at room temperature or chilled. (I found this pie tasted best after being refrigerated for 24 hours.)

8. The pie can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Pâte Brisée II
Makes about 10 ounces dough, enough for (ahem) one 9-inch single-crust pie, 10-inch crostata or 9-inch quiche.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons cold milk

1. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a handheld mixer), mix together the flour, sugar and salt. Scatter the butter over the top and mix on low speed for about 45 seconds, or until the flour is no longer bright white and holds together when you clump it and pecan-size lumps of butter are visible throughout.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and milk until blended. Add to the flour-butter mixture all at once. Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, or until the dough barely comes together. It will look really shaggy and more like a mess than a dough.

3. Dump the dough out onto an unfloured work surface and gather it together into a tight mound. Using your palm and starting on one side of the mound, smear the dough bit by bit, starting at the top of the mound and then sliding your palm down the side and along the work surface (at Flour we call this "going down the mountain") until most of the butter chunks are smeared into the dough and the dough comes together. Do this once or twice on each part of the dough, moving through the mound until the whole mess has been smeared into a cohesive dough with streaks of butter.

4. Gather up the dough, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and press down to flatten into a disk about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before using. The dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Georgene's Fluffy Rolls

Most Thanksgivings I make a batch of Georgene's Fluffy Rolls from one of my favorite cookbooks, Saveur Cooks Authentic American. (You can find the recipe online here.)

Essentially Parker House rolls, they're buttery and sweet; the sort of bread I don't eat but once or twice a year. Which is a good thing because I can't get enough of their pillowy goodness slathered in salty butter. And as I write this, it occurs to me that you could knead in dried fruit, orange zest and nutmeg for a Panettone-like holiday treat. Mmmmmm.

The rolls are quite easy to make by hand, but start them early as they require about 7 hours start to finish. If you're making them for lunch or afternoon supper, start them the night before -- make them up to the second rise, store them in the refrigerator overnight, and  finish them in the morning. My notes are in italics below.

Georgene's Fluffy Rolls

Adapted from Saveur Cooks Authentic American

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

1 1/4 cups milk (I recommend whole milk but have used 1% to good result.)

1/4 cup vegetable shortening (I used butter this time.)

3/4 cup sugar (Honestly, this is a lot of sugar. I prefer to make them with 1/2 cup.)
1 teaspoon salt

1 7-gram packet active dry yeast (Or 2 1/4 teaspoons if using yeast from a jar.)

2 eggs, beaten

4 cups flour (Measured with the scoop and sweep method.)

3/4 cup butter, melted (I use only 1/4 cup because I brush the rolls with butter instead of dunking them in it.)

1. Combine milk, shortening, sugar and salt in a saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; set aside to cool. (Make sure you let it cool to warm; adding hot liquid to yeast can kill it.)

2. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water in a large bowl; set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes. (This is called "proofing," and I dissolve 1/2 teaspoon sugar in the warm water to feed the yeast. You'll know within 5 minutes if your yeast is alive or not. When I made my latest batch, my newly-purchased packet of yeast was dead in the water. I started over with a different brand of jarred yeast from my refrigerator and was back in business in no time.)

3. Pour milk mixture into yeast. Stir in eggs and gradually add flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until dough gets stiff, then use your hands (dough will be sticky, so grease your hands with a little butter). Brush a small amount of butter on the inside of a large bowl and on one side of a sheet of waxed paper. Place dough in bowl, cover with buttered wax paper, and lay a damp dishcloth on top. Set aside to rise until doubled in bulk, at least 3 hours. (This dough looks like kinda grits: sticky and lumpy. But you won't need the buttered wax paper unless you're not using a large bowl, in which case the wax paper keeps the dough from sticking to the dish cloth.)

4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until elastic, then roll out to 1/2 " thickness. Cut dough with a 3" biscuit cutter, dip each round into melted butter, and fold in half. Line up, round edges up, sides touching, on a cookie sheet. Cover as in step 3, and set aside to rise, at least 2 1/2 hours. (At this point you can wrap the baking dish tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, remove them from the refrigerator, remove plastic wrap, cover with a dish towel and allow them to rise for about 3 hours.)

5. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm. (Rolls will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 days or in the freezer for up to a month. Warm in a 350 degree oven before serving.)

Cookbook Review: BabyCakes

Shortly after it was published last May, I bought a copy of Erin McKenna's debut cookbook, BabyCakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery.

I was interested in the cookbook because, well, I adore cookbooks and tend to collect them, and because in my bakery business I would occasionally receive requests for vegan, gluten-free and "healthy" versions of my signature cookies and treats. I was curious to learn more about, and experiment with, alternative baking ingredients.

I was pretty skeptical, however, as I was raised on a semi-macrobiotic diet with very little in the way of sugar and flour. Instead of the made-from-a-box brownies that my friends' moms made, the treats at my house were infrequent and of the honey-sweetened-whole-wheat-tofu variety. (To be fair, my mom was an excellent baker whose whole wheat pie crust is still my favorite, as are the cobblers she made from the juicy blackberries that grew all over our mountain property in the summertime.)

So while my mom's wholesome treats were delicious, I grew up longing for refined sugar and white flour. This longing has informed my baking, though I've never relied on commercial mixes or chemicals. I bake with free-range, organic eggs; organic sweet cream butter; non-alkalized cocoa; unbleached organic flour; and pure extracts. My mindset has always been: if you want a treat, go for the real deal. Just make sure it's, well, real. And indulge in moderation.

But I also recognize that people with dietary restrictions deserve tasty baked treats as much as the next person. So with the BabyCakes cookbook in hand, I set out to find out if baked goods made with alternative ingredients could satisfy as much as their standard counterparts.

I read and re-read the book's recipes and primers on ingredients, techniques and tips, and decided to start with some pretty basic items: Banana Loaf and Apple-Cinnamon Toastie. I sourced and purchased the agave, coconut oil, garbanzo-fava flour, xanthan gum and other ingredients called for in the recipes, which was no small feat.

Sadly, I was not impressed with the results. Despite copious amounts of agave and cinnamon (and, in the case of the Apple-Cinnamon Toastie, raw sugar), the loaves had a gritty aftertaste of bitter beans. I chalk this up to the garbanzo-fava bean flour, which in my experience is fine in savory snacks like crackers, but doesn't taste good in cakes and loaves. (I adore garbanzo beans, so I'm not sure why garbanzo-fava flour is so distasteful in sweets. Is it the fava?)

My loaves didn't rise much, either, which is to be expected with gluten-free recipes, but mine were bricks. This may have been because I measured the coconut oil in its solid state. The cookbook doesn't specify whether the oil should be solid or melted, something McKenna has subsequently clarified via an FAQ on her website.

And about that coconut oil. I have a problem with McKenna's endorsement of coconut oil as healthier than other vegetable fats. Science just doesn't back up the claims that it's good for the thyroid or that our bodies use it more readily for immediate energy as opposed to storing it as fat.

I'm not big on McKenna's liberal use of agave, either. It's true that agave has a low glycemic index, but at roughly 90% fructose, it can raise triglycerides.

Not overly excited about my maiden voyage into BabyCakes land -- and turned off by McKenna's prosthelytizing about coconut oil and agave -- I haven't made any more recipes from the book. (Interestingly, McKenna has since backed off said prosthelytizing on her website and blog, and I believe subsequent editions of her cookbook reflect this.)

Granted, it's a lovely book that is well-designed, beautifully photographed and very well-intentioned, and I know it's been a life-saver for food-sensitive bakers. But I also know there are other "alternative" cookbooks out there with simpler recipes yielding tastier results.

But now that I'm better-educated about alternatives to gluten, dairy, eggs and soy, I might give BabyCakes another go. I just won't be using garbanzo-fava flour, soy milk, coconut oil or agave.

Have you ever baked from the BabyCakes cookbook? How did it go?