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pumpkin pie

Winter Spice Pumpkin Pie

Taking a Pumpkin Pie from Autumn to Winter with a wonderful blend of wintry spices. Perfect with a mug of hot chocolate!

Course Dessert
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe of my Perfect Pie Crust recipe (see archives or link in Recipe Notes below)
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla paste
  • 1 tbsp Winter Spice Blend (see Notes below)
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 2/3 cup pure maple syrup
  • 2/3 cup heavy (35%) cream
  • 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch (or arrowroot starch)
  • 2 tbsp golden brown sugar
  • 1 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
  • egg wash (1 egg mixed with a bit of water)
  • 1-2 tbsp of raw or turbinado sugar
  • Sweetened whipped cream for garnish

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375F (190C)
  2. Roll out 2/3 of the pie pastry and line a 9 inch pie plate. Crimp as desired. Chill till needed.
  3. Roll the other 1/3 of the pie pastry to almost as thin as your pie crust. Cut out shapes as desired. Place these on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate till needed.
  4. In the container of your blender, add all the ingredients in the order listed. Blend at low speed till smooth. Don't blend on high as this will add too much air into the eggs- you don't want this for a creamy custard.
  5. Place the chilled pie shell onto a baking sheet. Run a bit of egg wash along the edges of your crimped pie shell. Sprinkle the edges with a bit of your raw or turbinado sugar.
  6. Pour the filling into the pie shell. If there is extra, fill a ramekin or two with the extra and bake alongside the pie till set.
  7. Bake on the middle rack. Bake for 50-60 minutes, rotating the pie after about 30 minutes to ensure even browning of the crust.
  8. When the centre of the pie jiggles only slightly, when you move the baking sheet, the pie is ready.
  9. Cool on a wire rack.
  10. While the pie is baking, remove the chilled 'cookies' from the fridge.
  11. Brush each with a bit of egg wash, and sprinkle with raw or turbinado sugar.
  12. Bake at 375F till golden, about 15-20 minutes. Remove and cool on the rack for about 5 minutes.
  13. Place the cooled cookies onto the set custard in a pattern appealing to you.
  14. Once the pie is at room temperature, you can cover it loosely with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge till ready to serve.

Recipe Notes

Perfect Pie Pastry recipe. To the flour add: 1 extra tbsp of granulated sugar (for a total of 4 tbsp) and freshly cracked/ground pink peppercorns (I used 1 1/2 tsp of fresh peppercorns that I ground in a mortar and pestle) After these have been blended in with the salt and flour, then move on to the step of adding your butter and shortening.

See here for the Vitamix Winter Spice Blend

To make this in a traditional non-blender method, whisk the eggs through the pumpkin filling, omitting the cream.  Add the cream at the end once everything else has been blended together.

Also, if you want to use a more traditional spice blend, see my Winter Squash (or Pumpkin) Pie recipe here.