Santa sees that you've been very good this year, Riff so Santa consulted Amy Acker regarding some of your Christmas wishes. Amy's been wracking her brains trying to find an American recipe just in time for Christmas.
So, she thought she would start with a Christmas tradition of pumpkin pie, crust and all.
Perfect Pumpkin Pie
From the 1998 Pumpkin Patch of Recipes - If there is ever a criticism of a fine pumpkin pie, it's that the bottom crust is soggy by the time it gets to the table. This recipe separates the baking of the crust and the custard filling. You'll need two matching pie pans, preferably 9 inchers. Warning: Recipe requires refrigeration time.
Custard filling ingredients:
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 5 eggs
* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
* scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups canned pumpkin (a 15 ounce can will suffice)
* 1 cup heavy cream
For decorating the pie:
* 3/4 cup heavy cream, well chilled, whipped with
* 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
* walnut halves
To make the filling:Set oven temperature at 350° Fahrenheit. Butter inside of 9 inch pie plate. In large bowl, combine filling ingredients. Beat with rotary beater until smooth. Pour half of the filling into buttered pie plate; set in large, shallow pan. Place in oven; add remainder of filling. Pour water into shallow pan to measure 1/2 inch up the sides of the pie plate . Bake 50 minutes, or until tip of a thin knife inserted near center comes out clean.
Cool filling on wire rack. Loosen edge with spatula and chill well - about 4 hours or overnight.
While the filling is chilling (poetry!), prepare pastry for a single pie crust for a 9" pie plate. Roll out dough, place in the pie plate, and scallop the edges. Refrigerate pastry about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450° Fahrenheit.
Prick entire surface of unbaked pie shell evenly with fork to prevent shell from puffing. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Cool completely on wire rack.
Before placing filling in pre-baked crust, separate custard from pan with a thin spatula all around edge and underneath and shake to loosen. Holding custard above rim of pie crust, slip filling into shell.
Decorate edge of pie, between filling and crust, with whipped cream. Use a pastry bag with a Number 6 star tip (or, in a pinch, place whipped cream in a Ziploc and cut off a small corner). Garnish with the walnut halves or candied ginger. Refrigerate.
Serves 8.
World's Flakiest Pie Crust
We did the math.For single 8" pie:
* 1 cup flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/3 cup Crisco (We suggest plain old Crisco, not the butter flavored.)
* 2-3 tablespoons ice cold water
For double 8" pie:
* 2 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2/3 cup Crisco
* 4-6 tablespoons ice cold water
For single 9" pie:
* 1 1/3 cups flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup Crisco
* 3-4 tablespoons ice cold water
For double 9" pie:
* 2 2/3 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup Crisco
* 6-8 tablespoons ice cold water
Sift flour and salt together into a deep mixing bowl that is impervious to knives. Add Crisco. Using two steak knives, cut the shortening into the flour mixture as if you were cutting up a bowl of spaghetti for a baby, or use a pastry cutter. Do this until the mixture starts to form small clumps. The mixture should resemble sawdust. Sprinkle in cold water cautiously, a tablespoon at a time, continuously cutting, until the mixture forms clumps the size of unshelled almonds. The ingredients do not need to be 100% homogeneous. With floured hands, loosely gather dough into a ball and place in a clean bowl. Chill until ready to roll out.
Have your pie plate, rolling pin, a small sharp knife, and a canister of flour within easy reach. Prepare a clean wooden or marble surface. (Formica and other synthetic countertops may be used with varying degrees of success, but be prepared to dust frequently with generous amounts of flour to prevent sticking.) Dust the surface evenly with flour - a sifter is handy for this job. Flour hands and a rolling pin.
Press chilled pastry into a small, flat circle (like a hockey puck). With the rolling pin, roll out dough from the center to the edges in opposing directions of the clock (noon and 6, 9 and 3, 11 and 5, etc.). Never crush the pastry with the rolling pin to hasten the job. Instead, push it out from the center, lifting the pin ever so slightly as you reach the edge. A perfectly rolled crust will be of an even thicknes (squeeze the thick part of your earlobe).
Use the pie plate as a pattern to cut the crust. Invert the pie plate over the rolled out crust and, with the small, sharp knife, cut a circle around the plate leaving a 1" hem. Discard scraps (or save them for later use-- See Tips). Remove pie plate. Be sure the surface of the pastry is dusted with flour. Gently peel back crust from one side, folding it in half, then peel it from another direction to fold it in quarters. Lift the dough gently and place it in the ungreased pie plate. Unfold and position the pastry.
Santa and Amy hope this recipe tingles your tastebuds!!