Hi!
We’re about one week out from Thanksgiving and despite me being about as American as apple pie, I am happy to celebrate any holiday that involves eating until my elastic waistbands snap. Especially if the eating involves pie. My all time favourite admittedly is an apple pie, but a silky pumpkin pie is a close runner up.
My best friend Uschi is a die hard pumpkin pie head and asked if I would make her a classic NO FRILLS, NO BELLS, NO EMBELLISHMENTS, NO MOTHERLOVING MORE THAN SWEET TWEAKS pumpkin pie. As classic as it gets. Not even a whiff of toasted coriander in the crust. And that got me thinking of all the ways I could make MY perfect pumpkin pie. Some of my earliest food memories are eating Levantine and Persian food my mom’s students would make for celebrations, and I wanted to find a way to infuse those flavours - in gratitude of the food, the hospitality and the incredible generosity - into my pumpkin pie. So this pumpquince pie draws its inspiration from the khoreshts, fragrant stews with lamb and quince or pumpkin, that I still remember, and cook, decades later.
Pumpquince Pie
Pie crust
250g all-purpose flour
200g butter, cubed and frozen
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
100ml ice water
Add the flour, sugar, coriander, salt and frozen butter cubes to a food processor and pulse until the butter is cut into the flour. Add the iced water and pulse into the flour mixture until the texture is reminiscent of coarse bread crumbs.
Scrape the mixture onto a clean surface and quickly press together without overworking the dough. Cut the dough in two, gather each half into a disc and wrap in clingfilm. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Pumpquince filling
1 sugar pumpkin or butternut / kabocha squash
2 quinces
1 cinnamon stick
Juice and pared zest of 1 mandarin
2 teaspoons rosewater
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
250ml water
100g sugar
100 g brown sugar
85 g honey
3 large eggs
240 ml heavy cream
1 teaspoon rosewater
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Peel the quinces and cut each into quarters, removing the core. Place in a small roasting tray with the water, sugar, mandarin juice and zest, rosewater, cinnamon and vanilla. Cover with tin foil and roast the quinces for 45 minutes. Remove the tin foil and roast the quince for another 30-45 minutes, until tender. Cool the quinces, then process in a food processor until very smooth.
Split the pumpkin/squash and scrape out the seeds. Place cut-side down in a large roasting pan and roast for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a knife easily pierces the flesh. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, cut-side down on a wire rack.
Scoop out the flesh and process in a food processor until very smooth. Return the pumpkin to the oven at 180°C and roast for another 30-45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to concentrate the flavour of the purée.
Pass the purées through a fine meshed sieve into clean bowls and measure off 300 g of pumpkin purée and 120g quince purée.
Roll out the chilled pie crust to a 12 inch / 30cm disc and line a 9 inch / 23cm aluminium pie dish with the dough. Trim the sides and freeze the pie crust for at least 30 minutes.
Line the chilled pie dish with tin foil and fill to the edge with pie weights, dry rice or sugar.
Preheat your oven to 200°C. Transfer the pie dish to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden-brown. Remove the pie dish from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack, removing the foil and sugar after 10 minutes.
Turn the heat down to 160°C.
Whisk together the pumpkin purée, quince purée and spices in a medium mixing bowl, then add the brown sugar, honey, eggs, cream and salt, whisking to combine.
Pour into the cooled pie crust and bake for 45-50 minutes, until the filling is firm around the edges, but there is a wobble in the centre when the pie dish is gently shaken. Leave the pie to fully cool at room temperature, 3-4 hours.