Yohlady-Elsy

I baked a pumpkin pie for Halloween that ended up tasting great, so I'd like to jot down some notes for future me to follow. I wanted my pie to: 1) have a crispy, buttery crust that was NOT remotely soggy. 2) I also wanted the filling to be neither overcooked nor undercooked, and I wanted it to taste flavorful--sweet enough, spiced enough, pumpkiny enough. 3) Not have any cracks on the filling. Happy to say my pie succeeded in all three of these!

For the pie crust dough, had to keep adding water and dusting with flour to get it moist enough that it wouldn't break but also wouldn't stick to surfaces and the rolling pin. For my 9-inch pie plate, was aiming for 12-inch diameter dough rolled out

When rolling the dough onto the rolling pin, I should have been more gentle. Stuck together so it didn't unfurl when lining the pie plate. I ended up prying dough off with my fingers for one side of the pie crust, while the rest of the pie crust unfolded properly. For the broken side, I used my fingers to patch up the ripped crust together. It looked hella uneven and patchy, but the final baked end result turned out perfectly good. So even when I didn't do the best job lining the plate at first, fixing all the holes and patches with my fingers turned out fine when the pie was ready to eat

After transferring dough to pie plate, pressed dough into the plate, then crimped edges, then pricked the bottom and sides of the crust all over with a fork

4. Placed back in fridge for 30 min to chill the dough

5. Lined dough with parchment paper and filled with uncooked rice. Made sure to press it down to weigh it down all over. Be patient when pouring the rice out; I accidentally spilled some onto the dough instead of the parchment paper, then had to painstakingly pick out rice grains wedged in the dough lol fail

6. My oven runs cold so set it higher than 425 degrees, played around with the oven temperature to try to get 425 degrees but I believe it ended up higher than that. Which I was fine with because I would rather have it hotter and monitor closely than not hot enough

7. At some point into blind baking, the crimped edges of the crust got more golden brown than the rest, so I wrapped foil to cover those parts. I was too lazy be precise, so the foil covered some of the sides of the crust, which ended up not getting as golden brown. So next time I'll cover less of the pie to keep the top sides exposed so they golden up. The picture shows the sides that had been covered with foil that as a result didn't brown up as much. I should've cut the foil smaller to cover only the top edges.

8. Eventually removed the rice weights and continued to blind bake (kept foil on edges) until the entire crust was nice golden brown. It's supposed to be darker than pale brown and should look crisp. Don't be too afraid of over-cooking or burning it. Brown is good and is way better than a pale, soggy, sad crust.

9. Made an egg wash with egg whites, heavy cream, and salt. Brushed a thin layer all over the pie crust, making sure to avoid pooling of the liquid in any spots on the crust. Returned pie to oven for one minute to set the egg

10. Let crust cool completely at room temperature while I prepared the filling

11. For the filling, I went generous on all the spices and it turned out well

12. Started with whole nutmeg and grated it fresh

13. When pie crust was completely cooled, poured filling into crust. Had too much filling and some of the custard accidentally spilled out between the pie crust and pie plate, but it ended up being fine. The foil on edges was removed while baking with filling because I was fine with the edges browning up more at this point.

14. Placed the glass pie plate on a metal baking sheet for the baking process. Easier to take in and out of the oven and serves to catch any spillage that might occur (none did this time though)

15. I pulled pie out of oven when paring knife inserted 1 inch from edge came out clean. Also, jiggling the pie showed that about 1-inch center was still jiggly. You could also use a thermometer to measure the internal temp but I skipped this because was too lazy to wash an additional item

16. Let the pie cool at room temp for 2 hours, then transferred uncovered to fridge for several more hours. Don't want condensation to cause crust to become soggy

17. Made homemade whipped cream as a topping for the pie

18. With the leftover pie filling, I made pumpkin-spiced french toast the next morning

Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite ways to celebrate autumn and feel a little festive as the days get shorter! May you all stay cozy as the dark hours increase! Time to start hunkering down for the winter, but it's not so bad when you treat yourself to some baked goods.

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