Yesterday was Friday the 13th and it’s mid October, so this calls for a pumpkin recipe! I wanted to make pumpkin pie for almost two years now, but somehow never got around to it.

Pumpkin pie spice is an American spice mix commonly used as an ingredient in, you guessed it, pumpkin pie. Pumpkin spice is similar to the Dutch speculaas spices. It is generally a blend of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice. It is very popular in the Starbucks season special Pumpkin Spice Latte.

A “Pompkin” recipe calling for a similar spice mix (mace, nutmeg and ginger) can be found as far back as 1796 in the first known published American cookbook, American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. Pumpkin pie spice has been referenced in cookbooks dating to the 1890’s.

Pumpkin Spice Mix

• 4 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 3/4 tsp ground cloves
• 3/4 tsp ground allspice

Pie Ingredients

Crust

• 250 gr flour
• 50 gr icing sugar
• 125 gr cold butter
• 1 egg
• splash of milk

Filling

• 750 gr pumpkin or butternut squash (so a pumpkin of 1 kg should do)
• 140 gr brown sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 tsp pumpkin spice mix
• 2 eggs
• 25 gr butter
• 175 ml milk
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice

Sift flour and icing sugar in a large bowl and put the cold butter into cubes. Knead in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and knead until it sticks together and forms a ball. You can add a splash of milk if it needs more moisture, or add a bit of flour if it is too moist. If the dough sticks together it’s done, don’t knead too long because the crust will be too elastic instead of biscuity.

Dust your countertop with flour and dust the dough too. Press the dough down into a big disc, wrap it with cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.  Grease a pie pan of 25-30 cm and dust with flour. Dust your countertop with flour and roll out the dough until it’s about 0.5cm in thickness. Wrap the dough around your rollingpin and roll it out over your pie pan. Press the dough into the pan and cut off the excess dough. Use a fork to make holes in the dough to let steam escape and cover it with parchment paper. Put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to rest. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cut the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds, remove the skin and cut it into chunks. Cut the vanilla pod in half and remove the seeds. Put 750gr of the pumpkin in a pan with the milk, sugar and vanilla pod and seeds on medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously, then turn down the heat, put the lid on (but let steam escape) and let it simmer for about 30 minutes until the pumpkin is soft. Take out the vanilla pod and use a hand blender to puree the pumpkin. Mix in the spices and let it cool.

Fill the pie shell with pie weights and bake the crust for about 10 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and pie weights and bake the crust for another 10 minutes until the crust is almost as hard as a bicuit. Let the crust cool and lower the temperature in your oven to 160°C.

Whisk the eggs and mix them with the pumpkin filling. Pour the mixture into your crust and use your leftover dough to decorate your pie. Bake the pie for about 30 minutes, until the filling has set. Let the pumpkin pie cool completely. Mix the sugar and spices, serve your pie with whipped cream or crème fraîche and sprinkle with sugar&spice.

Happy Baking!

I had leftover filling and leftover crust, so I made mini pumpkin pies too! For this I baked the crust for 10 minutes total and still baked the filling for 30 minutes.