A Pumpkin Pie (You'll Actually Want to Eat)

Brown Butter Pumpkin Pie

The inner child in me, whose family celebrated Halloween with such unbridled dedication (bin-bag tassels hanging from every door frame, a smoke machine, and even homemade gravestones eerily plonked at jaunty angles in the garden – thanks uncle Karl) longs to love pumpkin pie. But I have, until now, found it to be mostly disappointing.

I’ve tried many over the years. Some have been almost offensive: earthy, not-sweet-enough custards with an overwhelming vegetal and nutmeg flavour - they are something that should not have survived natural selection, but somehow, they insidiously worked their way around the evolutionary loop. Others are just so saccharine and Day-Glo orange that they should be approached by professionals in hazmat suits, bent only on their complete and controlled destruction.

I refuse to lose faith. I owe it to all the other kids who wistfully listened to Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, dying to be part of the throbbing crowd to whom she promised pumpkin pie after the revelry was done. But to fulfil this life goal, I had to skip the partying and instead get cosy in my kitchen to experiment with my own recipe. One thing I was certain about before I even started, was that I wanted to incorporate brown butter into the filling, as a nod to another North American winter classic, the butter pie. The pumpkin pies I’ve tried in the past have always lacked depth, and brown butter certainly delivers this.

Many other recipes use evaporated milk (probably because nestle own the popular brand of canned pumpkin, Libby’s). But I wanted a more acidic tang to cut through the vegetable sweetness of the pumpkin, so experimented with milk, sour cream and buttermilk – the latter being the most successful. On the note of canned pumpkin, I endorse its use fully. I’ve tried roasting pumpkins and pureeing the flesh, but that was a complete faff for a disappointingly insipid result (yes, I let it drain for a few hours before pureeing!). Canned pumpkin, which I buy online (the brand Bakeroo from Amazon), for the win.

The other thing I wanted to try - and have been meaning to do so for a while - is the cold-oven approach to blind baking pastry. I don’t know if it’s already a thing. My ego hopes it is not, but the non-dualist in me is aware that someone, somewhere has probably already waxed lyrical about the method. Taking inspiration from a newish way of roasting chicken breasts – putting them into a cold oven and letting them cook as the oven pre-heats – I thought it might make sense to do the same with blind baking pastry. When a cold product meets a hot oven, it usually results in thermal shock. It’s precisely that – as well as overcooking – that can make meat tough and pastry shrink in fear. Letting the pastry gently warm with the oven means it doesn’t tense up, and so shouldn’t shrink away from the tin; though, I wouldn’t try this method with a more delicate sweet pastry, the pate brisée here is a little more robust and forgiving, while the former would probably melt and fall out of shape.

For the pastry

• 150g 00 flour (or use plain)

• ½ tsp fine salt

• 100g unsalted butter, cold and diced

• 50g 0% Greek yoghurt (or buttermilk)

• 1 small egg, beaten, to glaze

For the filling

• 80g unsalted butter

• 70g light brown sugar

• 2 tsp cornflour

• ½ tsp fine salt

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• ½ tsp ground ginger

• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg

• 1/8 tsp ground clove

• 2 large eggs

• 55g golden syrup

• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste

• 200g pumpkin purée

• 70g buttermilk

To decorate

• 50g white chocolate, melted

• 4 roasted pecans/walnuts, chopped

• 10g dark chocolate, chopped

Equipment

• Food processor

• 20cm/8-inch fluted, loose-bottom tart tin (mine is 3.5cm deep)

• Uncooked rice (to use as baking beans)

• Baking sheet

• Small saucepan

• 2 heatproof mixing bowls

• Balloon whisk

• Spatula

I’d highly recommend making the pastry in a food processor with blade attachment. The speed and the cutting mean the pastry comes together quickly and stays quite cold, removing the need to chill it before use. If, however, you find yourself without a food processor, do make it by hand. But if the pastry warms up too much and gets soft, it’ll need 30 minutes or so in the fridge before you use it.

Making the pastry in a food processor

Put the flour and salt into a food processor fitted with blade attachment and pulse together to mix. Add the butter and pulse until evenly dispersed and you have a fine, breadcrumb consistency. Add the yoghurt (or buttermilk) and pulse until the mixture starts to form a damp sand consistency. Continue until it begins to clump together in little pebbles then stop. Tip the pastry onto the worktop and force it together into a smooth dough with your hands – you shouldn’t need any extra flour at this stage. The pastry should be cold and firm enough to use immediately.

Making the pastry by hand

Put the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and whisk together – if the flour is particularly lumpy, pass it through a sieve. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips. Stop once you have a fairly even sandy consistency (it’s ok for there to be a few pea-sized lumps of butter here and there). Tip in the yoghurt (or buttermilk) and use a breadknife or palette knife to ‘cut’ the wet ingredients into the dry. Once it starts to clump together, tip it onto the worktop and force it into a smooth dough with your hands – you shouldn’t need any extra flour at this stage. The pastry may still be cool and firm enough to use immediately, but if it feels a little soft, flatten it into a disc, wrap it in cling film or baking paper, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Blind baking the pastry

Lightly dust the worktop and the pastry. Roll the pastry out into a disc that is 3mm thick – turn the pastry 45° every couple of rolls to ensure it forms a neat circle. Use it to line the tart tin, ensuring the pastry is tucked right into the corner where the base meets the sides. Trim the excess pastry leaving a little overhang of about 1cm, then press the pastry into the grooves of the tin with a stiffened finger. Let the surplus pastry hang over the edge of the tart tin – don’t force it down because that could pull the pastry inside the tin out from the corners.

Prick the base of the pastry repeatedly with a fork – this is known as ‘docking’. Line the pastry with a few sheets of oven-proof cling film or baking paper that has been scrunched up and unfolded (this makes it easier to press neatly into the tin). Be sure that whatever you use has surplus overhanging all edges of the pastry. Fill the cling/paper completely full with uncooked rice (don’t bother with ceramic baking beans) then wrap the surplus cling/paper up around the rice to encase it.

Put the tin onto a baking sheet and put into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 180°C fan and let the pastry bake for 30 minutes. After this time, carefully remove the baking beans in their cling/paper parcel, then glaze the entire inside surface area of pastry with beaten egg. Return the tin to the oven for a further 20 minutes, until the pastry is cooked through and a very pale golden colour. Remove from the oven and allow the pastry case to cool.

Reduce the oven to 160°C fan.

Making the filling

To brown the butter, simply melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Once melted, increase the heat to high and allow the butter to bubble – swirl the pan every 15 seconds or so to prevent the milk solids from burning. As the butter boils, the excess moisture will evaporate, and when the bubbling stops and is replaced by a drier, crackling sound, accompanied by a fine, cappuccino-like foam on the surface of the butter, and a gentle nutty smell, remove the butter from the heat. It should also be a golden-brown colour. Pour the hot butter into the mixing bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes.

In a second mixing bowl whisk together the sugar, cornflour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove. Use your fingers to break down any lumps of sugar if necessary. The mixture should be as fine as possible. Add the eggs and whisk those in, then add the golden syrup and vanilla bean paste, and whisk to incorporate. Add the pumpkin puree and buttermilk and stir well to combine, then add the brown butter. When you start to mix this it will seem unwilling to emulsify into the mixture, but give it a good, vigorous whisk and it will eventually become smooth and silky. If you have an emmersion blender, it’s worth giving this a really good blitz to break down any fibre in the pumpkin. Pour the smooth mixture into the blind-baked pastry case and bake for 40 minutes, until slightly swollen and set with a very gentle wobble in the middle.

Remove the baked pie from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until cold. I personally like to serve this fridge-cold with some softly whipped cream on the side, but if you prefer it at room temperature simply allow it to warm up for an hour or so before serving.

I decorate mine with a spiral of melted white chocolate, chopped pecans and chopped dark chocolate.