Caramelized-Honey Pumpkin Custard Pie (oh my god are you sure you want to do this?)
I don't think you should make this recipe. This isn't a dock on the dish itself--it's great, I enjoyed it (pumpkin pie has been a long-time childhood dream that I've finally fulfilled since it's nigh-impossible to get here)--and I suppose Claire wasn't lying when she said her recipe will likely be the 'best' pumpkin pie you've ever had because it's not just pumpkin, but a lovely caramelized honey custard pumpkin filling--but still, I can't recommend it. If you're starting out as a baker, definitely skip. If you're intermediate and you want a challenge, then sure. This recipe reinforces all the basics while teaching you a lot of extras, but holy crap.
It's so tiring.
It's so labour intensive, especially the first time where you're learning and making everything from scratch. From start to finish, it took me 3 hours (not counting my trip to buy imported American ingredients). I absolutely can get it down under 2 hours next time, and sure, I should've had a mis en place set up, and it's important to note that I was mentally in a bad spot...
Anyway, let's start:
All-purpose Flaky Pastry Dough
The all-purpose flaky pastry dough is all about technique. Trust in the measurements--you might think there's very little sugar in this dough for what amounts to a dessert, and that's okay. This one is here for texture and the savoury balance for the filling. It's a great flaky pastry dough to have under your belt, and if you've ever had dreams of making croissants and working on lamination yourself, you should do this first.
This'll hammer reality into you. It's time to get those baker's arms going.
You do need a dough scraper. I have three, they all work, but getting a metal one with a round edge like this is going to be easiest.
The plastic ones aren't bad though! The metal ones are only for your counter top, but the plastic ones can work with your stand mixer and any type of bread you're making, so don't feel like you have to have a metal one. The round edge just really helps you hold and chop, so that's my preference.
I would make the pastry ahead of time for two reasons: it needs to go in your fridge to rest, and it'll take up one large bowl. The latter is important since if you're an amateur home baker like me, you probably only have one or two large bowls, and in general, baking tends to require 2 (one for wet, one for dry). This recipe is completely doable with one bowl, but it's always nice to have a spare on hand. Again, a mis en place would save your butt, but I didn't do it, and not everyone has access to a bunch of small bowls.
Pie pan
I used a 23 cm pie pan, but mine is more for crispier desserts/quiches since it has holes in it for a hotter bake. Claire (and everyone else) uses a glass or ceramic pie plate. Either will work, but here's the difference: mine was leaking butter the whole time because of the holes. The other batch I made with a regular bread container just tasted way better since the butter flavour was a lot stronger and complimented well with the pumpkin.
But both will work! You'll see I couldn't do a proper crimp edge because of the way my pie plate is fashioned--there's no extra edge on the side to lay anything on, so I just pushed it in. Again, we work with what we have. Baking already has a high entry barrier (expensive equipment, storage areas, ingredients due to inflation) so let's not get too caught up about buying something every time you need it. I frequently alter recipes to fit what I have at home. Trust yourself!
Twice baked pastry
This was the first bake. (actual ceramic pie weights for the first, rice in the second) Note the second bread container pan on the side. Even though I used a 23 cm pie pan exactly as Claire specified, I had a lot of leftover dough. I think this is because:
Claire doesn't specify in the beginning how much dough to use. Her all-purpose flaky pastry dough recipe likely makes extra to fit all recipes, and you just cut to how much you need.
My pan is not a regular pie pan. It's shallower, smaller, and has holes in it.
Which means I had a lot of extra dough leftover from the first cut; I refolded these and rolled it out into my bread container. This meant the second one has far too much lamination (I was folding laminated leftovers together again) and lost flakiness, since the butter layers were squashed into each other, and yet it tasted better/baked crispier because it didn't leak out the butter like my usual pie pan. After the first bake, you gotta poke holes to make sure your pastry doesn't balloon back up. Then bake again at a lower temp until golden and crispy.
When you take out the pie weights in the aluminium foil, put it in a plate! The aluminium foil was touching your pie the whole time, so if you plop it on your counter, then you're going to make a buttery mess that you'll have to wipe and clean up.
You can see the pie dough is fully cooked on the second bake. This one was nice since the sides didn't slump (an incredibly common issue with pastries, don't feel discouraged). The one in the bread container did though, but it was a patchwork job and I don't feel very bad about it.
Caramelized honey + brown butter
Alright, so the caramelized honey step. Sheesh. You have to:
brown butter (during the step where you're baking), which requires constant stirring and an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn
You then have to add the honey and caramelize it -- another step which requires constant stirring AND sniffing since you're judging it by smell
And this is when the pie is done so you're rushing to bring something piping hot out of the oven, while juggling the hot stuff on the counter that might burn
Not to mention it's a really good idea to keep your counter clean. Cleaning as you go is an incredibly important habit to have as both a chef and a baker, and honestly, it's great for everyday life too.
But when you add the heavy cream into the caramelized honey, it's going to sputter, and also nobody tells you how easy it is to slosh it out of the (likely) small pot you're using for such a small amount of caramelized honey. What I'm saying is be careful of droplets splashing out. It's not the dish I'm worried about--it's your safety.
Pumpkin filling
So when I went to the store that sells imported American ingredients, I picked up Libby's Pumpkin Puree and immediately said, "Fuck. Something's wrong."
The point of most of these pumpkin pie dishes is that it uses a standard can of Libby's (the most popular pumpkin puree brand). That's 425 grams. I picked up the can and knew that there was no way something like this was fitting into a standard pie.
The only ones sold in NZ are the 820 grams version. It says here:
"For two pies."
Sigh. So I took out the other half and put it in a ziplock bag for freezing. Maybe I'll make pumpkin soup or pumpkin cheesecake, I dunno. Anyway, it was another extra step.
Recipe calls for 4 large eggs, Claire used 3 since she accidentally bought jumbo. If you're in a country that regularly sells mixed grade eggs, just use +1. I used 4 of the biggest mixed grade eggs + 1 of the smallest eggs in the carton.
So for the pumpkin spice, this is the part where you get to customize! I couldn't find all-purpose spice, but that's okay, since I substituted with cardamon and increased the amount of ground cloves. I would recommend not altering the cinnamon and ginger amounts for the pumpkin spice, but cardamon, cloves, and nutmeg are the ones you can tweak. A little bit of those go a long way, and if you're not sure, just lean down and sniff them (don't INHALE). You're looking for warmth, and remember, these are meant to be complimentary to the pumpkin.
Baking
That's pre-bake, bake, and post-bake.
This is a pie where the filling goes all the way to the top. As such, if you're a practiser of Chef John's "tappa tappa" method where you bang the dish to get out all the air bubbles, you really gotta be careful. I could still do it, but in the end I just got out a tiny fork/toothpick and popped the air bubbles myself. (the air bubbles shown in the first pic were popped, don't worry)
You can see they do 'dome' up when baking. Bake for 45~60 minutes, and you'll want a slight jiggle. Mine were finished at 45, and I took them out, knowing that they'll still cook from the leftover heat, but I feel like it could've gone for 50~55 mins instead. Just a slight different texture preference, it's up to you.
Serving
Here it is. It's a bit hard to cut if you're using a non-stick pie pan like me so I was forced to remove it. Without a glass/ceramic backing (what you'd have if you used a regular pie pan), the crust cracked a bit. Even using a serrated knife didn't do much.
The trick is to cut from middle out. Stab into the middle, slide it out (make sure you're cutting all the way to the bottom), then try and cut through the final crust bit at a 45 degree angle in one go. That's the best way I could find to get a perfect cut. (You won't need to do any of this if you have a proper pie pan)
Anyway, you're meant to have it with whipped cream and grated nutmeg but I WAS JUST SO TIRED I DIDN'T BOTHER. I wasn't going to hand whip cream or wash my grater.
Overall Thoughts
It's great. I love it! For the first time in my life, I've had pumpkin pie. I've been wanting this for so long, it's one of those "Man, I can't believe Westerners get to have so many amazing holidays" memories I had as a child growing up in Asia.
While it should be noted I've been having a couple of mental breakdowns over the past few days, which likely contributes to the tone of the writing (I'm so sorry, I promise I'm usually more positive), it's just a lot of work.
There's so much cleaning compared to a regular cheesecake or something. So many items you have to take out of your pantry (pie weights or rice), extra steps like crimping the foil, doing double layers of it, taking them out, extra pots and pans for browning the butter, more cleaning in between...
And like, I'm 90% sure I have a bigger kitchen than most people reading this post. I'm also quite sure mine is better organized. And I'm also privileged enough to have a dishwasher!
But I still remember how hectic it got when I was juggling caramelizing the honey while the oven was frantically beeping telling me it was done and then I had to quickly fork it to make sure it didn't balloon up, and my pie pan leaking butter all over the counter and so I had to clean that up too, while going back to check on the honey, then putting the dishes back into the oven again at a lower temperature, and like, you're working with caramel! That thing is hot and dangerous like me and you're also dealing with sputtering cream!
It's just a very mentally taxing pie.
Look...if someone bakes you something this Halloween, please remember that's a real big labour of love. Just appreciate them, yeah?
(Pictured: For friends to takeaway)
Thanks for reading. I hope your Halloween is spooky, sweet, and filled with love and kindness. 👻