Monday, October 13, 2008

Food TV Cooking Club - Anna Olson's Perfect Pumpkin Pie

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and this month's Foodtv.ca cooking club recipe was a perfect dish to make this weekend, Anna Olson's Perfect Pumpkin Pie.

I am not a fan at all of pumpkin pie. But it's one of Scotts favorite desserts, so we made it to take to my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner last night.

The recipe calls for you to make your own crust as well as the filling. I have never had luck with pie crusts, but this one was very easy to make. I had no trouble rolling it or lining the pan. I was very surprised to see that the crust was not baked before the filling is poured in. But I figured Anna must know what she's talking about.

The filling was just as easy to make. Canned pumpkin, brown sugar, molasses, spices, eggs, cream and brandy are whisked together.

I poured the filling into the crust - well, most of it. Not all the filling would fit in. Then I followed the baking instructions: 10 minutes at 400', then 20 to 30 more minutes at 350'.


I had to cook mine for an extra 10 minutes to get it set enough around the edges. It smelled wonderful and the color was so deep and beautiful. We barely had the pie cooked before it was time to go to my parents house, so the pie cooled out on their balcony until after dinner.

The day before, we'd run into my parents at the grocery store. My Mom showed me a magazine cover with Paula Deen on it, with a pumpkin pie decorated as a jack o lantern. So we tried that too:


The pie was amazing. Really, truly, amazing. The filling was smooth, creamy, perfectly spiced, and almost mousse-like. It was borderline being slightly uncooked, but none of us complained. I cut myself a little sliver to be polite, gobbled it down and went back for a second sliver. We all loved it, even my Dad who is not a dessert person. He gave it a 9 out of 10. The rest of us gave it an 8 because the crust was definitely slightly undercooked. The crust should have been pre-baked before the filling was added.

Thanks very much to Elana at the Food for Thought blog for picking this recipe! This truly is the perfect pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

10 comments:

Poppy said...

Awwww, adorable!!!!

Sara said...

Thanks! :)

Annie said...

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!!! The pie is so cute and sounds amazing. I never had brandy in mine, but now I just might try that!

giz said...

I used most of this recipe for my pie this Thanksgiving. At first I thought the crust wasn't going to hold up - it seemed sticky even after adding flour and didn't want to add too much for fear of drying it out. It was a fantastic crust but keeping it in the fridge for 15minutes was the key. The filling -I used only 30% of the brown sugar, omitted the brandy and used 1 can of sweetened condensed milk instead of the whipping cream. The final outcome was fantastic.

Lien said...

That looks delicious. We are not very familiar with pumpkin pie here (as we don't celebrate thanksgiving probably), but I plan to bake one this fall. I love the decoration! Happy thanksgiving. (BTW I never knew there was a canadian and an american thanksgiving before... learning something new every day :-))

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I've always enjoyed the spicy of pumpkin pie. Brandy is good and so is rum. And your pumpkin face is perfect. I think we're going to need some little pumpkin pie tartlets because of you!

Deborah said...

I almost always prebake crusts, even when it says not to because they always end up soggy to me. This sounds like a delicious pumpkin pie, though - especially if non lovers liked it!

tavolini said...

hahaha!! I love the jack-o-lantern face!

Your pie looks great--I never have any luck with crusts, either, so maybe I'll have to try that one :)

Brilynn said...

I made Dorie's Twofer Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pecan pie this weekend. It calls for prebaking the crust, you might want to give that one a try too.

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving! That is such a special holiday in the ole' U.S. of A., I hope it was just as special for you! BTW, pumpkin pie totally rocks and I need to go sit down after hearing you AND your father are not fans?!

Mike