Weekly Recipe: Spooky Pumpkin & Cinnamon Pie

Ingredients (Serves 8-10):

450g sweet short crust pastry                                                         1 tsp. ground cinnamon

750g pumpkin, deseeded, skinned and chopped into cubes          ½ tsp. ground nutmeg

150g caster sugar                                                                           175ml milk

30g butter, melted                                                                           pumpkin seeds, for decoration

2 large eggs, beaten                                                                       plain flour, for dusting

½ tsp. salt                                                                                        icing sugar, for decoration

Method:

  1. Prepare the pumpkin. Fill a large saucepan with water, place over a high heat and bring to the boil, add the pumpkin and once the water has come back to the boil put a lid on the pan, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Once tender, drain and leave to cool. Preheat the oven to 180C/160⁰C fan/gas 4.

  2. Grease and line a 9-10 inch tart tin. Flour a flat surface and roll out the pastry roughly 2-3 inches larger than the tin and approx. 1 cm thick. Place the rolling pin horizontally on top of the pastry and lift one half of the pastry over the rolling pin. Lift the rolling pin with the pastry on over the tin, as you lower the pastry into the tin; rotate the pin to move the pastry off the pin and into the tin. Raise the pastry and lower it into position in the tin and use your fingers to push the pastry into the grooves. Prick the base with a fork then chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

  3. Once chilled the pastry needs to be lined with baking parchment and filled with baking beads then baked for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes has passed, remove the parchment and beads and bake for a further 10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool a little.

  4. Increase the oven temperature to 200⁰C/180⁰C fan/gas 7. Transfer the pumpkin into a large mixing bowl; mash the pumpkin as fine as possible using a potato masher. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, salt, nutmeg and half of the cinnamon. Then, add the beaten eggs, melted butter and milk and make sure they’re all combined thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the mashed pumpkin and mix together. Pour the mixture into the tart case and arrange the seeds into a spooky face. Place the pie in the oven and cook for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180⁰C/160⁰C fan/gas 4 and cook for a further 35-40 minutes or until the filling is cooked and set. Dust with icing sugar and the rest of the cinnamon for decoration.

Toms Top Tips:

Pumpkins usually weigh at an average of 2/3.5 KG which will mean for this recipe you will have some left over, don’t through it away though. Pumpkin is a type of squash and therefore can be used for soups and vegetable tray bakes, to name but a few recipes. It is well worth experimenting with, it is a little scary and intimidating but well worth squashing your fears of pumpkin recipes and creating something delicious.