Mes gentilhommes,

From winter squash, we have skipped over three days in the calendar – Mignonette flower, Donkey and Four O’Clock Flower. This brings us to pumpkin! My grand plan was to bake a pie pumpkin and use it in the following pie, but someone ended up decorating the pumpkin à la Halloween before I had a chance to get to it. I used canned pumpkin, which I was surprised to find out two years ago (via the kitchn) is never actually pumpkin! Section 52.2741 of the USDA’s Standards for Canned Pumpkin and Canned Squash clearly state that “Canned pumpkin and canned squash is the canned product prepared from clean, sound, properly matured, golden fleshed, firm shelled, sweet varieties of either pumpkins or squashes […]”. These standards were published to the Federal Register in 1956, so for 60 years, your canned pumpkin could have had zero pumpkin in it. We’ve grown up associating the flavor of pumpkin pie to the mixture of winter squashes used in canned pumpkin, so I’m not terribly troubled by the lack of actual pumpkin – just shocked.

For this recipe, I went with the wonderful Rose Levy Berenbaum‘s pumpkin pecan. I have her Baking Bible which has never let me down. Rose’s recipes are profoundly exacting. For your patience, you will always be rewarded with a perfect pastry. You will also dirty most of your dishes at once. I love the back of the can Libby’s recipe and will always use it in a pinch. But, if you’re willing to dedicate a little more time and effort, the pie below is sublime.

Pumpkin Pecan Pie

Crust – I used Rose‘s method, but your favorite crust recipe will also work fine.

Pecan filling

1/3 cup of corn syrup

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

4 large egg yolks

1/4 cup heavy cream

4 tbs unsalted butter

a pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped

Pumpkin filling 

10 ounces pumpkin filling (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4  tsp salt

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup milk

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

After making the crust, roll it out and place in a deep dish pie pan. Place the pie pan in the fridge while you work on the pecan mixture.

In a saucepan, add the syrup, brown sugar, egg yolks, cream, butter and salt. Cook over medium low without letting it boil for about seven minutes. Strain the mixture and then stir in the vanilla.

Sprinkle the pecans over the bottom of the chilled pie crust. Pour the syrup mixture over the pecans and give the pan a shake to spread out the pecans. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes – until the mixture is puffed and starting to bubble. Remove from the oven and let cool while you work on the pumpkin filling.

In a saucepan, add the pumpkin, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon and salt cook at a simmer for 5 minutes. In a food processor or electric mixer (my food processor was dirty from making the crust, so I opted for the mixer with apologies to Rose) add the pumpkin mixture, eggs and vanilla. Mix until just incorporated. Pour the pumpkin over the cooled pecans. Bake at 350 for 45 to 55 minutes. Cool the pie for two hours (who could ever wait this long?) and enjoy!