Giving Thanks for Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is a time for remembering and to give thanks for the many blessings bestowed upon us. Thanksgiving is when tables are heaped with earth’s bounteous fare. It is when we eat pumpkin pie!

But we didn’t always eat pumpkin pie. The first Thanksgiving celebrated in the United States was not at Plymouth, Massachusetts, but on the James River near what is now Charles City, Virginia, and it was entirely religious and did not involve a feast.

The Pilgrims landed four years later in December 1620 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and they held their first Thanksgiving a year later. The Indians supplied wild turkey and venison, and the Pilgrims brought fowl and fish. The meal included meat, fish, journey cake, corn meal bread with nuts, and succotash.

The Indians of North America had long used pumpkins and other types of squash. The sturdy shells made good containers. The seeds were edible and could be pressed to extract their exotic oils. The meat could be boiled for soup, or dried and ground into meal for use in breads and puddings. The settlers of New England adopted the Indians’ bright orange vegetable, and it quickly became an indispensable part of their diet.

Those first pumpkin pies in early New England were quite different from our modern version. The top of the pumpkin was sliced off, the seeds were removed, and the cavity was filled with milk, spices, and most likely maple syrup. Then, the whole thing was baked.

In 1705, the people in Colchester, Connecticut, actually postponed Thanksgiving until their supply of molasses arrived—the pumpkin pies could not be made without it.
Most of us feel that way today. Wherever we live or wherever we might be traveling to, our Thanksgiving dinners would not be complete without a delicious, big serving of spicy, rich, pumpkin pie. Here are a few versions:

PUMPKIN PECAN PIE
3 eggs
15-ounce can of pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans

Prepare pastry for a single crust pie. In a mixing bowl, combine three slightly beaten eggs, pumpkin, sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and cinnamon; mix well. Pour filling into pastry shell. Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven 50-55 minutes or till tests done. Cool. Serve with whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon.

PUMPKIN PIE WITH GINGERSNAP CRUST
1 1/2 cups finely crushed gingersnap cookie crumbs
1/4 cup powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

To prepare the crust, mix cookie crumbs, sugar, melted butter and cinnamon. Press the crumb crust into a greased 9-inch pie pan. Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven 5 minutes, cool 10 minutes.

2 eggs
16-ounce can of pumpkin
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup milk

To prepare the filling, whisk eggs lightly; add pumpkin, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, milk and evaporated milk; mix well until smooth but do not over beat. Pour filling into the crust and bake in preheated 350-degree oven about 45 minutes or until set. Cool, then refrigerate. Bring out of refrigeration one hour before serving.

SUGARLESS PUMPKIN PIE
1 cup frozen apple juice
concentrate
16-ounce can of pumpkin
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves

Prepare pastry for a 9-inch single-crust pie. Prepare the filling by pouring one cup of thawed frozen apple juice concentrate into a saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 7 minutes. Measure two-thirds cup of the concentrate; cool. Combine the concentrate, pumpkin, melted butter, slightly beaten eggs, half-and-half, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; whisk the mixture until completely smooth. Pour filling into the crust. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 45 minutes or until set. Cool, then refrigerate; bring out of the refrigerator an hour before serving.

PUMPKIN CHIFFON PIE
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup whipping cream

Prepare and bake one 9-inch pastry shell. For the filling, beat egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sugar; add pumpkin, milk, salt, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add an envelope of unflavored gelatin that has been softened in one-fourth cup of cold water and stirred until dissolved. Chill the mixture until thick, but not set. Beat whipping cream until thick, fold into mixture. Beat egg whites; add 1/2 cup of sugar, slowly, then fold into mixture. Spoon into pie and refrigerate.

A recipe often calls for pumpkin pie spice—this is simply one-half teaspoon cinnamon, one-fourth teaspoon each ginger and nutmeg, and one-eighth teaspoon each of allspice, mace and cloves for each teaspoon called for in a recipe.

To prevent a soggy bottom crust, bake the pie on the bottom rack of the oven.
When the pie filling pulls away from the crust, it is probably over-baked.
Did you ever stop to think as you take that first bite of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day about all the millions of Americans who are at that same moment lifting their forks, as you are, and taking that first bite of pumpkin pie?
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie? —John Greenleaf Whittier.

HINT OF THE MONTH:
A baked cooled pumpkin pie may be frozen. Wrap it in foil and freeze. Defrost in the refrigerator. The pie will be of better quality if frozen unbaked. To bake a frozen pumpkin pie, unwrap and bake without thawing in a preheated 425-degree oven 10 minutes; reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake about one and one-half hours or until center of the filling is set.

Marian Platt’s regional narrative cookbook of Washington’s Sequim Valley, From My Kitchen Window, can be ordered by sending cash, check or money order for $25 (includes tax and handling/mailing costs) to Marian Platt, 434 Chicken Coop Rd., Sequim, WA 98382. Phone (360) 683-4691.