Easy as Pumpkin Pie

Larry Eiker

Let us look at another way to use spices this Thanksgiving Season to make a pie, an easy No Bake Pumpkin Pie with a press-in crumb crust. Requires only 15 minutes oven baking and has a creamy filling with a fresher, brighter pumpkin flavor than the old traditional pie.

The crust can be stored for one day if it has been baked, cooled, and wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. Serve this pie with lightly sweetened whipped cream. To get favorable results for this pie please follow the directions carefully.

Graham Cracker Crust

5 ounces graham crackers (9 whole crackers broken into large pieces

2 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and warm

Pumpkin Filling

3 tablespoons cold orange juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons gelatin (from 1 package)

1 cup cold heavy cream

2/3 cup (4 ¾ ounces) sugar

¾ teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

2 large egg yokes

1 (15-ounce) can plain pumpkin puree (1 ¾ cups)

Crust:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees and adjust oven rack to lower-middle position.

2. In your food processor pulse crackers and sugar until evenly and finely ground. About fifteen 2 second pulses. You should have 1 cup of crumbs.

3. Add warm butter in steady stream through a feed tube while pulsing until crumbs are evenly moistened and resemble damp sand.

4. Transfer crumbs to 9-inch pie plate and spread evenly over bottom and sides.

5. Wipe out food processor bowl and reserve remains.

6. Using flat-bottom ramekin or dry measuring cup, press and smooth crumbs into pie plate.

7. Bake until fragrant and browned around edges, 15 to 18 minutes.

8. Cool completely on wire rack.

The Filling:

1. Combine ½ cup heavy cream, 1/3 cup sugar, salt, and spices in small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until bubbles form at edges.

2. Remove from heat.

3. Whisk remaining 1/3 cup sugar and yolks together in medium bowl until pale and slightly thickened.

4. Slowly pour hot cream into yolk mixture, whisking constantly.

5. Return mixture to pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly and scraping bottom of pot with heatproof spatula, until custard is thickened and registers 175 to 180 degrees on instant read thermometer, about 2 minutes.

6. When properly cooked, custard should form slight ridge on tip of spatula when bottom of pan is scraped and spatula is lifted.

7. Immediately pour custard over gelatin mixture and stir until smooth and gelatin has completely dissolved.

Puree:

Puree pumpkin in processor until smooth 10 to 15 seconds. With machine running, add remaining ½ cup heavy cream through feed tube in steady stream. Scrape sided of bowl and process for additional 10 to 15 seconds. Add pumpkin mixture to custard mixture and stir until completely smooth. Transfer filling to cooked crust. Chill pie, uncovered, until filling is just set, about 3 hours. Cover pie with plastic wrap and continue to chill until fully set, at least 6 and up to 24 hours. Cut pie into wedges and serve.

Larry Eiker is a Kennett resident who enjoys

traveling all over the world and experiencing great food, while bringing some of those ideas back home to the Bootheel to share with others.