Tina's Pumpkin Pecan Pie

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Tina's Pumpkin Pecan Pie

I’m thankful for my Aunt Tina’s pies. They’re the kind of pies that sticky fingered children would steal out of window sills. This pie is the centerpiece of all of our Thanksgiving celebrations: it’s spicy and rich, but not heavy, and has a brown sugar butter pecan topping. It’s perfect. The pumpkin filling is light, not overly dense and thick, and the flavor is spicy in that lovely spice box way.  If you don’t like nuts, your can skip the crust and have a lovely pumpkin pie…but I wouldn’t.  The crust is my favorite part.

Pie

  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup half and hald
  • 3 eggs
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 11/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 450
  2. Beat the eggs and both sugars together until light in color and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes if using an electric mixer). Lightly beat in the pumpkin puree and then the spices.
  3. Stir in cream and half and half. Pour into the pie shell and bake at 450 for about 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 and bake for another 45-50 minutes or until filling is just set.
  4. Keep an eye on the crust, as it might get too brown. If it's perfectly golden brown but you still have some time left on the filling, cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil to prevent it from over cooking. Set the pie aside while you get started on the topping.

    Pecan Topping

    • 11/4 cup chopped pecans
    • 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
    • 6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
    1. To make the pecan topping, stir together the ingredients in a medium pan over medium heat, until the butter is melted.
    2. Pour on the warm pie. If you haven't covered your crust with aluminum foil yet, do it now as the broiler can burn your crust easily.
    3. Put the pie under the broiler for just a minute or so, rotating once, until it the sugar bubbles and the pecans are toasted. Cool the pie completely.

      Crust

      • 3/4 cup ice water
      • 12 oz unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
      • 11/2 tsp kosher salt
      • 41/2 tbsp sugar
      • 33/4 cup all-purpose flour
      1. In a food processor or quickly using your fingertips, combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter until the chunks of butter are broken down to the size of peas and the flour feels like wet sand. Add the first 1/4 cup of water and mix until the dough comes together easily. It’s too dry if it immediately clumps apart. Add two tablespoons of water at a time, you can always add more water but not more flour, so careful not to add too much!
      2. Gather the dough into two balls and plop them on top of two sheets of plastic wrap. Loosely wrap up each ball and press down, smooshing the ball into a disc about an inch thick.
      3. Pop them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes while you busy yourself with the filling.