Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Dutch Oven Pumpkin Pie Adventure, Part II

Well, I made the pumpkin pie on Sunday, but life’s been so freaking out crazy since then that only now can I actually sit down and blog about it. It’s Tuesday afternoon. What’s up with that?

Dutch Oven Pumpkin Pie (From Pumpkins)

12” Dutch Oven

18 coals above
10 coals below

  • 3 Cups pumpkin
  • 6 eggs, separated
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp ground mace
  • 1 can evaporated milk,
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 2 tsp butter, melted
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

The first thing I did was to make the crust and put that into the 12” dutch oven. That went a lot smoother than the last time I did it (the apple pie). Bit by bit I’m getting pretty good at it! The recipe is over here.

Some people like to build the pie in a normal pie plate, and then put that in the bottom of the dutch oven. I actually like just building the crust right in the dutch oven itself. I spray it with Pam or something first, and then just lay it in.

With the crust in place, I set about mixing the filling. I started with the pumpkin I made the other day. I found that I had made way too much pumpkin puree for one pie, so I just measured out 3 generous cups and later, froze the remainder.

Next, I separated the eggs. The yolks went in with the pumpkin, and the whites I set aside. Everything else went into the mix. It looked a little runny to me at first, but in the final baking, it wasn’t too bad. So, I think it all worked out. Still, next time, I think I’ll try a little less evo milk. Maybe a half can or something like that.

Then, I whipped up the egg whites. I did it by hand, so that shows you how dumb I am. It took a while, but eventually it got to the point where it was fluffy. They tell me you want to do it until it forms peaks that don’t melt right away. Then that got folded into the whole mix.

I poured it all into the crust in the dutch oven, and set it on the coals.

In the meatime, I prepped the chicken and potatoes that I did a while ago, on this page. I modded it a bit, but not much. I didn’t have any peppers, so that didn’t go in, and I added some balsamic vinagre for a really cool unique flavor. Lots of salt, lots of coarse ground black pepper, etc…

So, that went on some more coals for dinner.

The pie took quite a while to cook. Probably about an hour and 20-30 minutes. I kept the coals pretty hot, using the 350 degrees as kind of a guide, plus a few more.

Finally, I could stick a fork in it and pull it out clean. It was odd, because most Pumpkin Pies I’ve seen kinda sag in the middle, and this one was humped up. But as it cooled, it settled to flat.

After dinner, we dished it up with the aerosol cans of whipped cream. It was delicious. It was the lightest, fluffiest Pumpkin Pie I’d ever eaten. I think that might have been because of the whipped egg whites. In retrospect, I probably would have whipped and smushed the original pumpkin a bit more, as there were still some slightly stringy bits. The spices made the flavor amazing.

I’ll call this one a success! I guess that's because at the end of the day, there wasn't any left over!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for this recipe! Our oven is out and I have been trying to figure how to cook my Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving! I am going to try it in the dutch oven for sure!

    ReplyDelete

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