Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie & Other Thanksgiving Ideas

It's already started. I spent an hour or so this evening making, what my brother jokingly calls "butter-flour" (pronounced buda-flah) aka pie crust, and in the next few days I'll be busy cutting apple and mixing pecans and melting chocolate for Thanksgiving pie orders, along with a few for my own Thanksgiving table.

I don't necessarily have a go-to Thanksgiving pie recipe. I usually make a few each year and like to switch it up, try something new, or bake whatever will complement the rest of the dessert table. Last year I made a Drunken Pumpkin Bourbon Pie with Mascarpone Cream (which is also a by-order offering) and a Maine Blueberry-Cranberry Pie, and in years past I've made lots of others: Apple-Cranberry, Pear-Cranberry, and Maple Pie that was requested for a return appearance a few years running. If you're still looking for the perfect pie for your dessert menu, there's lots to chose from, and you can visit the Recipe Index for ideas, but here are a few specific suggestions:

-Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie (as well as a vegan version)
-Pear Tarte Tatin
-Apple Pie with Salted Caramel Glaze
-Fig-Pistachio Tarte Tatin
-Chocolate Chess Pie
-The aforementioned Drunken Pumpkin Bourbon Pie with Mascarpone Cream
-Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, either with Maple-Marshmallow or Maple-Cream Cheese Filling
-Or go savory with a Tri-Color Potato, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese, and Rosemary Galette



Here's another that you might enjoy--A Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie from Gourmet. I've made it a few times now, for a baby shower (er rather, the post-baby shower sleepover), a friend's 30th birthday party, and the Pie CSA. In a gingersnap cookie crust, the standard pumpkin pie is sweetly spiced with crystalized ginger, mellowed with the addition of cream cheese, both in the pumpkin filling, and swirled in contrasting white-and-orange. The cookies and brilliant swirl scream kid pleaser to me (those over 21 might opt for the Drunken Pumpkin Bourbon pie) but the adults I served this to had no complaints eating it all up.

Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie
Adapted only slightly from Gourmet

Ingredients
For crust:
1 1/2 c. gingersnap crumbs
4 Tblsp. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 Tblsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

For filling:
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. crystalized ginger, chopped
8 oz. (1 package) cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
1/4 c. whole milk
1 Tblsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. pumpkin purée (canned or fresh)

Directions
For crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pour gingersnap crumbs in a bowl and add melted butter, sugar, and salt until well mixed. 

2. Pat the buttery crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan, pressing mixture into the bottom and sides to form a pie crust. Place in oven and bake until crust is lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Place on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature before adding the filling. Leave the oven at 350 degrees F.

For filling:
1. Place chopped crystalized ginger and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until ginger is finely chopped and mixture is well combined. Add cream cheese and pulse until mixture is smooth. Add eggs, milk, flour, nutmeg, and salt and pulse to combine.

2. Measure out 2/3 of the cream cheese mixture and set aside. Pour the remaining 1 1/3 c. cream cheese mixture into a large bowl and whisk together with the pumpkin puree until well combined.

3. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the baked gingersnap crust. Stir the remaining cream cheese mixture, as it may have separated a bit. Drizzle the cream cheese mixture over the pumpkin filling, and swirl decoratively with a butter knife or the back of a spoon.

4. Bake pie for 35-45 minutes, until the center is just set. Let cool completely to room temperature, about 1-2 hours, then refrigerate at least 4 hours. Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy!

Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie at an Elsewhere Baby Shower

My good friends Lora and Joe are about to have a baby girl! Lil' sugar biscuit, we're calling her. And earlier this month, we had a little biscuit brunch celebration for this new family to-be at the Greensboro, North Carolina artist collaborative and living museum in a former thrift store, Elsewhere.

This was my second time at Elsewhere. I had visited previously when I first moved to North Carolina; my friend Ross, who helped start the place was visiting and invited me to come. I wasn't sure what to expect from what I imagined was a wildly quirky and fascinating place, but I remember making the trip armed with my fiddle, camera, and a few rolls of film, figuring they were appropriate tools for the adventure. I ended up using both, as I wandered the installations of baby tornados, denim log cabin, and creepy tea party, and eventually befriended two Irish artists who were working on a performance/spatial practice piece "Elsewhere Cleaning Inc." where they would go into willing "customers'" homes, "re-curate" a room, then interview them about the experience and spatial arrangement. They were running a spot on a local radio station for the project, so they enlisted me and together we composed a little jingle for the cleaning company.



For this trip to Elsewhere, I still brought my camera, film, and fiddle, but I also equipped myself with two pies-- a Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie and a Pumpkin-Ginger Cheesecake Pie (recipe coming soon), both from Gourmet. Earlier that week, Gourmet Live had posted a "food fight" photo between the two pies and when I reposted their photos, Lora, the mama to-be, suggested I bring both, so we could judge for ourselves. We brought the chocolate pecan to the baby shower, and stowed away the pumpkin for our sleep-over treat later that evening.

This is actually the second time I've posted this Bittersweet Chocolate-Pecan Pie recipe. I made it about two years ago for Thanksgiving at my friend Jamie's family's home in Potomac, Maryland (see the post here). It was as big a hit then as it was this time, the bittersweet chocolate cutting a bit of the over-sweetness that pecan pie can often have. And you really can't go wrong with the chocolate-pecan combo (see some other variations here, including a vegan option). This is also a pie that we're offering for Thanksgiving orders this year, but regardless of whether you order from Nothing-in-the-House or make it yourself (it's quite easy!), this is a great choice for your feast's dessert table.

Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie
Adapted from Gourmet 

Ingredients

Nothing-in-the-house pie crust, halved

1 4-oz., 70%-cacao bittersweet chocolate bar, chopped

2 cups pecan halves, toasted and cooled

3 large eggs

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup agave-maple syrup blend or light corn syrup

Directions

1. Prepare half of the Nothing-in-the-House pie crust as per the directions. Chill dough at least 1 hour before rolling out and fitting into a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Put the rolled and fitted crust back in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt chocolate in a metal bowl over simmering water. Stir and remove from heat when melted.

3. Roll out chilled dough and place in a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan, fluting the crust decoratively.

4. Spread chocolate in the bottom of pie shell and let set a bit, then cover with pecans. Whisk eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, and agave-maple blend (or corn syrup) in a bowl. Pour over pecans.

5. Bake pie until filling is puffed and crust is golden brown, 40-50 minutes. Serve with bourbon whipped cream and enjoy!

Along with the pie on the Elsewhere baby shower spread, there were delicious pumpkin-cornmeal and buttermilk biscuits by Julie and Lora; assorted jams, preserves, and spreads, including a bacon marmalade, French Schezuan fig-peppercorn confiture, and homemade apple butter; pear-almond cake, and mimosa fixin's. We enjoyed the spread, made Lora open presents (sorry again, lady!), decorated onesies & other sugar biscuit attire with fabric stamps, and took a creep-tea tour of Elsewhere's upstairs haunts--the ghost room, apothecary, and fabric fort, all in this lovely (and slightly creepy??--there were dismembered baby dolls as our centerpiece) celebration and reunion of friends from all over.

In talking with some Elsewhere employees and artist residents, I learned that they were planning an election pie party, where they made a pie for every state. I was REALLY disappointed that I couldn't stick around for that, but you can find photos of the event and every pie on the Elsewhere Facebook page.