Spiced Stoop Squash Pie
Are your jack-o-lanterns starting to droop on the stoop?
After many years of carving Halloween pumpkins and tossing the moldy mutant masterpieces into the green bin on Nov 3rd, I decided to decorate my doorstep with whole edible pumpkins, gourds, and squashes like kabocha, butternut, red kuri, Cinderella, and acorn-- in lieu of carving jack-o-lanterns.
While we here at TBFC think all winter cucurbits are gourdgeous and worthy of display, some are definitely more tasty than others. The Howden pumpkin is the most common jack-o-lantern variety, selectively bred for its bright orange color, perfect thickness for carving, and sturdy stem handle. Sugarbaby and sugarpie are also adorable orange varieties, but even though all pumpkins are edible, these choices are simply not delicious without a ton of added sugar in the mix.
Another reason to carve fewer pumpkins:
Did you know that 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins decompose and turn into methane in landfills every October?
That, of course, is the harmful greenhouse gas that affects climate change.
Next Halloween - or for your Thanksgiving display - go with edible gourds! You know we’re all about edible ornamentals here at The Backyard Farm Company!
Here’s a spiced pumpkin pie recipe developed from a red kuri squash that was decorating my stoop. Other delectable squash varieties commonly found in stores that have naturally sweeter meat (which means less added refined sugar) include: kabocha, butternut, delicata, hubbard, sweet dumpling, turban, and acorn.
Tasty Spiced Stoop Squash Pie
Ingredients:
One 9” frozen pie crust (I used Wholly Wholesome Organic which came with two shells. I used the extra shell to cut out decorative crust-leaves. See note below.*)
1 ½ cups roasted winter squash (red kuri, butternut, kabocha, etc)
A bit of soft butter or spray vegetable oil
2 eggs, plus the yolk of a 3rd egg
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground cardamom
Zest of one lemon and juice of ½ lemon
1 ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
Special tools:
Powerful blender or food processor
Prepare the squash
Preheat your oven to 400F. Cut squash in ½ and scoop out and discard the seeds and stringy bits. Cut the squash into rough hunks to make roasting faster. Rub the hunks in a little bit of butter or use a handy vegetable oil spray to coat. Roast on a baking sheet for 50-60 minutes or until a knife slides easily into the cooked flesh. Take the meat off of the skins with a spoon, and huck the roasted squash hunks into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. If your squash has dried out via the roasting process, add +/- ¼ cup water to the blend to encourage the consistency of mashed potatoes or pureed canned pumpkin.
Make the pie filling
Take your frozen pie crusts out of the freezer to begin to thaw. Turn your oven up to 425F. With a whisk, beat your 2 eggs and yolk in a large bowl. Add the sugar, salt, spices, lemon zest, and lemon juice, and mix well. Add the pumpkin puree to the mixture and beat together. Stir in the cream too. Your mixture will seem very watery, but just go with it! Pour the slurry straight into the pie shell!
On your marks, get set, bake!
Carefully transfer your pie to the oven. Bake at 425F for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temp to 350F and bake for another 55-65 minutes. To add pretty crust decorations, see note below. The pie filling should firm up to the consistency of firm custard, with a “firm jiggle”. The crust should be lightly browned. Allow the pie to cool before slicing. Enjoy!
*Tips and troubleshooting
Cut cute shapes out of your extra pie dough if your package came with two shells. Pop them onto the pie when there’s 15-20 minutes remaining.
Serve with hand-whipped leftover cream spiked with a splash of real maple syrup or nocino liqueur!
If crust edges start to brown too rapidly, cover with tinfoil scraps.
If your filling begins to crack like a chasm to Halloween hell, you should take the pie out of the oven. Cracking is a sign of overbaking.
