Pumpkin Pie Trials

I love pumpkin pie. I've made a few pumpkin pies with pumpkins, squash, and even sweet potatoes. I've never been satisfied with the results. They have always turned out dense, squashy, and not tasting like classic pumpkin pie. Now when I say classic, I mean Libbey classic. Libbey's uses a squash called Dickenson's, which can be found at Sandhill Preservation. I'm not sure how close the Sandhill strain is to the Libbey Strain.

Here is a pic of Libbey's pumpkin field from Formaggio Kitchen's Cheese Blog

 I grew Galeux de Eysines and Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin. I think I got both seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed. Galeux is suppose to be the French pumpkin used for pumpkin soup, a recipe I've not tried yet, and Kerri refuses to eat. Baker Seed writes: "C. pepo) This beautiful pumpkin was introduced by Johnson & Stokes in 1893. Lovely 6-lb golden fruit have white netting and are perfect for pies. In fact, this is one of the best tasting pie pumpkins you can grow; with very sweet and smooth flesh, it's a favorite of all who grow it." Someone else's  favorite, frequently is not my favorite, but I thought I would give it a try.

 

Kerri thinks the Galeux is ugly, I love it. It has a beautiful pink shell, with peanut like warts. The Winter Luxury are adorable. They have a fine white netting over the orange shell. They are small, a pound or two, and fairly prolific. I think the pumpkins are small enough to actually grow on a trellis. 

Pumpkin Pie Trial:

I quartered both pumpkins, cleaned the seeds out, and roasted them until soft face down at 350 degrees. They cooked about 20-30 minutes. 

The Galeux has deep orange flesh that is rendered silky smooth after roasting. It smells like winter squash with no pumpkin/jack-o-lantern smell. It tastes delicious, and I think it should be served for dinner as we do winter squash, roasted with butter. The Winter Luxury has a more yellow flesh with more texture or grain. When roasted it smells and taste more like pumpkin or the jack-o-lantern smell you get when carving the common pumpkin. However, the flesh of the Winter Luxury is dry, unlike the Galeux. 

Next step, I peeled the skin, and put them in a strainer over a bowl to drip dry for several hours. Overnight in the fridge would probably work two. 

My Pumpkin Pie recipe adapted from Martha Stewart:

Ingredients

• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 cups fresh Pumpkin 
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
• Pie Dough

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Add evaporated milk and pumpkin to blender, and blend until puree-ed. In a large bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pumpkin/evaporated milk, and 3 eggs. Beat well. (I'm not sure why I just don't add everything at this point to the blender. It sure would make clean up easier.).
2. Pour into pie crust
3. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30 minutes more. Cool on a wire rack.

Both pies cooked well, and tasted great. I think that the spices could be increased a hair, maybe add 1/8tsp of nutmeg. Both pies tasted excellent, but the Winter Luxury definitely had the better flavor. Texture, which is so important, was as good as Libbey's. There was no dense settling, that I've found to form in other squash/pumpkin pie Kerri gave me the nod, and I can use the Winter Luxury for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

Winter Luxury on the left, Galeux on the right. The Winter Luxury, had a small layer of foam that developed and browned on the surface.