Sunday, November 8, 2009

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE PIE WITH CORNMEAL CRUST

I’m pretty sure I found this on Epicurious, but it’s been awhile. I made this for Thanksgiving years ago and it is my favorite pumpkin pie ever. I make it pretty close to the original – just sub in some ww flour and roast my own pumpkin. This year, we used little sugar pumpkins the girls had markered faces on for Halloween. It felt a bit cannibalistic, but I just shaved off their “faces” and then roasted as usual.
This pie was, thankfully, a great one for teaching egg separation. It took Morgan 3 tries to get a yolk separated successfully, but we were able to use the broken ones for the filling! Save the extra whites for future use as a wash on your tart crust, or for an egg white omelet.

Crust
3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup yellow cornmeal (I used blue)
1tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick chilled unsalted butter (put in freezer for 10 minutes), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Filling
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 cup PUMPKIN PUREE (or canned pumpkin), cooled (can be made ahead)
¾ cup half and half
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon grated lemon peel
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt

Whisk 3 tablespoons ice water and egg yolk in a small bowl to blend. Mix flours, yellow cornmeal, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add chilled butter. Process only until mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle egg yolk mixture over it. Pulse until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball. Flatten dough into disk; wrap disk in plastic and refrigerate 30 minutes. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to a 12-inch round. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper. Invert dough, paper side up, into 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Remove waxed paper from dough. Crimp dough edges decoratively.

Using an electric mixer, beat 6 ounces cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and egg yolk.. Add remaining ingredients and beat until well blended. Pour filling into prepared crust.
Bake pie until filling is slightly puffed and just set in center, about 55 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. Cover pie and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Keep pie refrigerated.) Serve pie cold, with HOMEMADE WHIPPED CREAM if feeling decadent.

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