Cook's Illustrated Pumpkin Pie

Cook's Illustrated Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

Single Crust Pie Dough (make your own or buy one from the store)

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup drained candied yams

3/4 cup sugar (see Mark's notes - I suggest reducing to 1/2 cup or 1/4 cup sugar)

1/4 cup maple syrup (see Mark's notes - I suggest reducing to 1/8 cup maple syrup)

2 teaspoons fresh ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions:

Single Crust Pie Dough:

For the pie dough, I don't include a recipe for a pie dough - lots of good recipes out there.  I buy one from the store - Pillsbury Pie Dough.

1.  Line pie plate with dough and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

2.  Line chilled pie dough with double layer of aluminum.

3.  Place pie weights on aluminum

4.  Bake on rimmed baking sheet for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

5.  Remove weights and foil.

6.  Continue to bake crust for another 4 to 7 minutes longer

7.  Transfer pie plate and baking sheet to wire rack.

Filling:

1.  Whisk cream, milk, eggs, yolk, and vanilla together in a bowl.

2.  Set this aside.

3.  In a large saucepan, mix together pumpkin puree, yams, sugar, maple syrup, ginger, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

4.  Simmer in large saucepan and stir continuously for 15-20 minutes.  Mash yams on side if necessary.

5.  Mixture should be thick and shiny.

6.  Remove saucepan from heat.

7.  Whisk in cream mixture from step 1.  Whisk until fully incorporated.

8.  Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl.  

9.  Use back of ladle or spatula to press solids through the strainer.

10.  Whisk mixture.

11.  Pour mixture into warm prepared pie crust.

12.  Place pie plate on rimmed baking sheet.

13.  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

14.  Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake for another 20 to 35 minutes.

15.  Edges of pie should be set and center should read 175 degrees with a baking thermometer.  (center of pie should look firm and possible jiggle a little).

16.  Let pie cool on wire rack for about 4 hours.
17.  Enjoy!

Mark's Notes:

First of all, I don't make my own pie crusts.  I use Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts.  It's a great time saver.  Second, Cook's Illustrated recipe for Foolproof Pie Crusts uses vodka.  I never have vodka in the house.  I don't cook with alcohol.  Also, any time alcohol is used in baking, it doesn't completely evaporate or bake away.  There is always about 5 percent of the alcohol left when baking with alcohol.  Just any FYI.  There are lots of great pie crust recipes out there.  I imagine any of them will do just fine for this recipe.  So, I did not share Cook's Illustrated Foolproof Single-Crust Pie Dough.  If you're interested, check it out yourself, and yes, you will need vodka.

After making this and trying it, I thought it turned out incredibly sweet.  The addition of yams was a nice touch; however, 3 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup makes this quite sweet.  Not overwhelmingly sweet but too sweet for me.  That is why I suggest reducing the amount of sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup or even 1/4 cup sugar and cutting the maple syrup from 1/4 cup to 1/8 cup.  The 1/4 cup maple syrup was definitely noticeable.  My taste buds should be feasting on the pumpkin and perhaps the yams - not the sugar and maple syrup.

Mark's Mishaps:

Well, I tried to make this particular pumpkin pie while also cooking dinner for my family which was a simple meal of turkey burgers; however, multi-tasking cooking for me in the kitchen is difficult to impossible.  Nothing got burned but I came close to spilling lots of stuff.  I should make that a rule - only cook/bake one thing at a time.  Make dinner, then dessert.  The only other worthy note is that this pie took four hours to cool.  It was ready to try at 11pm. My wife and I split a piece and thought it was really good.  With that, this recipe would be better prepared on a late Saturday morning after breakfast or perhaps an early Sunday afternoon after lunch.

Robert, Francisco J. “Revisiting Pumpkin Pie”
Cook's Illustrated Revolutionary Recipes

P.S.
I added a song to my cooking playlist - Bang Bang by David Sanborn.  Very fun song.  Check it out.  Enjoy.

Cook's Illustrated The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie (made better by me, Mark)

Cook's Illustrated The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie (made more perfect by me, Mark)

Recipe makes 16 cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or 1/ 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips - see Mark's Notes at the end).

3/4 cup pecans or walnuts toasted and chopped (optional)

Instructions:

1.  Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, then set aside.

2.  Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

3.  Whisk flour and baking soda in medium bowl, then set aside.

4.  Melt 10 tablespoons butter in 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat.

5.  Continue cooking and swirling butter constantly until butter is dark golden brown with nutty aroma (1 to 3 minutes).

6.  Transfer browned butter to large heatproof container.

7.  Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter and stir until completely melted.

8.  Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and vanilla extract to melted butter.

9.  Whisk until fully incorporated.

10.  Add egg and egg yolk.

11.  Whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining - about 30 seconds.

12.  Let sit for 3 minutes.

13.  Repeat steps 11 and 12 two more times - (whisk for 30 seconds, sit for 3 minutes, whisk for 30 seconds, and sit for 3 minutes).

14.  Mixture should now be thick, smooth, and shiny.

15.  Using a rubber spatula, stir in flour mixture (from step 3) until just combined - about 1 minute.

16.  Stir in chocolate chips (and nuts)

17.  Give dough final stir to ensure there are no flour pockets remaining and ingredients are evenly distributed.

18.  Working with 3 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll into balls and space them about two inches apart on prepared sheets.

19.  Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until golden brown, still puffy, and centers are soft - 10 to 14 minutes.  Rotate sheet halfway through.

20.  Let cookies sit on sheet for five minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

21.  Let cookies cool completely before serving.

22.  Enjoy!

Mark's Notes

1.  I did not use brown sugar.  I used all granulated sugar (Trish is allergic to molasses which is in brown sugar).

2.  I used dark chocolate chips rather than semi-sweet chocolate chips.

3.  I did not use the optional pecans or walnuts.

Mark's Story

This turned out to be an exercise in teamwork.  I asked Abby if she wanted to help me and she said yes.  Then Miriam said she wanted to help too and I told her yes as well.  Then Abby tried to back out of it so she wouldn't have to be around the "annoying younger sister".  I made both of them wash their hands and gave both different assignments for stirring and mixing.  So, both kids helped out and the cookies were really really good.

The only mishap that I have to report on this recipe is that I spilled vanilla extract on my Cook's Illustrated magazine recipe.  I go to clean it up and it took some of the ink with it - still readable though. So, now I have their wonderful recipe for Perfect Chocolate Chips posted here and I made it more perfect with the dark chocolate chips.

I highly recommend looking up the actual article "The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies" by Charles Kelsey to read about why this particular process he developed makes the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie.  

Kelsey, Charles. “The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie”
Cook's Illustrated Revolutionary Recipes