Over the past three years a lot more American products have become regularly available in the stores here. I can go and buy Blue Bell ice cream, Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies, and now even Wheat Thins any time I want. But there are still a lot of things that are difficult, if not impossible, to find, like canned pumpkin, which really throws a wrench in Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations. I even have a hard time finding pie pumpkins to make make a pie from scratch. Carving pumpkins are plentiful around Halloween, but pie pumpkins, well, no. How can it be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie?
The answer is carrots. Yes, carrots. I am amazed at what a good substitute they make for pumpkin. They supply the right texture and moisture and are plentiful around town. And flavor? Well, its close. If you eat pumpkin all the time, you will be able to tell a difference, but it you are one of those people who pretty much only eat pumpkin as pie at the holidays, you won't notice a difference. Let's face it, most pumpkin recipes are so heavily spiced that you don't really taste the pumpkin anyway.
To make your carrot puree, peel and slice the carrots, then boil or steam them until soft. Then mash them with a fork or whir 'em up in a food processor. You need just over a pound of carrots to make two cups. And if you like pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, or pumpkin cookies, the carrot puree works well for those, too. You can make a large batch of puree and put it in the freezer in one cup portions for easy future use.
Carrot Pie
1 deep, 9 inch, unbaked pie crust
2 eggs
2 cups carrot puree
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves
1 355 ml can evaporated milk
whipped cream for garnish
Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
In a mixer, beat the eggs. Add carrot puree and mix well. Make sure you mix on low speed to avoid adding air to your pie filling. The air will temporarily increase the volume of the filling, making it difficult to get it all into the pie crust, but will collapse as the cooked pie cools, leaving your pie under filled.
In a small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and cloves, then add to carrot puree and mix well. Add evaporated milk and mix.
Pour filling into the unbaked pie crust and jiggle a little bit to level. Bake in a 220°C (425°F) oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 175°C (350°:F) and bake for another 45 minutes (approximately). The pie is done when the center jiggles just slightly when you gently shake it.
Remove the pie from the oven and cool on a rack in a warm place in your kitchen. If the pie cools too quickly, it will crack. If you kitchen is very cool, turn off the oven and leave the pie inside with the door propped open for 30 to 45 minutes before moving to a rack to finish cooling.
For an extra special touch, sweeten your cream with maple syrup instead of sugar when you are whipping it.
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|96.51.84.xxx |m-d-Y H:i:s AnonymousSomewhere I've read that NOB commercial canners actually use a variety of butternut squash and just call it 'pumpkin'.
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|SAdministrator |m-d-Y H:i:s jenniferThat seems odd since Libby is saying that there will be a shortage of canned pumpkin this year because the pumpkin harvest was bad.
http://www.verybestbaking.com/libbys/classic/shortage.aspx
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|189.174.197.xxx |m-d-Y H:i:s mazbook - Pumpkin pieJennifer, My mom (and her mom) made some of the best pumpkin pies you would ever taste and never used a scrap of pumpkin in them. They used nothing but the flesh of the hard-shelled squash that were common years ago.
I would bet that the local calabaza, peeled and pulped with maybe just a little pumpkin added (the local calabaza has a bit more moisture than the hard-shelled squash they used…I think, so less liquid would have to be used,) but it should make just as nice a pumpkin pie as you've ever had. Much better than carrot IMHO.
If all else fails, I have several cans of pumpkin for pie left over from last year, and you are welcome to them. Just give me a call at 984-5078 or 916-7899 and let me know and I can bring them to the bookstore where it would be easy for someone to pick them up.
I'm at the bookstore right now, so I can't check, but I have 3 or 4 cans and you or anyone who wants them can have them.
David Bodwell
Editorial Mazatlán
Mazatlán Book & Coffee Company
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|SAdministrator |m-d-Y H:i:s jenniferDavid, that is so very generous! Can I stop by midday Wednesday and pick one up?
I think I am still learning to flex my brain a little and consider that there are other ways to do things than the way I have always done them. And my family has never been a big one for squash or gourd type vegetables, so I just didn't grow up with them. I will experiment with the local calabeza.
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|200.77.76.xxx |m-d-Y H:i:s Paul - pieSweet potato pie is also a great substitute for pumpkin pie, you can't tell the difference.
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|200.66.10.xxx |m-d-Y H:i:s heliosmazmiguel - substitution...is not the solutionLets call a cat a cat.
or would you settle for a rat.
A pumpkin pie is made with pumpkin...
If you make it with anything else, it is no longer a pumpkin pie.
To make an apple pie, you wouldn't use pears...
I sometimes have a hard time to keep up with you...
A carrot pie is a carrot pie...
It is like one of the local restaurant I have been in once...
They have rack of lamb on their menu...
when serve ... all you get it is a vulgar piece of sheep shoulder...
hm
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|SAdministrator |m-d-Y H:i:s jenniferyes, but carrot pie doesn't have the same holiday ring to it, and when you can't get what you want, it is sometimes better to substitute than go without.
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|200.66.10.xxx |m-d-Y H:i:s mike - holiday dessertsI do not argue with the fact that you can substitute
carrots for pumpkin... by the time you include the eggs, the sugar, the cinamon and allspice...
and if your are good at cooking, no one would know the difference...
But lets call it a Thanksgiving pie (with carrots),
or, in the style of a pumpkin pie...
Or a Xmas (carrot) pie made in the fashion of a pumpkin pie...
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