Caramel Pumpkin Pie

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs. She picked the Caramel Pumpkin Pie, which is a perfect recipe for fall. I don’t really like pumpkin pie all that much, but I was actually really excited to make this pie. With all the spices and the dark caramel in the filling, I thought that this would be very interesting. If you’d like the complete recipe, visit Janell’s blog.

I did make one change to this recipe: I made a gingersnap crust instead of a regular pie pastry. With all of the flavors of the pie, it seemed like that would be a good fit. The gingersnaps I bought were so crispy that they almost broke my food processor! It took quite a bit of work to make those gingersnap crumbs. I didn’t know if I should prebake the crust or not, I did prebake it and I think it got too done while the pie baked.

The pie starts with making a very dark caramel. I’m never sure how long it takes to make caramel, but this time mine got dark very quickly. My husband was surprised how dark it was, but it was just how Dorie described. I baked it up and it was a beautiful color. When I went to cut it, the crust was impossibly hard, almost brittle. I think it just baked too long. I chiseled out pieces and I really liked all the flavors. You kind of forget that it’s pumpkin pie, since it’s the other flavors that come through. My husband made a honey whipped cream to serve with the pie, which was really wonderful. For not liking pumpkin pie very much, I really enjoyed this pie. My crust was a little off, but I think I can fix that next time!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 322 and 323