11/18/11

Video Attempt: Deep Dish Pumpkin Meringue Pie


My senior year of college, I made a movie with my parents’ Hi8 camera, which I called: The Senior Documentary. It was nothing special as far as production value goes, hardly anything kids today—with their DSLRs, iMovies, and iClouds—would call Internet-worthy. It was just home-movie style, unedited and unscripted scene after scene that I shot of my roommates and me throughout the year. The whole thing lives on a VHS tape, and though I would love to, I haven’t been able to watch it since Matt and I got rid of our VHS player, 6 or 7 years ago.There was one short, scripted drama, however, titled A Wartime Romance, which starred me and my roommates, one of whom was Mary Anne who I introduced you to last week. Well, without further adieu, I give you Mary Anne and my latest onscreen performance: Bon Appétempt Makes a Pumpkin Pie. Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you enjoy watching our all-day baking adventure as much as we enjoyed this pie!

Deep Dish Pumpkin Meringue Pie via Martha Stewart with many a note from yours truly
For the Crust / a.k.a. Pate Brisee
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Pulse flour, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. Drizzle 1/4 cup ice water evenly over mixture. Pulse until mixture holds together when pressed between 2 fingers (dough should not be wet or sticky). If dough is too dry, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse.

Shape dough into 2 small disks, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
FYI: For this pumpkin pie, you only need one of these disks of dough. You can freeze the other half and use it for your next pie down the road or, you could always make another pie that doesn't require a layer of crust on top! Pecan, perhaps?

Filling
3 large eggs
1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Meringue
2 cups granulated sugar
8 large egg whites, room temperature

Set 8 eggs out so that they can start to think about coming to room temperature. (For the fluffiest meringue, you want room temp. eggs.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make the crust: Roll out pate brisee to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Fit dough into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Trim edges, leaving a 1-inch overhang; fold edges under and crimp as desired. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Line crust with parchment, and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until edges just start to turn golden, about 15 minutes. (Careful taking this out of the oven! You'll notice that with mine, when I grabbed it, I knocked one of the edges in with my oven mitt so it looks kind of smooshed on one side. Minor bummer.) Remove pie weights or beans and parchment. Bake until crust is golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes more. Let cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk together eggs, pumpkin, evaporated milk, brown sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the nutmeg in a large bowl. (In the video, I forgot to say brown sugar and cornstarch. SORRY. They're in there!)

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Pour filling into cooled crust. Bake until center is set but still slightly wobbly, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool in pie plate set on a wire rack. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 6 hours (preferably overnight). (If possible take your time letting the pie cool completely. In a rush for time, and with Mary Anne leaving early the next morning, we chilled ours for only about 2 hours, and what ends up happening is that the meringue kind of sinks into the middle of the pie a bit. Not the end of the world, but not ideal either)

Just before serving, make the meringue: Combine granulated sugar and egg whites in the heatproof bowl of a mixer set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Transfer bowl to mixer, and whisk on medium speed for 3 minutes. Raise speed to high, and whisk until stiff glossy peaks form, about 6 minutes more. Dollop meringue onto pie, and spread using a swirling motion.

Hold a small handheld kitchen torch at a 90-degree angle 3 to 4 inches from surface of meringue. Move flame back and forth until meringue starts to brown. OR: For those torch-less people out there (like us), blast your oven to 500 and bake the entire pie until the meringue starts to brown. If the oven is hot enough, this should only take a few minutes.

27 comments:

Matthew said...

This pie was AWESOME (even if it looked kinda weird in the middle). Mare will happy to know she made our on-going blooper reel a couple times...

Joy said...

woot woot looks amazing.

Mary Anne said...

This was the highlight of my month!! I am so sad it's over. When can I come back???

P.S. The pie was really quite amazing!

charlotte au chocolat said...

this video is just adorable. and that pie looks delicious!

jeana sohn said...

you girls are so cute and the pie looks OMG. it was nice to meet mary anne!

Brock James said...

Couple of questions:

1) If i forget my pie weights, can i use 16 oz of dried macaroni & cheese powder packet from a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese? B/c i don't generally have "lentils."

2) When popping open a bottle of Prosecco or sparkling wine, i recommend putting a dish towel over the cork while twisting/pulling it open. Then, even if the cork flies out and tries to kill someone, it will have a dish towel over it, ruining its plans.

(That's not a question, actually.)

Matthew said...

BROCK! Your pt. 1 is a bit of multitasking brilliance. "While baking the pie crust, go ahead and make mac & cheese in there..."

Holly B said...

This. Is. Amazing.

The perfect inspiration for my next adventure in the kitchen as we quickly approach Thanksgiving!

Thank you for sharing!!

Meister @ The Nervous Cook said...

Utterly delightful. 100% charming. And just look at that pie! Holy mountain of meringue.

(Nice use of lentils, BTW.)

Hope you have a fantastic and delicious T-giving. Looks like you're already well on the way to holiday success!

Shelley said...

That was the world's tallest pie! It looked amazing too, btw! Mary Anne, want to make one over Christmas? Love your blog, Amy!

Love from Mary Anne's Mom

Jessica said...

So much fun!! I love these videos!! Always excited for your Sunday posts.
-Jess

Anonymous said...

I will always be the third roommate! Love and miss you guys!

--your little sonni

Mombers and Dadbers said...

Harriet seemed to approve of the pie. Also, Mombers and Dadbers did not turn off the TV. Wonderful pie and great video.

Heather Taylor said...

Mombers/Dadbers TOTES just turned off the TV. Super cute! Love seeing Mare's pretty face alongside that of young Amy!

Amelia Morris said...

awww so much to respond to here!

1. It had to come out at some point, I guess! That Matt and I call his parents Mombers and Dadbers.

2. Brock: Guess what else you could use, apart from mac n cheese? Pennies!! (Someone recently told Mare as much.) Surely, you could wrangle up some pennies, couldn't ya? Also, thanks for the tip! I have actually done that before with the dish towel, but must have gotten camera shy. who knows?

3. Hi Shelley!! Your daughter is the best!

4. Hi Sonni! Can we please watch A Wartime Romance soon??

AG said...

totally going to make this on Thursday. It will be the only thing I make, as we are going out to eat on Thanksgiving.

Dolcie said...

Hi Amelia! I've been reading your blog for a few months now and I just had to tell you that I love your videos! They are so fun to watch and I like that you keep it real.

Amelia Morris said...

@K sending you all the best Martha-Stewart-recipe tackling energy! let me know how it turns out!

@Dolcie Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Julia said...

This looks delicious! But how does the eggy-sugary-ness of the meringue go with pumpkin? Was there a big textural difference?

Stephanie said...

This was charming! Gotta love Martha and your sarcasm! That is one seriously high pie. Kudos on completing that labor of love. I'm loving your blog by the way, fabulous writing.

Amelia Morris said...

@Julia good question. The meringue was a fun change of pace and definitely works with the pumpkin pie, though I think, ultimately, I prefer my pumpkin pie with a less sweet topping, like your classic barely sweetened whipped cream.

Eva said...

So, you inspired me to attempt your attempt (I was not planning on making pumpkin pie this year, it's the middle of summer where I am!!)...I hope you don't mind, if you'd like to check it out it's here:http://cocala.blogspot.com/2011/12/attempting.html
love your blog, you always make me laugh.

tunie said...

The video was great however it made me want to blend that meringue into the pie filling, Then bake it...wonder how that would be? Sounds delicious really.

Eric said...

Looks so good that I want to slap my momma :)

Sarah P said...

are you jewish?

Junaberry said...

^ lol at the above

and yes, i am reading/watching your very old blog post/video because i think i'm in love with you? never stop this blogging/cooking business. thx

Amelia Morris said...

haahhaa! Thanks! And I love when people check out our video archives!! I look so much younger and less pregnant! :)