Thanksgiving to me is…mismatched chairs. A dining table extended by a card table, with an uneven break between the two. No elbow or leg room. Days spent planning which delicious dishes to make. Surrounded by family, friends, food and fun. It’s my absolute favorite holiday of the year.
For the past 20 years (give or take a few), we have celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents’ house in Augusta, GA. Our table each year includes the same group of friends, who are really considered family at this point. Spouses and children have joined the gang in the past ten years. Guests arrive around 6:30pm and dinner is served at 8:00pm. Nobody in this household sees the point of waking up at 6:00am to begin cooking.
There is a clear division of labor for our Thanksgiving prep. My mother is the executive chef. Mom oversees everything, tasting and adjusting along the way and giving the final stamp of approval. She is a terrific baker and usually bakes a pumpkin pie with the flakiest pie crust. My brother, Birju, roasts the turkey and makes the gravy and helps with the mashed potatoes, discovering a new turkey recipe and testing the latest, tastiest turkey technique. I make sides: sweet and spicy yams, savory Brussels sprouts, buttery mashed potatoes and a killer cheddar-jalapeno cornbread. Guests bring bean chili and salads to round out the meal for the vegetarians. My husband, Kumar, selects the beer and wine to pour that evening and with Dad, jumps in to do the dishes and empty the trash as soon as things start to pile up. Kristy, my sister-in-law, helps Kumar set the table and lends a hand where needed. Dad gently reminds us to take a break for lunch, not to start drinking too early (how could noon be too soon?) and that it is time to take our annual Thanksgiving walk.
This year, I gave Mom a break as head baker by baking what I hoped would be a scrumptious pumpkin pie rich in brown sugar and made by my friend Kirstin for a harvest dinner Kumar and I hosted a few weeks ago. This recipe may have come from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook; I can’t quite tell. All I know is that Kirstin’s pie was delicious and it looked relatively easy to make, as far as pies made from scratch go.
Thanksgiving this year was interesting. Our carefully planned prep quickly went to the wayside as we all competed for the attention of my gorgeous and precocious one-year old niece, Ariane, who has each of us wrapped around her teeny finger.
The pie didn’t quite turn out as perfectly as I’d hoped. The filling was a bit too spicy (maybe it was the Penzeys spices I used, which are pretty potent) and the crust stuck to the fluted pie dish. I also burned the crust a tad; I should have covered the crust at 40 minutes. Next time, I’ll reduce the spices by half and use a 10-inch pie dish. I’ll also reduce the flaky sea salt in the crust by half. Despite the pie’s shortcomings, it was still tasty, especially with fresh whipped cream. Hey, I’m not Martha Stewart. I wonder how many pies it takes her to get it perfect. I don’t have that luxury but I am blessed to be surrounded by lovely people who will eat just about anything I serve and enjoy it. Life is too short to pass up not-so-perfect homemade pie.
Brown Sugar Pumpkin Pie with Toasted Pecan Crust
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 Tsp. flaky sea salt
1¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus flour as needed
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 Tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tsp. ground ginger
1 Tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 Tsp. ground cloves
1/2 Tsp. salt
1 can (15 oz.) organic pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs
Sweetened whipped cream for serving
Position one rack in the bottom of the oven, another rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350° F.
On a rimmed baking sheet, toast the pecans on the middle rack until fragrant and lightly browned, 5-6 minutes. Pour onto a glass plate to cool, then finely grind in a food processor; take care not to overprocess them by turning them into a paste.
In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, beat the butter and granulated sugar until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg yolk and flaky sea salt. Add the ground pecans and 1¼ cups flour and stir, working the dry ingredients into the butter mixture by smearing it against the sides of the bowl, until the dough comes together in large, shaggy clumps.
On a lightly floured work surface, press the dough into a mound and knead it until it just comes together. Press the dough into a flat disk, then transfer to a 9-inch pie dish. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Use the bottom of a metal measuring cup dipped in flour to smooth and even out the dough. Crimp the edges with the tines of a fork, the freeze the pie shell for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, using a food processor, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt and process until smooth. Add the pumpkin puree, buttermilk and whole eggs. Process until combined.
Place the frozen pie shell on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour the filling into the shell and bake on the middle oven rack for 30 minutes. Remove the pie from the baking sheet and transfer directly to the lower oven rack. Bake until the center jiggles only slightly when the tie is tapped, 10-15 minutes longer. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
To serve, cut into wedges and top with whipped cream.
You posted it! I love it! Love your Thanksgiving division of labor…so fun when everyone chips in (maybe Kumar could teach my brother a lesson in table setting!). Keep up all your awesome work!
PS: my url is changing as of 1/1…I posted it above.
Thanks Tracy! You gave me the confidence to post my not-so-perfect pie
Kumar was a waiter at the club in Cooperstown so he’s got table setting down to a T. And napkin folding! I updated your link on my blogroll. I’m starving just reading your posts!
I used salted pecan halves and omitted the salt from the crust altogether. I also used slightly more pecans to balance out the dough, which may have prevented the crust from burning, but oven temps do vary from oven to oven, so this may have also contributed to the burning. With the spices, I love cinnamon and ginger and tend to go heavy on these, but I go lighter on cloves which can quickly overpower other flavors. I usually measure the spices and put into a smaller bowl one at a time and take a big sniff as a I add each spice to get what smells like the right balance. If it smells right, it will taste right! All that said, the pie sure looks tasty in the photo!
Thanks for the tips and the recipe, Kirstin. I will definitely have to try this one again because it was an easy – and delicious – made from scratch pie. Those recipes are hard to come by!
Yay! I am glad you posted it! Yes, I’m sure Martha Stewart most definitely had some mishaps before her perfection!
Thanks, Chelle! You’re right…the road to perfection is paved with mishaps and mistakes.