Blair Waldorf Must Pie!

Before we get to all the christmas-y stuff I still have one recipe to post that is connected with a holiday that's not Christmas, but ... Thanksgiving! If you haven't spent all your life in a cave, you know that Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November, and that was last week. We don't really celebrate Thanksgiving in Germany but I'll be damned if I pass up on a holiday that gives me an excuse to bake something as delicious as Pumpkin Pie.

This year's pie is even better than last year's, and that's saying something...!

 Pumpkin Pie
(Recipe by flour and butter)

170 g/1.5 cups flour
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 cups butter
60-120 ml/0.25-0.5 cups cold water
450 g/2 cups pumpkin puree
150 g/0.75 cups brown sugar
1.25 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 tsp cardamon
1 pinch nutmeg
0.25 tsp ground cloves
4 eggs
360 ml/1.5 cups single/light cream

Cut up the butter. Mix flour and salt in a medium bowl, then add the butter. Add a little of the cold water and knead until you have a slightly sticky dough, adding more water or flour if necessary. Wrap up the dough and put in the fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 200° C/400° F, then take the dough out of the fridge, roll it out and put it in a pie tin. (If you're as lazy as me you can skip the rolling out, just put the dough in the pie tin and squish it around until the tin is lined.) Line with aluminium foil and pre-bake for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, combine the pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, cardamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a large bowl. Add eggs and beat lightly for a few minutes, then add the cream and combine.

Take the pie tin with the pre-baked crust out of the oven, remove the foil, and pour in the filling. Then cover the tin with foil again and put it back into the oven. Be careful, the filling is very, very thin. I had some filling left over which I poured into a smaller tin and baked with the pie. Served hot, it makes a delicious pudding!

Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 25-35 minutes. It's done when a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Let it cool, then cut into slices and eat, preferably while watching the Thanksgiving episode from the first series of Gossip Girl.