Ingredients

Pie dough

1. 250g Plain Flour
2. 10g Granulated sugar
3. ½ teaspoon Salt
4. 180g Unsalted butter (very cold)
5. 80g Water (very cold)
6. Egg white for egg washing the bottom of the pie crust
7. Egg yolk mixed with a splash of cream for egg washing the edge of the pie crust

Pumpkin filling

1. 380g Pumpkin puree
2. 50g Granulated sugar
3. 50g Brown sugar
4. 3 Egg yolk
5. 8g Corn starch
6. 180g Double cream
7. 1 tablespoon lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
8. 1 cinnamon stick
9. Zest of one orange (peeled, not grated)
10. Whole Nutmeg

Decoration

1. Pie Leaves using leftover pie dough
2. 20 g double cream (cold)
3. 20 g cream cheese (room temp)
4. 5 g icing sugar
5. 1 cinnamon stick

Equipment

1. Pie tin (23cm in diameter)
2. Leaf cookie stamp (optional)
3. Pie weights for blind baking (optional, rice can work too)

Method

For the pie dough

1. Tip 1: Make sure all ingredients of the pie dough are very cold, even your kitchen temperature should be relatively cold (18-20c). If at any point the dough gets too warm or butter starts to melt, pop it back the freezer for a minute or two
   Tip 2: Do not over work or knead the pie dough, in fact butter chunks staying in the dough encourage the pie to achieve a lovely flaky texture
   Tip 3: To minimalize the risk of soggy bottom pie, the crust needs to be fully pre-baked (blind baking) before pouring the pumpkin filling in
2. In a large bowl whisk flour, sugar and salt until fully combined and cut butter into small cubes
3. Pop butter cubes, flour mixture and water into the freezer for 10-15 minutes
4. Once all ingredients are nicely chilled, add very cold butter cubes into flour and rub the mixture between your fingers until it becomes a sand like consistency. Leave some bigger butter chunks in the mixture, no need to fully incorporate butter into flour
5. Add very cold water into the dough, a small amount at a time and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon after each addition
6. Start working the dough with your hands, first it will look crumby but it should come together in the next minute or so. Remember, leave in some butter chunks, do not overwork the dough, do not use a mixer
7. Form a disk, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for minimum 2 hours
8. After 2 hours take the pie dough disk out of the fridge and let it rest few minutes on the kitchen counter. The dough should stay cold but slightly warmed up to be able to roll it out without breaking it
9. Transfer the disk to lightly floured surface and start rolling it out, make sure you turn the dough with your hands after each rolling so it will become even. No need to add too much flour while rolling, the pie dough should be cold enough not to stick to the kitchen counter. If at any point the dough gets too warm, pop it back to the freezer for a minute and continue.
10. If you are using a 23 cm pie dish, roll the dough into 27 cm in diameter. Remember, do not force the dough, after rolling it should stay smooth and cold, easy to work with
11. Trim the rolled out dough into 27 cm in diameter then carefully place the dough into a 23 cm pie dish. Leftover pie dough will be used later for the leaf decoration
12. Fold the extra 2cm edge of the crust then flute with your fingers
13. Chill pie dough again in the freezer for 30 minutes
14. Pre-heat oven to 200 C
15. After 30 minutes line pie crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights (rice can work completely fine too). Blind bake pie crust for 15 minutes
16. After 15 minutes remove pie weight, apply a thin layer of egg wash (using egg white only) on the bottom of the pie crust, this will support the crust not to get wet from the filling. Bake the pie crust again now without pie weight for further 15 minutes.

For the pumpkin filling

Tip 4: For a custard like creamy, delicious pumpkin filling egg yolk needs to be tempered first with warm cream, do not skip this step
Tip 5: Feel free to experiment with your favourite spices. I am using orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg, other ideas can be vanilla bean, cloves, pumpkin spice, ginger etc.

1. While dough is resting in the fridge, start making the cream infusion. Heat cream until simmering then place 1 cinnamon stick and the zest of 1 orange (peeled) into the hot cream, cover the saucepan and set aside for the cream to get infused with cinnamon and orange flavours
2. After 2 hours, while pie crust is blind baking, remove orange zest and cinnamon stick and heat cream again until simmering. Mix egg yolk with corn starch then pour warm cream over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a hand whisk. This stage is tempering the egg yolks and the mixture should slightly thicken
3. In a saucepan heat pumpkin puree with two different kinds of sugar and cook the mixture for 2-3 minutes. Add lemon juice in, that will balance the flavours
4. Fold warm pumpkin puree mixture with egg yolk cream mixture then grate nutmeg on top and fold in

Assembling

Tip 6: Filling needs to be poured into the pre-baked crust while it is warm, this again will help the crust not to get soggy from the filling
Tip 7: Crack on the pie can develop when baking temperature is too high or baked too long, make sure you avoid these. Also, after pouring the filling in try to get rid of any air bubbles with the help of a fork, this encourages even baking

1. Once pumpkin filling is ready and still warm and pie crust fully baked (should be golden brown after 30 minutes baking), carefully pour warm pumpkin filling into the pie crust
2. Apply light egg wash (egg yolk + splash of cream) on the edge of the pie crust
3. Since we are making a custard like creamy pie, it is recommended to lower oven temperature to 175C at this point and bake the pie for longer, about 50 minutes. Cover the edge of the pie crust around with aluminium foil if at any point it was browning too much
4. At the end of the baking time the edge of the crust should be beautiful golden brown, the side of the filling should be set and the middle of the filling might be still a bit wobbly
5. Let the pumpkin pie cool on room temperature for at least 3 hours. The pie will further set as it cools, so make sure you do not attempt to serve or cut the pie straight after baking

Decoration

Tip 8: Feel free to decorate the pie according to your preference, eg. your favourite pie crust pattern or simply serve with lightly whipped cream

1. Using the leftover pie dough make the leaf decorations. Either cut the leaf pattern by hand using a sharp knife or use leaf cookie stamps
2. Bake the leaf decorations in 200C for 15 minutes or until golden brown
3. Place the leaves on the pie after both pie and leaves are cooled
4. Whip heavy cream, cream cheese and icing sugar with an electric hand mixer for a minute until it reaches a pipeable consistency
5. Pipe decoration on top then place one cinnamon stick on top of the piping