A fun take on a more traditional pie, this pie doubles as a cute centerpiece. And these cute little pies have great squash flavor that really adds to the pumpkin pie experience. Beyond that, they’re adorable, and a great treat for kids.

You may have noticed that I’m not using an actual pumpkin. Instead, this is a flavorful orange kabocha squash I picked it up on a recent trip to a local farm. While I do love to use sugar pie pumpkins for my pies, I am just as happy with squash like kabocha or butternut. They can be much easier to track down, and have terrific flavor. Here, I’ve used a 5&Prime kabocha squash, though the base of a small butternut would work as well.

Pumpkin Pie in the Pumpkin
makes 4 pies

Ingredients:

   four  5 to 6&Prime squash, such as butternut or kabocha

   for the dough (adapted from Cooks Illustrated)
   1 1/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
   1/2 teaspoon salt
   1/2 tablespoon sugar
   8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
   1/6 cup ice water
   1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream

   for the filling
   1 cup heavy cream
   2 tablespoons flour
   1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin puree)
   3 room-temperature eggs
   1/2 cup brown sugar (more for a sweeter pie)
   2 tablespoons granulated sugar
   1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
   1 teaspoon ground ginger
   1/2 teaspoon fresh grated cinnamon
   1/2 teaspoon cloves
   1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
   1/2 teaspoon salt
   several grinds of black pepper (white pepper is even better if you have it)

Complete instructions here

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