Pumpkin pie with spinach crust

Pumpkin pie with spinach crust

Ingredients

Pie Crust: 

½ cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes 

1⅓ cups all purpose flour 

½ teaspoon salt 

12-15 leaves of spinach 

1 tbsp water 

Pie Filling: 

1½ cups pumpkin puree 

2 eggs, beaten 

1 tsp corn starch 

½ cup whole milk

3 tbsp milk powder 

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger 

¼ tsp ground clove 

¼ tsp ground black pepper 

¼ tsp salt 

¾ cup brown sugar 

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C 

2. In a saucepan, heat the spinach leaves with 1 tbsp water until they are completely cooked. Using a sieve, strain the spinach leaves, pushing down on them to extract all the liquid. You should have about 3 tablespoons of the spinach water. Refrigerate it for 5-10 minutes. 

3. In a bowl, mix flour, butter and salt. Use your hands to work the cold butter. Add the cold spinach water, 1 tbsp at a time until the dough is just combined. 

4. Take the dough and roll it slightly in your hands so it is round in shape. Then flatten the dough on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin, about ⅛ inch thickness. Carefully lift the flattened dough and lay it into an 8-9 inch pie tin and trim the edges. If you have leftover pie dough, you can use it to make cookie decorations for the pie. 

5. Lay out parchment paper in the pie tin over the crust and fill with baking beans. If you don't have them, you can also use rice or pulses. Fill it to the top, and blind bake the pie crust for about 10 minutes. 

6. Take the pie tin out of the oven and carefully remove the paper with the beans and set it aside. 

7. Combine the milk and milk powder in a cup. You can also use evaporated milk instead of this combination. 

8. In a bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, spices, salt, sugar, corn starch, beaten eggs, and the milk mixture. The pie filling will be runny. 

9. Pour the pie filling into the blind baked crust and bake for about 30-40 minutes. You can also lightly shake the pie tin in the oven to check if it is done. If it slightly wobbles in the centre and the outer edges are cooked, it is done.

10. Take it out of the oven and cool it for about half an hour. You can decorate the pie with mint leaves cookie decorations from the leftover dough (if any). Do not cut into the pie immediately after baking as the filling will not be set. 

Enjoy!

Notes 

*For the cookie decorations, roll out the dough to ⅛ inch thickness and bake at 180°C for 10 minutes. You can also use an egg wash to make them brown more.

Picture courtesy and recipe written by Arundhathi, my daughter who is an enthusiastic cook and Wildlife Photographer.