Family Cooking Workshop

Pumpkin Pie

Pastry dough
2 cus flour
1 cup cold butter cut to pieces
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup ice water

Pie filling
2 cups roasted pumpkin flesh, pureed
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 stp salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup milk
4 eggs

For pastry Dough:
Place the dry ingredients in food processor and pulse to blend. Place butter in processor and pule 8-9 1 second pulses until dough reembles corn meal. Turn on machine and slowly add water until dough begins to hold together. It is important not to overmix the dough. Wrap dough in saran and chill for at least an hour.

Meanwhile prepare pumpkin filling:
Cut open pumpkin and remove seeds. Preheat oven to 350. Cut pumpkin in half and lightly oil the cut edges. Place cut egdes down on cookie sheet and roast in oven until tender, approx 1 hr. Scoop cooked pumpkin flesh out of skin and puree in blender or food processor. Add brown sugar, spices and salt. Transfer pumpkin mixture to sauce pan and simmer. Cook until thick, approx 5 min.

Increase oven temp to 375

Roll pastry dough out to fit pie pan. Place in oven to precook shell. You may want to line the shell with foil and weight it down with another pan or pie weights. This will prevent the shell from puffing during the precooking. Bake until light golden in color, about 25 min.

As soon as the pie shell comes out of the oven, adjust an oven rack to the lowest
position and increase the oven tempature to 400 degrees. Whisk the heavy cream and milk into the pumpkin and bring to a bare simmer. Process the eggs in a food processor
until the whites and yolks are combined, about 5 seconds.With the motor running, slowly pour about half of the pumpkin mixture through the feed tube. Stop the machine and add in the remaining pumpkin mixture. Process 30 seconds longer.
Immediately pour the warm filling into the hot pie shell.(Ladle any excess filling into the pie after it has baked for 5 minutes or so, by this time the filling will have settled.) Bake the pie until the filling is puffed, dry-looking, and lightly cracked around the edges, and the center wiggles like gelatin when the pie is gently shaken, about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour.

Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:

1 oven roasted chicken, picked apart approx 4 cups meat
3 carrots peeled and diced
2 stalk celery chopped
1 medium onion chopped
herbs, your choice
3-4 cups chicken stock
pastry or pie dough for 9" pie
egg white mixed w/1tbps water for egg wash
butter or oil for sauteing vegetables
2 tbsp butter combined with 2 tbsp flour to make a paste

Preheat oven to 350

Heat butter or oil in large skillet. Add onions and cook until soft. Add carrots and celery and cook until tender. Put 3 cups chicken stock in pan and reduce liquid by half. Add butter/flour paste to pan to thicken sauce. When the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, add the chicken.

Place chicken mixture into pie pan. Roll out pastry dough to an 11" circle. Place pastry over pie. Gently brush egg white mixture over pie cust. Place pie in a preheated 350 oven for 30-45 min or until pastry is browned.

Crepes with Apples sauteed in Brown Sugar and Butter

Crepes
1 cup flour ( instant blending preferred)
2/3 cup each water and milk
3 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp melted butter

Measure flour into lg bowl and gradually add the 2/3 cup of both water and milk. If batter is very lumpy, pass through a fine strainer. Next add the eggs, salt and 3 tbsp
of the melted butter. Allow mixture to sit for 10 min -1hr.

Meanwhile melt 4 tbsp butter in lg skillet. When butter has melted, add the slice apples and cook over low-med heat until apples are tender. When apples are ready, increase heat slightly and add 1/2 cup brown sugar and allow sugar to carmelize a bit.You can add any desired seasonings: cinnamon, brandy, nutmeg etc.

To make crepes:
Add 1 tbsp melted butter to a 9-10" nonstivk skillet. Swirl pan so butter coats surface. Add a ladle full of crepe batter to pan and quickly swirl so the pan has a thin coating of crepe batter. This may take some practice, don't be discouraged if you have to throw the first one out.

Place some sauteed apples in crepe and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.