Pie-Palooza Battle of the Squashes Bake-Off
Last December, eleven squash varieties competed in Fedco’s squash pie competition. In the spirit of fairness and the scientific method, we used the same recipe, spices, and even eggs from the same chickens, for each pie. The taste testing and voting were blind. An exciting afternoon of intense eating and consideration ensued. After careful vote counting, Sunshine kabocha emerged the undisputed winner!
To our surprise, second place went to the pie we made with a can of Libby’s pumpkin as a control. Fun fact: Libby’s canned pumpkin is actually made with a large C. moschata squash called Dickenson, which is not a pumpkin! Let us know what squash or pumpkin you think makes the best pies.
Here’s the recipe we used, based on classic Joy of Cooking recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 pie crust
- 2 cups squash (baked and puréed)
- 3 eggs
- 3–4 Tbsp. sugar, maple syrup, honey or other sweetener
- 2 Tbsp molasses
- 1½ cups heavy cream
- 3 tsp fragrant spices, like cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamon, ginger
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions:
- Heat oven to 300˚.
- Prebake crust for 5 minutes or until edges begin to color.
- Combine eggs, sugar, salt and spices until smooth.
- Add squash puree and blend until smooth. Slowly pour in heavy cream while beating.
- Pour filling into hot crust. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn oven to 325˚ and bake for another 20–25 minutes until filling is mostly set but the center still jiggles.
- Add squash puree and blend until smooth. Slowly pour in heavy cream while beating.