Orange comfort

« A Fennicized Chiffon Pumpkin Pie. Make your own as I ate this one already. :) »

Oh, I've got loads of stuff to write about but my thoughts are so disorganized and scattered lately that it makes it difficult to produce the goods. There are a few more food related things, Riga photos and a few fun odds and ends coming soon if I can get it together before the seemingly near end of times arrives.

Autumn, more than any other season it seems, makes me crave certain seasonal foods like caramel apples made with freshly picked golden delicious apples from Eckert's, caramel and chopped pecans. Most of these foods are either rare or unknown in Finland so when I read the recipe for Chiffon Pumpkin Pie on Simply Recipes, I felt compelled to try making it with what is available here.

Pumpkin, rather curiously, is almost completely absent from the Finnish culinary radar. In fact, the pumpkins sold at the market are labeled as 'pickling' pumpkins since pickled pumpkin is the only form you'll find around here. Latvia, on the other hand, has pumpkin in many of its dishes ranging from entrées to desserts. Why Finns never took to using pumpkin is an interesting question. My initial taste test on a few Finns was ok, but reserved, though a few really enjoyed it. But, in the absence of Libby's canned pumpkin (the expat extortion shop in Kamppi is gone), fresh whole pumpkins can be had and it's rather painless to make your own purée. Pumpkin has been on the American menu since before there was an America. Rick Rogers in Thanksgiving 101 explores just how important the pumpkin was to the Indians and the settlers and the origin of the pumpkin pie:

The Indians probably roasted pumpkin over an open fire or boiled it with maple syrup. Pumpkin pudding became one of the favorite dishes of the Puritan era. The pumpkin flash was scooped out, mixed with milk, spices, and syrup, then returned to the pumpkin shell, where it was roasted for hours in hot ashes. It is easy to see where the basic recipe for pumpkin pie filling came from. Known to the settlers as pompion (the name given by French explorers in the late 1500s), pumpkin saved them from starvation in the lean early years of their colony.

One of the first recipes for pumpkin pie appeared in 1655 in a British book called Queens Closed Open. This version represents the then-current taste for highly seasoned foods, and includes thyme, rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, cloves and apple. In 1672, an English-American merchant named John Josselyn was already calling pompion stew "an Ancient New England dish." He says to take diced ripe squash and "...so fill a pot with them of two or three gallons, stew them upon a gentle fire a whole day, then as they sink...fill again with fresh pompions not putting any liquor to them and when it is stirred enough it will look like baked Apples, this Dish putting Butter to it and Vinegar and some Spice as Ginger which makes it tart like an Apple, and so serve it up to be eaten with fish or flesh." Josselyn's "stew" would be recognized today as the pumpkin butter put up by New England cooks. Amelia Simmons included "pompkin" pie in the first American cookbook, published in 1796.

The history of the modern pumpkin pie can be dated back to 1929. In that year, Libby, McNeil and Libby bought a small pumpkin pie cannery, Dickinson Canning Company. The little cannery's pride and joy was its special eating pumpkin, now called the Dickinson variety. Eating pumpkins, very different from the Jack-o'-lantern varieties grown for their size and appearance, are elongated and buff-colored with thin walls. The Dickinson is noted for its bright orange color, creamy texture, and fresh taste. Libby's took years to develop its own strain, improving upon the Dickinson, called "Libby's Select."

I made the pie according to the recipe and it failed rather miserably. It tasted good, but the pie never set, not even after being in the freezer, which I attributed to the 1/2 cup of rum, not enough gelatin and not draining the pumpkin purée before using it. I'm reasonably certain the 1/2 cup of rum was a misprint from the Boston Globe or an overly generous Granny with a taste for rum as it seems rather unlikely that a pie with that much rum could set properly. So, I reworked the recipe a bit, adjusted some of the ingredients and changed the technique a bit to make a reliable recipe for expats here hankering for a pumpkin pie and Finns wanting to try something different. Pumpkin is good stuff, even if you can't, like myself, stand the smell and the slimy innards of a fresh pumpkin.

Chiffon pies have been said to be the "First really new pie of the twentieth century" (Rare Bits, pg. 256) and debuted in the early 1920's as "soufflé" or "gelatin" pies. In The American Century Cookbook it goes into some detail about the history of the pie.

"Chiffon pies were invented in 1921 by a professional baker who lived in Iowa. By beating egg whites with a fruit-flavored syrup until the mixture was light and fluffy, he achieved a filling that his mother said 'looked like a pile of chiffon.'"

It's a story I've been unable to substantiate. Besides, Knox Gelatine's 1915 booklet, Dainty Desserts for Dainty People features gelatin "sponges," "marshmallow puddings," and "marshmallow creams" - the airy mixes that would one day emerge as chiffon fillings. It only took a few more years for someone to pile them into pie shells.

Searches of several dozen early-twentieth-century cookbooks turned up a few "soufflé" and "sponge" pies, but these contained no gelatin and/or whipped cream. They were baked pies with stiffly beaten egg whites folded in just before they went into the oven.

[...]

Chiffon pies remained popular right through the '70s. Then in the 1980s when salmonella began compromising the wholesomeness of our eggs, they fell from favor. But only briefly. Savvy food manufacturers discovered that powdered egg whites, cream cheese, whipped toppings and marshmallow cream could double nicely for raw egg whites.

Thus, '90s chiffon pies are likely to contain no eggs at all. And sometimes no gelatin. There's usually no stinting, however, on whipped cream.

Finland doesn't appear to have a problem with salmonella so, aside from egg whites being pretty low risk anyway, it's likely safe to use them. I'm not dead yet. :) You can also substitute meringue powder or make an italian meringue while adjusting the sugar in the recipe to avoid sugar overload.

What's really great about making this pie is how the taste of nutmeg and pumpkin really hit me with a taste I've not had in three years or more. It can be occasionally amazing how certain flavours and scents can evoke such a powerful sense of memory and feeling. This pie would be great in spite of its rarity here, but it's even better than cheeze-its in terms of expat comfort food. :) Now all I need is a heap of roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and mom's weird, but good, cranberry mold.

Chiffon Pumpkin Pie

Makes: 1 9 inch/24cm pie
Requires: Springform pan
Time: Preparation, about 1h. Total, 6h-12h(if chilled overnight)

Crust:

• 1 cup or 200g crushed piparkakut or digestive biscuits
• 1/4 cup or 1/2 dl sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
• 3 tablespoons or 42g butter, melted

Filling:

• 3 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup or 1,25dl milk
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (muscovado), packed
• 6 2g sheets or 2 envelopes gelatin
• 1 3/4 cups (1 can) or 4,25 dl fresh pumpkin purée or plain canned pumpkin
• 2 teaspoons dark rum or 1 teaspoon rum extract
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (viinikivi)

Topping:

• 1 cup or 2,5 dl heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon rum/vanilla extract
• crushed or halved piparkakut/digestives

For the pumpkin purée: Cut a pumpkin (not jack-o'-lantern variety) weighing about 2-3kg/4.5-7lb into quarters, scrape the seeds away, place on a lightly oiled baking pan, cover with foil and bake in an 325F/175C oven for about an hour to an and a half or until the flesh is very tender. Score the pumpkin with a knife after about 30 minutes. Scrape the cooked pumpkin away from the skin with a spoon into a bowl and purée with a hand blender or a food processor. Discard the skin. Pour puréed pumpkin into a fine wire sieve or cheesecloth, place over a bowl and leave to drain for several hours until it is a thick paste. Don't skimp on the draining of the pumpkin as it will make for a pie that doesn't set properly and has a slimy texture.

For the crust: Preheat the oven to 325F/175C. Butter a 9-inch/24cm springform pan. Line the bottom with baking paper.

Crush piparkakut/digestives in a food processor, with a hand blender or with a rolling pin into fine crumbs. Mix in sugar and ginger well and pour butter evenly over the top. Blend together well and press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Use the bottom of a glass to press the mixture firmly and evenly. Bake the crust for 8-15 minutes, until it is lightly browned.

For the filling: Combine nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, salt and brown sugar in a bowl and set aside. Place 6 sheets of gelatin in a bowl of cold water to soften. In a saucepan, combine the 3 egg yolks and milk with a whisk over a medium-high heat and stir with a whisk until it begins to thicken. Do not boil! Remove from heat, stir in the sugar and spices and whisk until well blended. Squeeze water from the softened gelatin sheets and quickly dissolve in the hot custard. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes and stir in pumpkin and rum or rum extract. Pour into a bowl and place in the refrigerator until it just begins to set, about an hour or so.

Once the pumpkin mixture has begun to set, put the egg whites into a dry bowl and mix on low speed until they are a bit foamy. Add sugar and cream of tartar and mix on high speed until it forms soft but firm peaks. Don't overbeat to stiff peaks or else the whites won't blend evenly with the pumpkin mixture. Fold the whites into the pumpkin mix and pour into the springform pan. Place the pan into the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or, optimally, overnight.

For the topping: Whip cream, sugar and rum/vanilla flavouring to soft peaks. Remove the pan from the refrigerator and spread the cream evenly over the top of the pumpkin layer. Refrigerate for another hour or so. When ready to serve, take a dish towel, soak it in hot water, wring out and use to warm the sides of the pan. Take a dull knife and run it around the edge of the pie before gently removing the springform rim. Pipe cream around the edge of the pie if desired, garnish with crushed or halved piparkakut/digestives, slice into wedges and serve.