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Polish Housewife

Polish recipes served up with tidbits of folklore, customs, and history

Pumpkin

Marie Callender’s Pumpkin Pie Recipe

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Marie Callender’s pumpkin pie recipe has always been my favorite. The spice combination is just right, and it’s just a little richer than everybody’s go to recipe, the one on the can of Libby’s pumpkin. This was the first pumpkin pie our children would eat, before Marie Callender’s pumpkin pie recipe they stuck to my pumpkin log for a Thanksgiving dessert.

Marie Callender's pumpkin pie recipe

Almost twenty years ago, our daughter’s band teacher was married to Marie Callender’s grandson. He was pressed into service one year, baking dozens on pies with Grandma’s recipe in the Middle School Home Ec (or whatever they’re calling it now) kitchen as a band fund raiser.

Marie Callender's pumpkin pie recipe just out of the oven

The kids and a few parents helped out as they baked late into the night. He was very careful, not to let anyone too close and he was mixing up the pie filing. Little did he, or any of us, know then, that in today’s world any recipe you want is just a click away.

I’m really happy that I could find versions of Marie’s famous recipe on multiple websites. It’s the one pumpkin pie recipe the whole family loves! I’ll be baking one for our family this Thanksgiving.

Marie Callender's pumpkin pie recipe ready to bake

For those of you outside the United States, Marie Callender was an avid home cook, like you and me, who found great success, and it all started with her pies. You can read more about her here.

Smacznego!

Lois

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Marie Callender's pumpkin pie recipe

Marie Callender’s Pumpkin Pie Recipe

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 65 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
  • Yield: Serves 6-8
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: American
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Description

This makes a pumpkin pie that’s just a little richer than the usual recipe with just the right amount of spice!

Ingredients

crust:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup shortening, butter, or lard
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3-4 tablespoons cold water

filling:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1-15 ounce can pumpkin (1 3/4 cups)
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425

crust:

  1. Combine flour and salt
  2. Fit in shortening (or other fat) with pastry blender, two butter knives, or using a food processor until the texture resembles small peas
  3. Sprinkle water over mixture, a tablespoon at a time, lightly stirring with a fork until just moist enough to hold together, too little water and the dough will crack, too much water and the dough will be sticky and tough
  4. Form into a ball and flatten until 3/4 inch thick on floured surface
  5. Roll into a circle 1 inch larger than 8 or 9 inch pie pan
  6. Fold pastry in half, transfer to pan
  7. Unfold an fit into pan
  8. Fold edges under to create a standing rim, flute

filling:

  1. Combine all ingredients until evenly mixed using a whisk, wooden spoon, or mixer
  2. Pour into pie shell
  3. Bake 15 minutes
  4. Reduce hear to 350 and bake 40-50 more minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean
  5. Cool before serving

Marie Callender's Pumpkin Pie Recipe, my family's favorite!

Zupa Dyniowa Pumpkin Soup

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It wasn’t until I moved to Poland that I roasted a pumpkin; there was no can of Libby’s pumpkin on the super market shelf. (If you want to try your hand at DIY pumpkin, checkout this post.) I roasted a pumpkin, had an enormous bowl of puréed product, and then looked for many ways to use pumpkin, such as this tasty pumpkin soup.

Pumpkin Soup

In the USA, we usually put pumpkin in sweets, pumpkin pie, anyone? Savory uses which have turned up during my adult years, seem creative, sophisticated, and European. I still remember the first time I had pumpkin and Italian sausage ravioli. It seemed like an unlikely combination, but surprisingly good. Like much of the world, savory dishes, like a pumpkin soup, are the normal use for pumpkin  in Poland.

Thick and creamy, this soup had just enough spice.  The heat was ever so subtle, almost an afterthought.  You’ll want to have pumpkin soup again before winter is over.  It’s a good idea to keep some of your puréed pumpkin in the freezer!

Smacznego!

Lois

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Pumpkin Soup

  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 30 mins
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Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 3/4 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon cumin
  • dash cayenne
  • 3 cups pumpkin puree
  • 2 1/2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar (I used a dark Muscavado)
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Directions
  2. Melt butter in soup pot over medium high heat
  3. Add onion and cook until translucent
  4. Add garlic and cook for about 2 minutes
  5. Add the next four spices, cook one minute
  6. Add pumpkin and broth, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes
  7. Remove from heat and puree, I used an immersion blender
  8. Add milk, brown sugar, and cream over medium heat, stirring until combined and sugar has dissolved
  9. Adjust seasonings as needed. I make my broth with bouillon cubes, so mine needed very little salt, but I did give it a generous grind of black pepper

 

 

Spiced Pumpkin Latte

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I’m not a barista, but I play one on TV.  No, seriously, my daughter is a very experience barista, and I know just enough to say I might be playing fast and loose with the term latte. I frothed with great abandon, just for the fun of it, with no thought about the proper amount of foam.

I’m whipping up this autumn treat with the pumpkin I roasted over the weekend.

Ingredients

1 cup milk (almond or soy milk for vegan)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
espresso to taste, approximately 1/2 cup

Directions

  • Combine milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and pumpkin.  I used and immersion blender to froth the mixture, and then heated it until steaming.
  • Fill cup(s) with espresso and top with hot milk mixture.
  • This made enough for two normal sized coffee cups, or one huge mug.

Pumpkin Log

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Pumpkin log

Ed’s aunt and uncle used to travel the country in their motor home; we always looked forward to them stopping in Tucson every fall.  One year, Aunt Eva Mae brought me copies of all of her favorite recipes, and pumpkin log is one that I’ve made MANY times.  When our daughters were young, they weren’t fans of pumpkin pie, so this was a popular substitute for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert. It felt traditional and tasted delicious!

It doesn’t take much pumpkin, only 2/3 of a cup.  I’ve roasted a whole pumpkin this year, but in the past when I used canned pumpkin, I would use a whole can, but make three batches of pumpkin log.  When wrapped in foil, they keep frozen very well – great to have on hand for holiday guests or to give as gifts. I often cut the logs in half before wrapping in foil and freezing. It makes a good amount to thaw, not that this will go uneaten on your countertop, far from it!

I can imagine dressing this up with tiny bits of candied ginger baked into the cake or a drizzle of chocolate ganache.

Smacznego!

Lois

 

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pumpkin log with cream cheese filling

Pumpkin Log

  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Prep Time: 40 mins
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 55 mins
  • Yield: 15 -18 slices
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: American
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Ingredients

for cake:

  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup pumpkin
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
  • powdered sugar, for dusting

for filling:

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
  • 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 cup powdered sugar, approximately

Instructions

for cake:

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. Spray with baking spray with flour.
  3. Beat eggs for five minutes, until light and fluffy.
  4. Mix in sugar until well combined; add pumpkin.
  5. Add remaining dry ingredients (except nuts) and mix until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl during the process.
  6. Pour batter into prepared pan.
  7. Sprinkle the top with nuts, if you’re using them. (I intended to, but forgot until it was too late.)
  8. Bake about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean or the top springs back when touched lightly.
  9. Spread out a tea towel or parchment paper, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
  10. Flip the cake out onto the tea towel so that the top (with nuts) is down and on the powdered sugar.
  11. Gently roll the cake up, and cool. This forms the cake, so that it will roll around the filling without cracking.

for filling and assembly:

  1. Combine all ingredients, adding a little more powdered sugar if the filling is too runny. It should be on the thin side, not too stiff, beat until smooth.
  2. Gently unroll the cake and remove the parchment which was on the bottom as the cake baked.
  3. Spread with filling and roll up the cake.
  4. Wrap and refrigerate or freeze until ready to slice and serve.

 

Roasted Pumpkin (cooking with fresh pumpkin not canned)

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Canned pumpkin isn’t available in Poland, so cooking with pumpkin is a very seasonal.  I want to say everyone is roasting pumpkins this time of year; it seems that way among the American cooks anyway.  We returned home with a pumpkin from the market Friday evening, to see on facebook that my friend Rhonda was “baking pumpkin and roasting seeds” just a few buildings away.

I have always been a fan of Barbara Kingsolver’s fiction; a couple of years ago, I read her non-fiction work, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.  The book recounts her family’s year long experiment to only eat what was raised locally.   I remember her lamenting in the book that every autumn when the local cooking columnist published pumpkin recipes, they always called for a can of pumpkin – never a fresh cooked pumpkin.  This, my first attempt at pumpkin roasting, is for you Barbara.

We picked out a small pumpkin, just 7 or 8 inches in diameter.  I cooked it just like I do acorn squash. Everything I’ve read suggest that small pumpkins are best for cooking.  When you combine that with the fact that we walk home carrying our groceries, it was an easy decision.

I sliced it in half.

I scooped out the seeds and slimy strings from the center.

I had every good intention of using the seeds – relishing the idea of apply the nose-to-tail philosophy to this gourd-like squash.  But I like pumpkin seeds hulled and the two methods I found online seemed like too much work!

I lined a baking sheet with foil, for easy clean-up, and placed the pumpkin on the foil, cut-side down.  I baked it at 350 F or 175 C for about an hour, until a fork is easily inserted.

Let the pumpkin cool and then scrape out of the shell.

I pureed it in three batches with my immersion blender.  You could also do this with a regular blender or food processor.  Our small pumpkin made 5 cups of pureed pumpkin – more than enough for two pies.  I’ll be making family favorite pumpkin log, and trying out pumpkin soup, maybe even a pumpkin spice latte!

Pumpkins

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The youth at church sell pumpkins every year to raise money for their summer mission trip.  This is half a semi-truck load.  I believe they come from a farm in New Mexico.  The variety of colors and textures is surprising; they’re beautiful!

 

Turkey – Pumpkin Chili

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It seems like pumpkin is turning up in everything this time of year.  When I read about the health benefits of pumpkin, the antioxidants and fiber, and see that a cup of pumpkin puree has only 1 Weight Watchers point, it’s no wonder.  I’ll be looking for more ways to work it into my diet.

Ingredients

1.2 lb. extra lean ground turkey
2 T. taco seasoning, (or one packet)
1 1/2 t. kosher salt
1 onion, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
3/4 c. diced green chili
1 jalepeno, seeded & deveined, finely diced
28 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
15 oz. can black beans, undrained
15 oz. can pinto beans, undrained
15 oz. can red kidney beans, undrained
15 oz. can pumpkin puree
4 c. chicken broth
1/4 t. cinnamon
salt, to taste

For a more stew-like chili, stir 1/2 c. corn starch into 1 c. cold water.  Add to chili after cooking 1 hour and simmer until thick.

Directions

Season ground turkey with taco seasoning, and kosher salt; brown in a large dutch oven.   Add remaining ingredients (except cornstarch and water).  Simmer 1 hour.  If desired add cornstarch & water.

Yields 24-1 cup servings, 2 WW Points per cup