The Most Perfect Pumpkin pie with Ginger Beer

Pumpkin pie is this dessert that people always see as very seasonal and which it is. No such better thing than pumpkin pie in pumpkin season, I always have some butternut squash pumpkins or a sugar pumpkin laying around during this time of the year. And what better to combine classic pumpkin pie with one of my favorite drinks: ginger beer. I haven’t used too much ginger beer in this recipe, but it just gives the pie this extra gingery and sweet flavour. My favorite ginger beer to use are the ones from Bundaberg.

For this ginger beer pumpkin pie I am using one of my standard pie dough recipes, which is coming soon to my dough page as one of the basics! The other things that make this pie is just the creaminess of the pumpkin puree and the amazing spices that we are going to use. If you have a pumpkin laying around, I would definitely use this, but you can always go for a more convenient canned pumpkin puree.

So let’s bake this!

Ingredients

For the pie crust you will need:

• 300 g | 2 cups all purpose flour
• 113 g | 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

For the ginger beer and pumpkin filling you will need:

• 425 g | 15 oz freshly roasted pumpkin puree or canned pumpkin puree
• 80 ml | 1/3 cup ginger beer
• 396 g | 1 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp freshly ground ginger or ginger powder
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper and salt

Directions

• Roast: Skip this step when you are using canned pumpkin puree. Preheat your oven to 200°C  or 400°F. Cut it in half, remove seeds and roast it in the oven for 40 minutes on a with aluminium foil lined baking sheet. Peel of the skins/scrape out the flesh and mix it in a blender with the ginger beer until smooth. Set aside.
• Dough: Preheat your oven to 200°C  or 400°F. Add your flour, sugar and salt to a food processor and give it a few pulses. Then add in the cold butter, cubed into small pieces, and mix until little pea size bits form. Take the mixture to a bowl and slowly add in some cold water (can be up to a few tablespoons). Add tablespoon for tablespoon until your dough comes together. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in your fridge for half an hour or overnight.
• Prebake: Roll out your dough in a rough circle with a width of half a centimerer. Grease your 9-inch springform pan with some butter and place your dough in it. Add parchment paper over the dough with some pie weights or rice on it and bake it blind for 15 minutes.
• Pumpkin Time: Adjust the temperature of the oven to  165°C  or 325°F. Put your blended pumpkin in a large bowl and mix in the condensed milk, eggs and egg yolk. Now mix in all your spices. Pour your filling into your pre-baked piecrust and tap it a few times on the counter to get rid of any airbubbles. Now bake it for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes until your filling is completely set and an inserted knife comes out clean. Let it cool down and enjoy.

Also a great snack for the colder days are these traditional Dutch spicenuts...