• Double recipe pie crust
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 regular can solid pack pumpkin (makes two pies)
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 ½ cups whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

This pie has made converts of those who despise pumpkin pie, because it does not have the characteristic dense and clammy texture. Nor is it super-sweet, and there is no clove overkill. It is light and fluffy and perfectly spiced. Carla has been responsible for making these every Thanksgiving since she was tall enough* to reach the counter to roll out the pie dough using the kitchen stepstool, and has learned over the years that she has to make at least two or three extras so guests can take some home.

Line two metal or glass pie pans with pie crusts; preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line the bottom of the crusts with parchment paper, and fill with dry beans or commercial pie weights. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside, then raise oven heat to 450 degrees.

While your crusts are baking, separate eggs – put the egg whites into your stand mixer bowl (or other bowl you can beat egg whites in), and the yolks into a small cup or bowl. Put pumpkin into a different large mixing bowl; add salt, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger; stir to mix. Lightly beat egg yolks with a fork, then add them to pumpkin and mix well. Add milk and vanilla to pumpkin, and mix well. Add melted butter to pumpkin and mix well.

Beat egg whites to stiff peaks – and we mean until you could hold the bowl upside down over your head and they wouldn’t fall out – then gently fold into pumpkin. Using ladle, evenly fill crusts with pumpkin. Place in oven, and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees, and bake for at least 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of pie comes out clean. Cool thoroughly on racks.

We like this served cold, the day after it’s baked, when the spices have had time to ripen and the pie is sweet and fragrant. It’s delicious with plain whipped cream (well, not exactly plain – do add a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar and a splash of vanilla while you’re beating it), but a little rum in the whipped cream is nice, too.

Because this is an egg chiffon pie, it must be stored in the refrigerator or it will spoil.

Tips and Tricks

• Yes, we do mean add all of the ingredients in the order specified. Don’t dump them in all at once.
• Do fold the egg whites in gently, but thoroughly. Don’t leave lumps – they’ll show up as big white lumps in the pie.
• If you cut the pie and see yellow eggy stuff at the base, that means your egg whites split. Most likely, you didn’t beat them long enough. The pie will taste okay, but yes, we agree it looks terrible. Don’t worry. You’ll get it next time.
• This pie can take longer to bake than you may expect – it seems to depend on the oven. If you want to, you can cover the exposed edges of the crust with a thin, folded strip of foil to keep them from charring.
• It’s wise to blind-bake the pie crusts. Otherwise, you get a very gluey bottom crust.

*So she was probably seven or eight? She did learn, while still in elementary school, that you should be really careful if you are conscientious about moving pies around in the oven for even heat distribution because those metal racks have been heated to 450 degrees. She barely tapped the underside of a rack with her forearm just long enough to be startled, but wasn’t concerned because it really didn’t hurt. It wasn’t until the next morning when she woke up and saw a black, charred, and flaking horizontal stripe on her arm that she thought to tell Mom about it. That scar stayed around until she was old enough to work in a brokerage firm calculating margin calls for commodities traders.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash