Red Chile Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

In Holiday & Seasonal by Mark MaskerLeave a Comment

Gwyneth Doland, writer for Fiery Foods Central, shares her recipe for this spicy dessert. This fluffy pie is a lighter alternative to dense, rich pumpkin pie most of us are used to. It’s served chilled, so the red chile kick comes as a pleasant contrast.

Red Chile Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
Print Recipe
Heat Scale: Mild
Servings
8 servings
Servings
8 servings
Red Chile Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
Print Recipe
Heat Scale: Mild
Servings
8 servings
Servings
8 servings
Ingredients
For the Crust
For the Filling
Servings: servings
Instructions
  1. To make the crust, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl and salt and stir to mix. Using a pastry blender, your hands or two butter knives, quickly work the butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal with some big, pea-sized chunks. Sprinkle the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time over the flour and mix with a fork or your hands, adding just enough water so that the mixture comes together and can be gathered into a ball.
  2. Press the ball into a thick disc, wrap the disc with plastic, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
  3. Remove the chilled dough and allow it to rest at room temperature for 5 minutes. Roll it out into a round 1/8 inch-thick and transfer it to a pie pan and flute the edges.
  4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and refrigerate crust for another 20 minutes.
  5. Remove the crust and then prick it all over with a fork. Place a piece of aluminum foil over the bottom of the crust and weigh it down with dry beans.
  6. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and beans, lower the temperature to 350° and bake until the crust is golden, about 10 to 15 minutes. Cool the crust on a wire rack.
  7. To prepare the filling, pour the hot water into a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over it, stirring vigorously until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Place a mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer to chill.
  8. Separate the eggs, putting the yolks into the top of a double boiler (or, if you don’t have one, a large stainless steel bowl which you place over a pot of boiling water), and the whites into a mixing bowl.
  9. Add 1/3 cup sugar to the yolks and whisk until the mixture is thick, creamy and pale yellow. Add the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, red chile and dissolved gelatin. (Don’t worry about clumps in the gelatin-they’ll dissolve when the mixture is heated.) Start heating the water in the double boiler, or if you’re using a large bowl instead, set the bowl over a pan of boiling water, making sure the bowl doesn’t actually touch the water.
  10. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens considerably and thickly coats the back of a spoon.
  11. Remove the yolk mixture from the heat and whisk in the pumpkin until combined. Set the bowl over another, larger bowl of ice water. Whisk the mixture about 5 minutes or longer, if you can. Remove the bowl from the ice water and chill in the refrigerator.
  12. In the standing mixer (or using a hand mixer) beat the egg whites until it forms soft peaks. Slowly add the sugar and continue beating until the soft peaks become satiny and stiff. Scrape the whites out into a small bowl.
  13. Using the chilled mixing bowl and beaters, whip the cream until medium peaks form.
  14. Gently fold the pumpkin mixture into the whipped cream, then into the egg whites. Scoop the mixture into the prepared crust and chill, covered, for four hours or overnight.
  15. Serve the pie garnished with additional whipped cream.
Share this Recipe
Powered byWP Ultimate Recipe
The following two tabs change content below.
Managing Editor | Mark is a freelance journalist based out of Los Angeles. He’s our Do-It-Yourself specialist, and happily agrees to try pretty much every twisted project we come up with.

Leave a Comment