Pumpkin, Cranberry, and Pecan Pie
Thanksgiving is hands-down my favorite holiday of the year. Are any of you surprised? I love planning the big meal and then enjoying it with family and friends. Growing up, I was the only one who ever wanted pumpkin pie on the dessert table at Thanksgiving. My dad always obliged and made me a pumpkin pie.
As a side note, I think I get some of my crazy food ideas from my dad – we usually have at least one pie for every person at the Thanksgiving table, so literally everyone can request whichever flavor they prefer. So anyways, growing up, I wanted pumpkin pie. I’d pile on the cool whip and dig in.
As I got older, I was kind of turned off by pumpkin pie. Mostly because there are just so many other delicious Thanksgiving desserts to try. But let me tell you a couple things about this pie. 1: makes me love pumpkin pie again and 2: makes me swear I’ll never make plain old pumpkin pie again.
It’s seriously the PERFECT Thanksgiving pie. It has everything you could possibly want in a pie. The majority of the pie is a subtle spiced pumpkin filling, and then it’s topped with a pecan and cranberry streusel that gets all melting and crispy and delicious in the oven. If you have pumpkin pie on your Thanksgiving menu this year, I strongly urge you to replace it with this Pumpkin, Cranberry, and Pecan Pie.
One Year Ago: Spiced Butternut Squash Cupcakes
Two Years Ago: Cous Cous with Butternut Squash and Cranberries, Crockpot Cranberry Pork Roast and Cranberry Almond Caramel Tart
Three Years Ago: Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie and Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Pumpkin, Cranberry, and Pecan Pie
Ingredients:
For the Pie
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp cardamom
15 oz can pumpkin
3 slightly beaten eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 single pie crust
For the Cranberry Pecan Topping
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 tsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cold butter
4 ounces fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, zest, salt, and all of the spices (nutmeg through cardamom). In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, eggs, cream, and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and lightly beat by hand until well combined. Pour the pumpkin mixture into a pie shell. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the brown sugar, flour, and salt, and butter to a small food processor and chop until it resembles a coarse mixture. Stir in the chopped cranberries and pecans.
Remove pie from the oven and sprinkle the cranberry mixture on top. Return the tart to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pie is set, topping is golden and bubbly, and the crust is golden. If the crust starts getting too brown, you can add strips of foil around the edges.
Cool on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.
Recipe adapted from Good Life Eats
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy these. It had all my favourite flavours, so I thought they would be delicious but I had a feeling whilst making they were going to be too sweet, and they were.
Also the base definitely needs increasing as half the mix barely covers the bottom of the tin and with two wet elements it needs to be sturdier. Whilst the side pieces all stayed together the middle ones were just a gooey mess.
But still didn’t detract from the biggest issue – far too sweet. (And I have plenty a sweet tooth!)
Lovely blog though! (Sorry, hate leaving negative feedback! I just wouldn’t want someone else to have the same issues. Also, tinned pumpkin is quite pricey in the UK so wouldn’t want others to waste money on a recipe that doesn’t work)
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:02 am
Sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out for you… Thanks for the feedback.
I’m going to try these. I think Brits don’t generally eat things as sweet as we do and I read the recipe and it doesn’t seem as if it has too much sugar, but I am going to double the crust recipe because it does seem as if it is a bit scant, plus I’m going to make a double batch. Tell me, do these have to be stored in the fridge? I see the note to put in fridge to set. Are they too soft at room temp? If so, do you think not adding the milk to the dulce de leche would take care of that? I’m bringing them to an event and there will be no refrigeration available.