A Pumpkin Pie for Any Season: Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie with Candied Pumpkin Seeds

I have been trying to find new pie recipes for spring pies. Flipping through my pie books, there are basically strawberry, rhubarb, and custard pies from which to choose. I love strawberries, but unfortunately have a slight allergy to them, and I am too selfish to make a pie that I might not be able to indulge in. I am going to try making a rhubarb pie once my rhubarb plant of a few months produces next year, and I have tried most of the custard pies in my cook books. I started glancing at pies for other seasons and found a most interesting sounding pumpkin pie called "Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie with Candied Pumpkin Seeds", in  A Year of Pies by local author Ashley English. Since canned pumpkin is always available, and Martha Stewart claims canned is superior to fresh for cooking, I decided to go for this one. Also, my husband Rich loves ginger, so I thought this might be a treat for him.

The crust is the same gingersnap one that I used for my recent key lime pie from the same pie book. It is basically crushed ginger snaps that are mixed with butter and baked. The filling of the pie is fresh or canned pumpkin (I used canned), with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, sea salt, cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract. These ingredients are simply combined and whisked together, then poured into the crust and baked. The unique part of the pie is the topping. The recipe calls for pumpkin seeds, but said that you could substitute those with pecans, which I did. The pecans or pumpkin seeds are toasted, These are cooled, and combined with melted butter, sugar, minced crystallized ginger, sea salt, and cloves.I took a taste of the topping at that point, and thought that it seemed a tad salty, so I put in another pinch of sugar. After the crust and filling have baked for 40 minutes, the topping is sprinkled on top, and the pie is baked for an additional 20 minutes.

This pie looks very appetizing when cooled and ready to slice. I really liked the ginger and pumpkin combination. I also enjoyed the creaminess of the filling, which the cream and milk created.  As I expected, Rich really liked the pie, He specifically appreciated the topping because of the strong ginger flavor that the minced crystallized ginger brought to the pecans. He ate the pie without any other topping, while I thought a dollop of whipped cream made it even more delightful.

We both devoured the pie very quickly. Although good anytime, this pie would be a different treat for Thanksgiving. I will definitely make this pie again. My husband will insist on it!