Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

When my wife and I were first married we had a few rough spots as I suspect all couples do. We had some minor conflicts about foibles and ways of doing things. But since we shared common values and loved each other we managed to make it through alright and many of our friends and family tell us that our marriage is one of the best they know of.

But holidays were one of the early sources of friction. First, there was the great “dressing vs. stuffing” controversy. My wife thinks that stuffing (cooked in the bird) is much tastier than dressing (cooked outside the bird). For me stuffing is an abomination since it dries out the turkey. Besides, the turkey won’t keep as well if it’s stuffed. And takes longer to cook.

We compromised. We make dressing but cook it according to the recipe her family used with bread crumbs (white and corn bread), onions, apples, olives, and Italian sausage.

As I said, my wife and I have common values. But one area in which we differ is that I grew up in a Joy of Cooking home and my wife grew up in a Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook home (along with Sunset magazine). This stands to reason since Joy is at heart a St. Louis cookbook and I’ve always felt that BH&G was a quintessential post-war California cookbook. My mom had a copy of BH&G as many brides of her age cohort must have had but I don’t recall her cooking from it.

One of the things that my wife loves and prepares from BH&G is this Pumpkin Chiffon Pie recipe. It’s very tasty and preserves the essence of pumpkin pie in a somewhat lighter form which it seems to me is very appropriate after the heavy Thanksgiving meal. I think the filling would also work nicely served in parfait glasses as a sort of pumpkin mousse.

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
½ cup sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ ground allspice
½ ground ginger
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
¾ cup milk
2 slightly beaten egg yolks
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 egg whites
¼ cup sugar
½ cup whipping cream, whipped
1 9-inch pie crust either graham-cracker or pre-baked (use your favorite recipe or use mine)

1. Combine the first 7 ingredients a a saucepan..
2. Stir in the milk, egg yolks, and pumpkin.
3. Cook and stir the filling over medium heat until the mixture boils and the gelatin dissolves.
4. Remove from the heat and chill until partially set.
5. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
6. Gradually add the sugar and beat until the whites form stiff peaks.
7. Fold the beaten whites into the pumpkin mixture with the whipped cream.
8. Pile the filling into the crust.
9. Chill until the filling is firm.

Note that, if you use a graham-cracker crust, this is a no-bake pie which can be pretty handy with all the trafficking through the oven that goes on on Thanksgiving.

I’ve added this recipe to my master list of recipes.