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Date Pumpkin Pie
1 pint milk 1 cup dry steamed pumpkin, measured after being rubbed through a sieve 3/4 cup seeded dates which have been ground through a food chopper 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon browned flour 1 egg, beaten (1 egg would be sufficient for twice this quantity) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon powdered caraway seed, if desired Heat the milk. Mix the remaining ingredients, then stir the hot milk into them and mix thoroughly. Bake in a crust which has a built-up edge. Farina Cream Pie (two small pies) 1 quart milk 1/2 cup sugar 1/3 cup farina 3 eggs 1 tablespoon butter substitute A pinch of salt Heat the milk and sugar in a double boiler. Add the farina, and stir till it does not settle. Cook one hour. Beat the yolks of the eggs, add a little of the hot mixture to them, then stir them into the hot mixture. Add the remaining ingredients. Pour into crusts with built-up edges, and bake till set. Beat the egg whites stiff. Fold into them one-fourth cup sugar, and spread over the pie. Put into the oven to brown lightly.
A lean wartime-style custard pie that leans on dates rather than sugar and molasses for sweetness. The original gives no oven temperature and no yield, so both need supplying.
- Oven and timingBake the shell alone at 425F for about 10 minutes, then fill and bake at 350F for 40-50 minutes, until the custard is set at the rim and still slightly loose in the centre of a 9-inch pie. It firms as it cools; baking until the middle is solid gives a weeping, curdled filling.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. The quantities will fill roughly one 9-inch shell, though the book's own Farina Cream Pie makes "two small pies" from twice this much milk, so a smaller or shallower shell may be closer to what was intended. The instruction to build up the crust edge matters, since the filling is thin when poured.
- "Dry steamed pumpkin"Pumpkin steamed rather than boiled, then sieved, so it carries as little water as possible. Canned pumpkin puree works; drain it in a sieve or cook it down in a dry pan for a few minutes if it looks wet, or the custard will not set.
- Browned flourFlour toasted in a dry pan or a low oven until tan and nutty. It thickens less than raw flour but adds a roasted flavour and keeps the filling from tasting pasty. Stir constantly and stop while it is still light brown.
- The egg noteThe parenthetical remark is the author's own aside, pointing out that a single egg would stretch to a double batch. Follow the ingredient line and use one egg; the flour and the dates carry the rest of the body.
- Dates through a food chopperA hand-cranked grinder turned pitted dates into a coarse paste. A food processor does the same, though dates clog it; pulse with a spoonful of the sugar to keep them moving.
- CarawayAn unusual choice by modern habit, and assertive. Half a teaspoon of powdered caraway in one pie is noticeable; try a quarter teaspoon first, or substitute the cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg a modern palate expects.
- Tempering the milkStir the hot milk into the pumpkin and egg mixture gradually rather than the other way round, and pour it in a stream while stirring, so the single egg does not scramble.