Dulce De Leche Pumpkin Pie

I was racking my head on how I could make Thanksgiving 2020 a nice experience for my family. My son is obviously disappointed that our annual trip to my cousin’s house for a feast is cancelled this year. I told him it’s a small sacrifice the whole country is making to save lives. I also promised him I would organize a zoom or facetime dessert meeting on Thanksgiving with the rest of our family. For some reason that still didn’t feel good enough for him. Then I suggested I write a recipe for a Dulce De Leche Pumpkin Pie and send it to all my family members so they could make it in their homes and we could eat our pies together virtually. My boy and extended family loved that idea and we are going to bring it to life this Thanksgiving.

I also sent my familia the link to Northgate Market so they could order all their Thanksgiving  and Dulce De Leche Pumpkin Pie supplies online for pick-up or delivery. I love that Northgate makes food pick up so easy and offers that service to it’s customers in the name of keeping more people safe. That is exactly the type of safety precautions I can appreciate while trying to limit my contact with other people.  Here’s the extra good news, you can add a cup of champurrado to your order… Northgate offers that too! Please allow me to share my Dulce De Leche Pumpkin Pie recipe with you. Feel free to send it to your familia too!  Happy Gobble Gobble Day.

Ingredients for Dulce De Leche Pumpkin Pie:

• For the crust:
• 1 1/2 cups pastry flour
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening (frozen)
• 2 oz. cream cheese (frozen)
• 2 sticks butter (cut into pieces, and frozen)
• 1/2 cup ice cold water
• For the dulce de leche pumpkin filling:
• 14 oz. can Dulce De Leche
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 15 oz. pumpkin puree
• For the top:
• egg wash for crust (1 egg + 1 tablespoon of water)
• MERINGUE Sauce:
• 4 egg whites
• 1 1/3 cups bakers sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. For the crust: Add flour, sugar, salt, cream cheese, and vegetable shortening to the food processor. Pulse until fats mix with flour. Working in 3 batches, add a little bit of butter at a time with a couple of pulses between each additional. Pour in the ice cold water just bringing the dough together. Dump the dough onto a work surface and knead for a minute. Divide the dough into two equal portions. Flatten into two disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in the fridge overnight.
2. Par Bake: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. On a floured work space. Roll out one of the disks past the size of your pie plate to a 1/4 inch thickness. I used a 9 1/2 inch pie plate. Carefully transfer the dough to the inside of the pie plate. Let the edges hang over the sides. Then tuck them under and crimp the edges with your fingers. Brush the edges with egg wash. Then fit a large piece of parchment paper in the center of the pie. Fill the center with 2 pounds of dried beans or pie weights, this will keep the pie crust from puffing up. Bake for 15 minutes. Then remove the beans from the center of the pie crust and place back in the oven sans the parchment paper for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow par baked pie shell to cool. See my reels for a par/blind baking method.  
3. With the extra dough: Either save for another pie or roll out  to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut out shapes with cookie cutters to decorate top of pie with. Bake cut out pieces of dough for 15 to 20 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Then reserve to the side until ready to use.

LET’S MAKE PIE!

1. Make the Dulce De Leche Pumpkin filling:  In a blender add Dulce De Leche, evaporated milk, pumpkin pie spice, eggs, pumpkin puree, and vanilla. Blend until completely pureed.
2. Bake: Place blind baked pie crust on a cookie sheet, because this will make it easier to place in the oven. Cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil, this will ensure they do not over brown while baking. Pour the pumpkin filling into the center of the crust and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.. Continue baking for 35 minutes, turn off the oven and pull the oven door open ajar. Let the pie rest in the oven for 30 minutes to cool slightly. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature overnight.

Make the Meringe Sauce:

1. Mix egg whites and sugar over a double boiler on a low flame. Mix constantly with a whisk until you can no longer feel the sugar between your fingers or until the temperature reaches 150 on a candy thermometer.
2. Remove from the double boiler and place in standup mixer. Mix with whisk attachment on high for 2 minutes- this will whip merigue but only until it barely peaks and then quickly loses shape.
3. Place in a piping bag fitted with a star tip and design meringue on top of pie.
4. (optional) Then with a torch on a low/medium flame, toast the top of meringue  for a golden look.
5. Decorate the top: Decorate top with pie crust cut-outs on top of meringue.
6. The meringue will spill down the sides of the pie when cut and will act like a sauce.
7. ENJOY!!!!

Try my Apple pie!

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