You’ve all heard of pumpkin spice, but what about spicy pumpkin pie?
I amped up a pumpkin cheesecake base with all the tyipical spices, then pressed a little further by adding some adobo sauce from a leftover can of chipotle chilis. The adobo is warming and a little smoky without overpowering the normal pumpkiny goodness.
Makes 1 (9-inch) pie
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 ½ cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
- 6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pie Filling
- 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons adobo sauce
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. For the crust: In a food processor, blend all of the ingredients for the crust until it looks like wet sand. Press gently into a 9-inch pie plate using the bottom of a glass or measuring cup. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
3. For the filling: With a hand mixer, blend the cream cheese and brown sugar. Add the eggs to the mixture, one by one, beating well to incorporate after each addition. Add the pumpkin puree and mix.
4. In a separate container, whisk cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, vanilla extract, and adobo sauce into the heavy cream. Pour the heavy cream mixture into the pumpkin mixture and combine.
5. Taste the filling and adjust the amount of adobo if desired. The prescribed 1 ½ teaspoons is perceptible, but not strong in the uncooked filling and makes for a gentle warming in the final pie.
6. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the filling is set around the edges, but still jiggles in the middle. Cool to room temperature before serving.
THE FOOD ÉTUDE 