Leave that pie crust in the dust

I love pumpkin pie, but I hate making crust. This quirky aversion has led me to a delicious workaround I can’t wait to show you. But first, a reminder that pumpkin is just one type of winter squash, and there are many types that make great pie. When I say “pumpkin,” I mean pie squash. In fact, the “pumpkin” in most cans of pumpkin pie filling is actually a variety of butternut squash called Dickinson. 

At the alleged first Thanksgiving feast, nobody — immigrant or local alike — had access to flour, butter or an oven. But squash was a staple for the Wampanoag tribe that dined with the Pilgrims. At that first supper of our nation, some historians speculate that a proto-pie, baked in an earthen pit, may have consisted of a hollowed-out pumpkin filled with a honey-sweetened egg custard.

I know from experience, however, that if you fill a whole pumpkin with custard and bake it, by the time the custard cooks and expands, the container will be too soft to hold the filling. But half a squash, filled with custard and baked like a pie, cooks in harmony with the filling.

It’s a beautiful, decadent combination. The baked flesh pulls cleanly from the hard skin and has its own custard-like texture. You’re welcome to try it — just don’t call it a crust.

Pumpkin pie filling

• Four eggs
  1 cup heavy cream
  1 1/2 cups milk
  1/4 tsp salt
  2 teaspoons vanilla
  2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  1/3 cup sugar
  2 cups pumpkin flesh

Blend all the ingredients together for about 30 seconds, until completely homogenized. Serve at room temperature.

Pumpkin flesh “crust”

• One pie pumpkin or other suitable
• squash
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Cut a pumpkin around the equator into two equal-sized bowls. With a strong spoon, scrape out the loose, stringy flesh and seeds from both halves, so the meat is clean and ready to eat. (Save the seeds and bake them, with salt and a little oil, along with the pies.) Use a vegetable peeler to trim and tidy the rim. The bottom half of a pie pumpkin sits comfortably on a flat surface and makes a better pie holder than the upper part, so I prefer to bake the upper part unfilled for use in the next batch of pumpkin pie filling.

Sprinkle the bottom half with pie spices, pour in the custard up to the rim and place in a baking dish or on a cookie sheet. Bake for about an hour at 400 degrees, keeping an eye on the custard. It will swell and probably start to crack. When the top starts to brown and the custard moves more like a solid than a liquid, remove from the oven and cool.