Thanksgiving desserts: Pumpkin pies or squash tarts?

Pumpkins make their appearance this time of year, between Halloween carving and Thanksgiving pie. Carving pumpkins have a thin shell with a grainy and stringy flesh, whereas pie pumpkins are typically smaller with a meatier, smoother flesh.

The origin of carving is credited to an Irishman named Jack, who warded off the Devil by carving and illuminating a turnip, known as a Jack-o-lantern. European immigrants to the United States transferred the carving practice to the eminently suitable pumpkin. 

My experience baking a pie with a fresh pie pumpkin has not been pleasing. After a labor-intensive effort, the final product looked OK but tasted bland.

I cut a pumpkin into chunks, cleaned out the seeds and stringy bits, and roasted them in the oven at 375 degrees for 90 minutes until the pulp was tender. When the chunks were cool, I cut the flesh from the skin, and pureed them in a processor until smooth.

The pureed pumpkin was too watery for recipes, so the puree had to sit for a few hours in a colander to drain the liquid. A 5-pound pie pumpkin yielded around 4 cups of pureed pumpkin.

I recall my mother’s pumpkin pie to be more flavorful, and not because of the rum she added to the puree. It was because she used canned pumpkin.

Libby’s canned pumpkin accounts for almost 90% of the world’s canned pumpkin market. Libby’s pumpkin canning factory is in Morton, Illinois. Not by coincidence, Illinois harvested more than twice as many pumpkins as the next highest-producing state, Indiana. Libby’s growers produce a proprietary variety exclusively for Libby’s called Dickinson. 

As it turns out, the Dickinson variety in Libby’s cans is actually a butternut squash. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration says that labeling Dickinson a pumpkin is legal, because the distinction between a pumpkin and a butternut squash is “murky.”

Leaving aside the sketchy advertising, Libby’s has a point. I’ve baked pies and tarts with pie pumpkins and with squash, and I prefer the squash versions. I find squash more flavorful and less watery than pumpkin.

I also prefer a “pumpkin” tart to a pie, because a tart shell is thinner, crunchier, and less doughy than a pie shell. For a tart, grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan and melt 9 tablespoons unsalted butter.

Mix with the melted butter 1/4 cup sugar, a pinch of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon each almond and vanilla extracts. Add 1 1/3 cup unbleached pastry flour to form a soft cookie-like dough. Transfer the dough to the pan, pressing the dough evenly into the bottom and sides. Bake the shell for 12 minutes at 375.

Remove the shell from the oven and sprinkle 1/4 cup of finely ground almonds on it. In addition to imparting a nice flavor, the ground almonds keep the shell from getting soggy when the filling is added.

For the filling, mix 1 pound of mashed squash (cooked as per pumpkin described above), 1/2 cup creme fraiche, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons honey, and 1/4 teaspoon each almond and vanilla extracts. Pour the filling into the shell and bake for 15 minutes. Place on a wire rack and remove from the pan when cool.

Ryan Rosu, MOON Co-op Student Board member for the past two years, asked me for the above recipe last Thanksgiving, and he then shared a photo of his success.

Ultimately, I say decorate with pumpkin and cook with squash.

James Rubenstein is president of the Board of Directors for the Oxford Free Press and professor emeritus of geography at Miami University.