Thanks to Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs for her Tuesdays with Dorie pick of Caramel Pumpkin Pie, found on pages 322-323 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours cookbook. You can also find the recipe on Janell's site here.
I am not a pumpkin fan, but Mark is definitely a pumpkin pie fan. He looks forward to Thanksgiving each year because he knows he will get pumpkin pie. Left to me, he would be pumpkin pie-less all year round, but his mother and sister take care to see that there is plenty of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.
Since I figured Mark was going to be the only one eating this, I set out to make a mini version. Tracey was all for encouraging me to do that and "just get it done alright already." (Okay, she didn't say it in those words, but she was probably thinking it as I had been putting off making this pie for a couple of weeks.) Half-way through I decided that I would just go for the full version, not sure why.
For the pie you need to make caramel from scratch...I love making caramel from scratch, so I figured I would do that much, let it cool as instructed, and then hopefully talk someone else into mixing up the pumpkin bit and putting it in the pie shell as the smell of pumpkin to me is sort of like the smell of chocolate to me, i.e. not a good thing.
Turns out, this is not all that bad, it went together quick, I kept smelling the caramel more than the pumpkin, and after it baked, it still smelled caramel-like. I tasted it, and it was good. Very caramel-like and not so much pumpkin-like, oh, and the rum in it gave it a flavor kick as well.
When Nancy said that her friends who didn't like pumpkin liked this, I was skeptical. Skeptical no more, they were right, this is good, even to someone who doesn't care for pumpkin all that much. The whipped cream didn't hurt either. Is it a repeat? Definitely a repeat.
Next week: Emily from Sandmuffin has chosen All-American All-Delicious Apple Pie, found on page 300-302. TWD blogroll found here.