Pie Crust

This is a nice flaky pie crust good for all sorts of yummy sweet pies. Note: Make sure your butter is COLD!

1 1/4 Cups Flour (I used whole wheat and it was awesome)
130 Ml Butter (8 Tbsp)
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Sugar
3-4 Tbsp Ice Cold Water

Make sure your butter is cold! Cube your butter and freeze it for a few hours or overnight.

Combine dry ingredients in a food processor. Add half of the frozen butter cubes and pulse until slightly combined with flour mixture. Add remaining butter and pulse until combined into a coarse texture with small butter chunks. Add ice water a table spoon at a time and pulse after each spoon of water. When its done it should hold together when you pinch it.

Remove mixture from food processor and place on clean smooth surface. Firmly press the mixture into the surface and form into a hokey puck shape. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling into a crust.

When ready, unwrap your puck and place on a lightly floured surface to rest for about 5-10 minutes to slightly warm it up so its more pliable for rolling.

Roll into a 12 inch circle, then gently fold in half and place in a 9 inch pan. Gently unfold and press into the pan. Fill it with something yummy like pumpkin, squash, or sweet potato filling and bake it!

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Pumpkin Squash Pie

Yummy Pumpkin Squash Pie! Okay, I called it pumpkin squash pie because the one I made is really not pumpkin, its a squash similar to pumpkin. We don’t really have pumpkin here in Israel so I used chunks from this huge squash they sell in the shuk that’s kinda like a pumpkin. Anyway.. I’m sure this works great with just about any kind of squash or even sweet potatoes.

First things first.. the squash. Clean some squash and bake it in the oven until its soft. When its soft, take off the skin and purée in a blender or food processor until smooth. Its really that easy.

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The only thing I would say about it is that I covered mine with foil while baking thinking it would dry out too much. Well don’t worry about that. I had to put the cooked squash into a cloth and squeeze out “some” of the water. Holy cow there was a lot of water to squeeze out. Do yourself a favor and just bake it. That’ll do you for the squash purée.

2 Cups Squash Purée
350 Ml (1 1/2 Cups) Heavy Cream (I used 38%)
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup White Sugar
1/2 Tsp Salt
3 Eggs
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/4 Tsp Ground Cloves
1/4 Tsp Ground Cardamon
1/2 Tsp Lemon Zest

Beat the eggs in large bowl then mix in sugars, salt, spices, and lemon zest. Mix in the squash then mix in cream. Blend it all up until mixed really well.

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Pour into an uncooked COLD pie crust.

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Bake at 220°C for 15 minutes. This shocks the butter and starts to harden the crust making it more flaky later. After 15 minutes lower to 180°C and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour longer or until a poking utensil comes out clean from the center.

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Let it cool, then… well you know what to do with it next!