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Fall into Cooking Featured Recipes from Bobby Flay's Throwdown!: Pumpkin Pie

Bobby Flay: Pumpkin Pie with Cinnamon Crunch and Bourbon-Maple Whipped Cream

Makes 1 10-inch pie

Cinnamon Crunch
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup light muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, cold

Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1⁄8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Filling
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup dark muscovado sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
11/2 cups canned pumpkin puree
11/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, plus more for the top
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out and reserved, or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Bourbon-Maple Whipped Cream (recipe follows) for serving

To make the cinnamon crunch, preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Combine the flour, oats, muscovado sugar, and cinnamon in a food processor, and process a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until combined. Pat the mixture evenly into a 4-inch square on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until golden brown and crisp, about 15 minutes. Remove and let cool. Transfer to a cutting board and chop into small pieces. Keep the oven on.

To make the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and cinnamon in a bowl and mix until combined. Press evenly onto the bottom and sides of a 10-inch pie plate. Brush with the beaten egg. Bake until light golden brown and firm, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300ºF.

To make the filling, whisk the eggs, egg yolks, both sugars, and the molasses together in a medium bowl. Mix in the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Whisk in the heavy cream, milk, and vanilla seeds or extract. Strain the mixture through a coarse strainer into a bowl. Whisk in the butter.

Place the pie plate on a baking sheet, pour the pumpkin mixture into the shell, and sprinkle additional cinnamon over the top. Bake until the filling is set around edges but the center still jiggles slightly when shaken, 45 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

Cut the pie into slices and top each with a large dollop of whipped cream and some of the cinnamon crunch.

Bourbon-Maple Whipped Cream
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, very cold
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out and reserved
2 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup
1 to 2 tablespoons bourbon, to taste

Combine the cream, vanilla seeds, maple syrup, and bourbon in a large chilled bowl, and whip until soft peaks form.

Challenger: Michele Albano's Maple Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel

Makes 1 9-inch pie

Pie Crust
11/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, very cold
1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream, for brushing

Pecan Streusel
3/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced, cold

Filling
2 cups pumpkin puree, preferably fresh
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 cup Grade B maple syrup
3 large eggs, beaten
Maple Whipped Cream (recipe follows), for serving

To make the crust, combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl and mix well. Break up the shortening and toss it with the flour mixture to coat. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, mix the ingredients together until the dough forms coarse crumbs. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons ice-cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough easily forms a ball that can hold itself together. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and as long as overnight.

While the dough is resting, make the streusel: Toss the pecans with the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add the butter, and using a pastry blender or your fingertips, work in until you have small clumps. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Sprinkle flour generously over a hard surface and roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it forms an 11-inch round. Fold the round in half, place it in a 9-inch pie plate, and then unfold the dough to completely cover the pie plate with a bit of an overhang. Tuck the overhang under to make a double-thick rim, and then use your fingers to crimp the edges of the pie shell. Brush the heavy cream over the crimped edges, and refrigerate until the filling is complete.

To make the filling, mix the pumpkin, flour, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt together with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl well. Add the heavy cream and maple syrup, scraping the bowl several times while mixing. Mix in the beaten eggs.

Pour the filling mixture into the pie shell, and bake for 15 minutes. Then lower the oven temperature to 350ºF and bake until the filling is almost firm, about 30 minutes. Remove the pie from the oven and sprinkle the pecan streusel over the top, covering the pie completely. Return the pie to the oven and bake until the filling is just a bit wobbly in the middle and the pecan streusel is golden, 10 to 15 minutes. The total baking time should be 55 to 60 minutes.

Cool the pie on a wire rack. The pie is best served at either at room temperature or cold. Before serving, garnish the pie with the Maple Whipped Cream.

Maple Whipped Cream
2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup Grade B maple syrup, or to taste

Place the metal bowl of an electric mixer in the freezer to chill for at least 15 minutes.

Combine the cream, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla in the chilled bowl, and beat on high speed until the mixture thickens. Add the maple syrup and beat on high speed until the cream holds firm peaks.

From Publishers Weekly

A famous chef walks into an eatery and says, "Hey, prepare your signature dish and let's see if I can make a variation worth televising." That, in essence, is the concept behind Throwdown! the Food Network reality show that premiered in 2006, the fifth of seven Flay vehicles to appear on the network. This companion volume is one part recap and one part cookbook. For true fans of the show, Flay recounts each episode in his trademark cocky prose ("I heat things up with Jamaican jerk jockey Nigel Spence") and in doing so provides a tasty travelogue of eateries, from Asian dumplings at the Good Fork in Brooklyn, N.Y., to chile cheeseburgers at the Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, Tex. Whether by accident or by design, his cook-off lineup is a treasure trove of comfort food. Meatloaf, mac 'n' cheese, wings, lasagna, cupcakes, and matzo ball soup are all in the battle: 51 items in total, with Flay and a competing chef each providing their own recipe, for a total of 102 recipes. The author has never met a dish that he didn't want to sauce, and this proclivity is much in evidence, including a black pepper vinegar sauce over pulled pork and a balsamic glaze over a roasted vegetable meatloaf. (Oct.) (c)
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