For Halloween on Wednesday October 31 put a South African spin on an American favourite of pumpkin pie by trying Cape chef Bertus Basson’s pampoentert.
This version from Basson's cookery book homegrown is a crustless pie, but you can jazz up its appearance by decorating it to a Halloween theme.
And, although it is called pumpkin pie, it uses butternut as this is more similar to the American pumpkin than our local pumpkin.
Pampoentert
Ingredients 125g melted butter
150g sugar
4 free-range eggs
60g flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk
420g cooked or roasted butternut
Pinch cinnamon for dusting
1 teaspoon caster sugar for dusting
1 drizzle of honey or maple syrup Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Cream the butter and sugar together. While beating, add the eggs one at a time, beating after adding each egg.
Sift together the flour and baking powder then add it to the mixture. Mix until everything is combined.
Gradually add the milk, whisking continually to ensure a smooth batter.
For the butternut, chop into small cubes to roast quickly, dust with a little cinnamon and if you like maybe some honey or maple syrup.
Roast in the oven for 25 minutes until soft but not mushy. Add the cooked butternut to the batter mixture and stir to combine well.
Pour into a round oven proof dish and lightly dust with a little cinnamon and the caster sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes or until firm and golden. Serve with custard or ice cream or eat as is.
Decorate
Basson's recipe stops at this point, but My Recipes gives a video with clear instructions for how to decorate your pie with melted white and milk chocolate to make the pie look like a jack-o-lantern. Visit https://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/video/jack-o-lantern-pumpkin-pies for how.
It also give downloads for the traditional, scary or goofy stencils.
Alternately, you can pipe whipped cream to create a spider-web effect.
Once pie has cooled, place whipped topping in resealable plastic bag. Cut small corner off bag. Decorate pie with spider web pattern. Store in refrigerator.
homegrown by Bertus Basson is available on his website https://bertusbasson.com/shop/ and retails for R350.