Pumpkin Pie Recipe With Chocolate Ganache Topping

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This is a guest post written by Susan Conley. Check out her blog over at Cook The Stone!

I know Thanksgiving is still a month away, but it wouldn’t hurt to learn how to bake a pumpkin pie this early, right? After all, Thanksgiving won’t be complete without a serving of this classic dessert. And with enough time to practice your baking skills, you will likely come up with a Thanksgiving hit.

The history of pumpkin pie recipes for many Americans, is that the pumpkin pie was and is a quintessential Thanksgiving food just like the turkey. Usually eaten during the fall and winter, it is made from eggs, condensed milk, and pumpkin.

One of my earliest memories of Thanksgiving is my mom serving pumpkin pie. I would scrape the filling off a slice of the pie so that I could just eat the crust. And that was before my mom would serve cranberry sauce and the turkey. 🙂

History books say that the early settlers of Plimoth Plantation in southern New England may have been the first to make pumpkin pie recipes during the early 1600s. They did so by stuffing a hollowed out pumpkin shell with honey, milk, and spices. They would then bake it in hot ashes. I would love to try this with my kids and see how it turns out!

Indeed, that’s a far cry from what the modern-day pumpkin pie with crispy crust.

Towards the end of that century, recipe books were already featuring pumpkin pie recipes. But those recipe books were written by Europeans, particularly the English and French.

It was only during the 18th century when an American cookbook titled American Cookery had a recipe for pumpkin pie. The recipe written by Amelia Simmons was called Pumpkin Pudding and pretty much is the predecessor of the modern day pumpkin pie.

Since then, the love affair of Americans with pumpkin pie has grown stronger. According to reports, there are over 5 million pumpkin pies eaten during Thanksgiving.

There have also been attempts to make the biggest pumpkin pie. But the one baked in New Bremen, Ohio by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in 2010 is the record holder per the Guinness Book of World Records. The said pie weighed a mind-boggling 3,699 pounds. It broke the record set by the same group of bakers in 2005.

Nope, this recipe won’t result to a pumpkin pie as big as those made by the New Bremen bakers. But this should be enough to feed 4-6 people.

For the crust, you’ll need the following ingredients:

● 16 graham crackers, finely ground

● 6 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter

● 2 tablespoons of packed light brown sugar

● 3 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

● half teaspoon of ground cinnamon

● half teaspoon of salt

● 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

For the homemade pumpkin pie filling, prepare the following ingredients:

● Six ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate (about 55 percent cacao)

● One can of solid pack pumpkin

● One can of evaporated milk

● Three large eggs

● Three-fourths cup of packed light brown sugar

● One tablespoon of cornstarch

● One and a half teaspoon of coarse salt

● 3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

● 3/4 teaspoon of ground ginger

● 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

● One ounce of milk chocolate

● Ground cloves

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons of hot chocolate mix
• 1 cup of dark chocolate chips

Step by step guide for this homemade pumpkin pie recipe with a chocolate ganache topping:

1. Let’s start with the crust. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix the butter, graham cracker crumbs, salt, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Firmly press the mixture before baking for 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Remove from the oven then sprinkle with bittersweet chocolate over the bottom of the crust. Bring the mixture back to the oven to melt the chocolate. After a minute, spread the chocolate in a thin layer on the bottom and up the side. Let this cool on a wire rack then reduce the temperature to 325 degrees.

3. To make the filling, melt the butter and semisweet chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl placed over a pot of simmering water. Stir until it becomes smooth before removing from the heat.

4. In a medium bowl, mix the milk with the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg and a pinch of cloves. Whisk a third of the pumpkin mixture into the chocolate mixture before adding the remaining mixture and stirring it until completely incorporated.

5. Transfer the pie dish to a baking sheet before pouring the pumpkin mixture into a crust. Bake for about 55 minutes or until the middle is set but a bit wobbly.

6. Let it cool in a pie dish placed on a wire rack. Then refrigerate this for 8 hours or overnight until chilled.

7. For the chocolate ganache, start by adding one cup of chocolate chips to your glass measuring cup.

8. Then add 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream to a small saucepan on top of your stove. Add two heaping tablespoons full of hot chocolate mix and stir well. Continue stirring until it comes to a boil.

9. As soon as the comes to a boil, turn off the heat, and pour the hot cream mixture over your chocolate chips. Let it sit for a minute so that the hot cream begins to melt the chocolate chips. Then stir it until it is smooth. Pour that over the chilled pumpkin pie.

The chocolate topping in this recipe will complement the intense flavor of the pumpkin. The melted milk chocolate will tease your eyes and appetite.

I hope you’ll try this pumpkin pie recipe. I’ve followed this recipe a lot of times, and all my guests loved it. So why don’t you start shopping for the ingredients and maybe follow the recipe soon? I’m certain you won’t regret trying!

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