Video Attempt: Deep Dish Pumpkin Meringue Pie

My senior year of college, I made a movie with my parents’ Hi8 camera, which I called: The Senior Documentary. It was nothing special as far as production value goes, hardly anything kids today—with their DSLRs, iMovies, and iClouds—would call Internet-worthy. It was just home-movie style, unedited and unscripted scene after scene that I shot of my roommates and me throughout the year. The whole thing lives on a VHS tape, and though I would love to, I haven’t been able to watch it since Matt and I got rid of our VHS player, 6 or 7 years ago.There was one short, scripted drama, however, titled A Wartime Romance, which starred me and my roommates, one of whom was Mary Anne who I introduced you to last week. Well, without further adieu, I give you Mary Anne and my latest onscreen performance: Bon Appétempt Makes a Pumpkin Pie. Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you enjoy watching our all-day baking adventure as much as we enjoyed this pie!

Deep Dish Pumpkin Meringue Pie via Martha Stewart with many a note from yours truly
For the Crust / a.k.a. Pate Brisee
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Pulse flour, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. Drizzle 1/4 cup ice water evenly over mixture. Pulse until mixture holds together when pressed between 2 fingers (dough should not be wet or sticky). If dough is too dry, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse.

Shape dough into 2 small disks, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
FYI: For this pumpkin pie, you only need one of these disks of dough. You can freeze the other half and use it for your next pie down the road or, you could always make another pie that doesn't require a layer of crust on top! Pecan, perhaps?

Filling
3 large eggs
1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Meringue
2 cups granulated sugar
8 large egg whites, room temperature

Set 8 eggs out so that they can start to think about coming to room temperature. (For the fluffiest meringue, you want room temp. eggs.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make the crust: Roll out pate brisee to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Fit dough into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Trim edges, leaving a 1-inch overhang; fold edges under and crimp as desired. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Line crust with parchment, and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until edges just start to turn golden, about 15 minutes. (Careful taking this out of the oven! You'll notice that with mine, when I grabbed it, I knocked one of the edges in with my oven mitt so it looks kind of smooshed on one side. Minor bummer.) Remove pie weights or beans and parchment. Bake until crust is golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes more. Let cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk together eggs, pumpkin, evaporated milk, brown sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the nutmeg in a large bowl. (In the video, I forgot to say brown sugar and cornstarch. SORRY. They're in there!)

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Pour filling into cooled crust. Bake until center is set but still slightly wobbly, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool in pie plate set on a wire rack. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 6 hours (preferably overnight). (If possible take your time letting the pie cool completely. In a rush for time, and with Mary Anne leaving early the next morning, we chilled ours for only about 2 hours, and what ends up happening is that the meringue kind of sinks into the middle of the pie a bit. Not the end of the world, but not ideal either)

Just before serving, make the meringue: Combine granulated sugar and egg whites in the heatproof bowl of a mixer set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Transfer bowl to mixer, and whisk on medium speed for 3 minutes. Raise speed to high, and whisk until stiff glossy peaks form, about 6 minutes more. Dollop meringue onto pie, and spread using a swirling motion.

Hold a small handheld kitchen torch at a 90-degree angle 3 to 4 inches from surface of meringue. Move flame back and forth until meringue starts to brown. OR: For those torch-less people out there (like us), blast your oven to 500 and bake the entire pie until the meringue starts to brown. If the oven is hot enough, this should only take a few minutes.