{TWD} Butternut Squash Pie (and Gluten-Free Butternut Squash Crisp)

As we wind to the end of the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group, we find ourselves with a fair number of tart and pie recipes from the book still to bake. The November lineup for for the group includes 4 pies/tarts! This is fine with me, since tarts and pies are among my favorite things to bake and eat, and what could be better for November, with Thanksgiving approaching?

The first pie/tart on the November docket is Dorie's Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie. I've come across the recipe in the book often and always thought that it looked intriguing; it's made with cubed butternut squash, pears, dried fruit and nuts. I had high hopes for this recipe.


n.o.e.'s notes:

- Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine chose Fall Butternut Squash Pie, and you can find the recipe on her blog post.

- The recipe specifies 1" cubes of squash. That seemed awfully big to me, so I cut my pieces of butternut squash much smaller, probably closer to 1/2" cubes.

- For dried fruit I used a mixture of golden raisins, cherries, and cranberries.

- I made a full recipe of the filling. I used half for a 7" pie. The other half I put in a baking dish and topped it with a gluten-free crumble mixture (equal parts of oats, butter, and brown sugar.)

- The pie crust recipe I used was my favorite: Cook's Illustrated Vodka Crust, which I previously posted, here.


the verdict:

I served both the pie and the crumble, accompanied by vanilla ice cream, at a dinner with friends. Unfortunately the pie wasn't a runaway hit with the five people who tasted it. Our friend DaH said, "This is interesting and pretty good." He thought it had a bit too much squash. My husband would have preferred no squash at all in the pie; he firmly believes that vegetables don't belong in baked goods. To me the filling was too bland and not quite sweet enough, although I didn't have ice cream with mine, and I think it would have been better with the sweetness of the vanilla ice cream.

As an aside, the pie crust won rave reviews!

As for the crisp version, my friend DeH loved it; the sugar in the nut topping might have helped give some oomph to the filling. I wish I had tasted it, but I gave all of the remaining crisp to her to enjoy.

TWD is doubling up on recipes this month in an effort to finish Dorie's book by year-end. Here's my madeleine post.