Look at the picture above and take a guess as to what type of pie this is. If you guessed pumpkin, you would be wrong. Keep guessing.
Raise your hand if you guessed carrot! Congratulations, you were right. Now put your hand down.
Why carrot pie, you ask? I was trying to come up with something original. On the one hand, I make a really great carrot cake. On the other hand I make a perfect pumpkin pie. I put my hands together and marveled at my genius! Then I shared my excitement with Bernie and told him I was going to make him a carrot pie. He was underwhelmed to say the least. His look said "my crazy vegetable loving wife has gone too far." His mouth said "That doesn't sound good. Why don't you just make a carrot cake and put it in a pie shell?" Men. I didn't even dignify that with an answer. His lack of confidence gave me the extra push I needed to make a pie that would blow his mind.
I proceeded with caution. I figured there must be a reason why you never hear about carrot pie. Carrot cake is an American favorite. You can make pie out of other vegetables such as pumpkin and sweet potatoes, so why never carrots? Maybe when you add carrots into a pie shell the elements combine and combust. Wait, that doesn't seem logical. My chemist husband is getting into my head now. Regardless of my reservations, I proceeded.
The first thing I did was prepare my crust. This was cinchy. I have perfected my pie crust making technique after much trial and error over the years. If you aren't seasoned at making pie crust, follow these instructions and save yourself a lot of errors: Combine your flour, sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl or in a food processor. You can't possibly screw that up. Now, it gets a little trickier. The key to creating a perfectly light and flaky crust is to keep your fats cold. I like to freeze my butter and lard before hand and actually grate it into the dry mixture with a cheese grater. You can also cut it up into little chunks and pulse it a few times in a food processor. The latter is probably much easier, but alas, I do not have that kind of food processor. The cheese grater works just fine. This is what it will look like after you grate your fat into the bowl and cover it with flour.
Some of you are probably wondering why I mentioned lard as an ingredient. This is for 2 purposes. #1, you can get lard that contains no hydrogenated oils (or trans fats). (You will probably have to order it online. Click the link below for a great product!) Hydrogenation is a chemical process used to change the structure of a fat and turn it from a liquid into a solid, making the molecular structure more similar to plastic than oil. True story. It is commonly found in peanut butter, margarine, shortening, and just about any baked good (including pre-made pie crust) you can buy. Food companies are getting sneaky and claiming "0 grams trans fat"! What this probably means is that they lowered the serving amount so much that there is less than .5 grams of trans fats per serving so they can leave it off the label. Read the ingredients. If is contains anything hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, throw it back! It is so toxic for your body that it has been outlawed in other countries. If you read up on hydrogenation you will probably be astounded by the fact that it is legal. The adverse health effects have be proven over and over again. It's not a joke. Don't eat it. Go through your pantry right now and throw out anything that contains it. Okay. Done with that tangent. Reason #2 that I use lard: It makes the best pie crust, hands down, no questions asked! You will love me for this tip. It can be your secret weapon and I won't even take credit.
Now, cut your fat into the flower with your pastry cutter (or use your food processor if you are cheating.) Don't overdo it. If your fat gets too soft, your crust will be tough. Once it looks like this, you are done:
Now, add a few tablespoons of ice water, cut it in, add a few more, cut it in, add one more if you have to, now stop. Now, split the mixture into two even pieces. Gently kneed until the mixture comes together and form into a 4-5 inch disk. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. The recipe makes enough crust for 2 bottoms. I recommend always making the full recipe. You can put the unused portion into a plastic baggie and refrigerate for up to a week, forcing you to bake another pie that week.
Place a flannel towel on your counter top and dust it with flour. (Your baby's old receiving blankets work perfectly for this.) Unwrap your dough, place it in the center of the blanket, dust the top with flour, dust your rolling pin, and roll it out into a nice circle. Try to work quickly because you don't want that fat to soften too much. You will want to pick the crust up and turn it every few rolls to avoid driving the dough into the towel and really screwing up your texture. Once it looks like this, move along:
Now, fold your crust over your rolling pin and move it onto your pie pan.
Trim your edges up so that they are barely touching the counter all the way around. If you have short areas, worry not. You can use your trimmings to patch it up. Tuck the edges under all the way around the pan, then pinch the edges to make it look pretty. You can also make little fork indentations all the way around if you are to chicken to try pinching. It will look something like this:
Put that crust back in the refrigerator while you make the filling. Have I mentioned that you need to keep the fat cool?
Onto the filling. Peel a one pound bag of carrots and throw them in a covered casserole dish coated in olive oil. Roast your carrots in the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes. You will want to toss them around a little bit a few times during the baking process so that the bottoms don't scorch. Once you can poke them with a fork and they are nice and soft, they are done. They will be a little bit dark in places, but that's good, it gives them wonderful flavor! You could also steam or boil the carrots, but roasting them will develop the flavor much more pleasantly.
Once your carrots are nice and soft, throw them into your magic bullet (I highly recommend these to anyone who spends and time in the kitchen - or has kids), or your blender. I added just a splash of apple juice to help the pureeing process. We happened to be juicing apples that morning, so it worked out perfectly. Blend, blend, blend. Make sure you get the carrots nice and smooth and no chunks remain.
You can't possible screw up the next part. Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix. That's it. You can even whisk them together if you would rather.
Once the ingredients are mixed together, put it through a strainer. This will remove any possible unpleasant chunks or fibers and make your pie smooth and creamy. You can use your spatula to push it through if you need to. Now, pour the mixture into your chilled pie shell and cover the edges with foil. This pie takes a long time to bake and if you don't cover the edges, they are going to burn.
Your oven is already warm from the carrots, so just place it in. My pie took a solid 1 hour 15 minutes to bake. Start at 45 and work up from there, but don't be surprised if it takes much longer. The pie will rise when it's done, and when you tap the sides it will look a little gelatinous. If it doesn't wiggle, you've cooked it too long. You may want to remove the foil for the last 10-15 minutes of the baking cycle to get your edges golden. This is what mine looked like fresh out of the oven:
Put your pie in the refrigerator and let it chill for at least an hour. While it's refrigerating, prepare your topping by adding a cup of whipping cream and a few tablespoons of powdered sugar to your mixing bowl. Whip on high until it reaches a firm consistency. Add your mascarpone and whip again. Add your vanilla and whip some more. I piped a little onto the edges of the pie to make it look pretty. But, let's be honest, it's much better if you just pile a big blob of it on your slice when you eat it. Here's the pretty picture:
Since I am sure you are all dying to find out what Bernie though of the pie, I will tell you. He was impressed. His first slice he said "I think I might like it better than pumpkin." His second slice, he said "this is definitely better. You were right. Carrot's can go into pie." Victory! It really was delicious. You can certainly taste the carrot flavor and the texture is so perfectly smooth yet firm. I had to add mascaraing to the whipped cream because you can't possible go carrot without going cheese! The mascaraing is so light that it doesn't over power like cream cheese might. It compliments the flavor of the carrots very well, just like in a carrot cake.
Please let me know if you try this! I recommend bringing it to Thanksgiving dinner, but don't tell anyone what it is. See if they can guess. Hopefully, they can tell that it's not a boring old unoriginal pumpkin pie. Happy baking!
Pie Crust Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 t salt
2 T sugar
3/4 C frozen butter
1/2 C frozen lard
6-8 T ice water
Process:
Combine your dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Grate your frozen butter and lard into the flour mixture with a cheese grater, or process in the food processor using short pulses. Cut the butter and lard into the flour using a pastry blender. Add 3 tablespoons of water and blend, or pulse in your food processor. Repeat this step. If the dough still seems a bit dry, add one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Divide into 2 equal parts, and gently kneed until the dough comes together. Form into a 4 inch disc, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for an hour. Once the dough is properly chilled, place it on a floured flannel cloth and unwrap. Lightly dust the dough and rolling pin with flour. Place your rolling pin in the center of your dough and roll out towards the edges using even pressure. Always roll from the center out. Repeat this until your dough is in a large round, even circle. Fold the dough over your rolling pin and lift it into your pie pan. Trim the edges then tuck them under. Pinch the edges together using the thumb and index fingers. Place back in refrigerator.
Filling Ingredients:
1 lb roasted, pureed carrots
1/4 C apple juice
1 C heavy cream (or whipping cream)
1/3 C sour cream
2 eggs
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
2 t vanilla extract
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg (about 1/2 of a nut)
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 t allspice
1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt
Process:
Preheat your oven to 375 F. Place your carrots in a covered casserole dish coated with olive oil and place in the oven until tender, about 45 minutes. Add the carrots and apple juice to a blender and puree. Combine the pureed carrots along with the rest of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix until combined. Pour the mixture through a sifter, then pour into your pie shell. Wrap the edges of the crust in foil then place in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Once the pie rises evenly, it is done. The pie will still be jiggly. Remove from oven and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Topping Ingredients:
1 C whipping cream
1/8 C powdered sugar
4 oz (1/2 C) mascarpone cheese
1 t vanilla
Process:
Add whipping cream and powdered sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and whip on high until it thickens. Add the mascarpone and whip again. Add the vanilla and whip until combined. Use this mixture to top your pie however you like.
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