Hello, everyone, and welcome to a very autumnal edition of Will it Sous Vide?, the weekly column where I make whatever you want me to with my immersion circulator. This week, you all got very seasonal and elected pumpkin pie.
Or, shall I say “kind of pumpkin pieâ€?—because tag007’s wife said so. (To be fair, tag007’s wife seems like a smart lady.)
That would have been a delightful all on its own, but then botticellilove had to go and take it up a notch with this boozy suggestion:
Seeing that this tasked combined two of my favorite things (alcohol and pie) I was even more excited than usual to get to sous vide-ing. First things first, I had to infuse some booze. If found a pretty decent looking recipe for spiced rum on Anova’s site, and used that as a template, swapping out rum for rye, because I thought a spicy, slightly aggressive rye would hold its own against a sweet pie a little better than rum. (But feel free to use rum or any other ethanol of your choosing.)
For those playing along at home, you will need:
- 375 mL or rye (I used Bulleit)
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
- 2 whole cloves
- 1/2 a cinnamon stick
- 2 whole black peppercorns
- 1/2 piece star anise (I effed up and used a whole one; don’t be like me)
- 2 3-inch strips fresh orange zest (zest only – no white pith)
- 2 1-inch slices of fresh ginger (not in the original recipe, but I thought it should be in there.)
I poured all of this into a quart-sized freezer bag, got as much air out as I could, and let that thing infuse for two hours at 70 degrees Celsius for two hours.
Once the two hours was up, I removed the bag from the bath and let it cool to room temperature in a bowl, then strained it into a pretty little glass bottle.
“Thanksgiving in a shot glass†is the best way to describe this stuff. It was sweet and spicy, with just a hint or citrus and ginger keeping everything from veering into the land of the cloying. I was pretty happy with my decision to use rye over rum, as a dark, molasses-y rum would have been a little much with all of the vanilla and whatnot. (I would however stick to the recommended 1/2 piece of anise, as it was just a touch too pronounced.)
The beauty of infusions like this is that, once they’re infused, you don’t need to do much to them. You could sip this chilled, maybe with a big rock, and be perfectly content, but it wouldn’t be bad in a toddy either. But we’re not here to make cocktails, are we? We’re here to make pie.
I’ve been making pumpkin pie for a good number of years now (it was actually the first pie I ever baked) and I rarely stray from the Libby’s recipe that’s printed right on the can. Like cheesecake before it, I wanted to try making a “traditional looking,†circular pie that could potentially be cut into wedges, as well as little single-serving pie jars. We’ll talk about the traditional pie first.
Rather than try and sous vide the entire thing in a pie plate (as I attempted in The Great Cheesecake Water Flood of 2016) I poured the Libby’s batter into a bag and submerged it in the water bath for an hour and a half at 80 degrees Celsius.
I then removed the bag of spicy orange batter from the bath and set it on the counter until it was cool enough to touch. Then I piped it into a pre-baked graham cracker crust. (You can use whatever kind of pre-baked crust you like, I just happened to have a bunch of graham crackers lying around.) I smoothed the top with a silicone spatula, and popped that baby in the fridge overnight.
The pie didn’t have that smooth, slightly shiny top that you see on a baked pumpkin pie, and I was a little worried about it holding its form during its journey from pie plate to serving plate.
It didn’t cut very cleanly and, as you can see from the above photo, it couldn’t quite keep it together. It also lacked that smooth, custardy, slightly fluffy quality that makes a pumpkin pie so delightful. The flavors were all there, and the filling tasted like it should, but it was a little lumpy for my taste, so I turned my attention to the jars.
This is where things really got fun, because this is where I started mixing in booze. I prepared three jars with pre-baked graham cracker crusts and spooned pumpkin pie batter into each one. I left one jar plain and dosed the other two with the spiced rye, adding a teaspoon to one and a tablespoon to the other. These were then sealed and submerged for an hour and a half at 80 degrees Celsius, after which they were removed from the bath and allowed to come to room temperature with their lids off. (Removing the lids while they cool helps prevent condensation from collecting and pooling unattractively on the surface or your pies.) These were then place in the fridge overnight, letting me wake to a breakfast of pumpkin pies, both boozy and plain. Let’s examine each one up close.
Plain Jar of Pumpkin Pie
Based on the cheesecake experiment, I had a feeling that the jars were the way to go, and I was correct. This was one of the best pumpkin pies I’ve ever had, with a super creamy, custardy filling that scooped cleanly from the jar, and a smooth, slightly shiny top. The crust also held up well without getting soggy.
Pumpkin Pie with One Teaspoon of Rye
As you can see from the above photo, adding just a teaspoon of the spiced rye to the batter altered the consistency pretty noticeably. This pie was a bit wetter than the plain, but not entirely unpleasant, though the crust was a little soggy in parts. In terms of booze, the rye flavor shone through in a very nice way, adding even more warm, spicy flavor and just a bit of alcoholic bite. All in all, this was a good, but not great jar of pumpkin pie.
Pumpkin Pie with One Tablespoon of Rye
As you probably guessed, this jar was the least successful, and the wettest. It was mealy, the crust was completely saturated, and—I can’t believe I’m saying this—too alcoholic. It actually burned a bit going down. If a pumpkin spice latte and a Jello shot had a baby and that baby was disgusting, this would be that gross basic baby. Do not make this.
Turning back to our eternal question: Will pumpkin pie, both boozy and plain sous vide?
The answer: Why, yes it will, and you should do so, but don’t add booze to the batter. For the best results, cook it in a jar, let it chill overnight, and consume it with a nice pour of a infused whiskey or rum, like the classy grownup you are.
Photos by Claire Lower.
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