persimmon-pumpkin pie

on gloomy days, channing and i watch giada de laurentiis on the food network and she "mixes" little toys and things in her big metal mixing bowl.  it was just that kind of day a couple of weeks ago when we came across giada's thanksgiving show.  she made persimmon-pumpkin pie and it looked fantastic!  i knew i was tasked to make pumpkin pies this year, for our family thanksgiving feast, and thought this would be a great little change to the typical pumpkin pie recipe.  i really liked it and definitely plan on making it again.  the pie was creamy and thick and tasted a lot like a regular pumpkin pie, except it had a bit of tart sweetness from the persimmon and apricot jam.  i added a few notes, things i found helpful, to giada's original recipe which you can find here.  

persimmon-pumpkin pie

ingredients

8 servings

Crust

Vegetable oil cooking spray

1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup powdered sugar

¼ teaspoon fine salt

½ cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced

3 tablespoons mascarpone cheese, chilled

2 to 3 tablespoons apricot preserves

Filling

1 cup canned pure pumpkin

Two 6- to 7-ounce ripe Fuyu persimmons, trimmed, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces or 1 cup of persimmon pulp from two 6- to 7-ounce very ripe Hachiya persimmons

½ cup sugar

⅓ cup mascarpone 

⅓ cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 large eggs, at room temperature

Powdered sugar, for dusting

instructions

Crust

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9-inch-diameter glass or ceramic pie dish with vegetable oil cooking spray.

In a food processor, blend the flour, sugar and salt until combined. Add the butter and mascarpone cheese and blend until moist clumps form. Gather the dough into a ball. Drop 2-inch pieces of dough over the bottom and sides of the pie dish. Using moist fingertips press the dough together to form a smooth crust. Using the tines of a fork, prick the dough all over.

Bake the crust until the edge is browned and the center of the crust is pale golden, about 25 minutes. Transfer the crust to a work surface. Brush the bottom and sides of the crust with apricot preserves.

Filling

In a food processor, combine the pumpkin and persimmon. Blend until smooth. Add the sugar, mascarpone, cream, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt and eggs. Blend until smooth. Pour the filling into the cooked crust.

Bake the pie until slits or cracks appear around the edge and the center is set, about 35 minutes. Cool the pie on a rack. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Bake and cool to room temperature. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate.)

Just before serving, dust the top of the pie with powdered sugar. Cut into wedges and serve.

i love using mascarpone but, i do believe you could use cream cheese as a replacement in a pinch and to save on costs.

this crust is so easy! i love just throwing everything into the food processor.  this is a sticky press in crust, not a roll out type of crust.

after the crust baked, i realized that it shrunk a little.  next time, i will press it thinner and push it up to the edge a bit more. 

while the crust is baking, you have time to start working on the filling.  i love the color of these persimmons! 

our food processor is small, not large enough for the entire pumpkin pie mixture, so i blended just the persimmon and pumpkin then transferred to the kitchenaid mixer to add the rest of the ingredients.  

my favorite part of this recipe...adding the layer of apricot preserves on top of the baked crust.  i recommend more versus less.  i loved the taste of the apricot in the finished pie but wished i had added a little bit more. 

my favorite apricot jam.