Pumpkin, Cranberry, and Pecan Pie
Thanksgiving is hands-down my favorite holiday of the year. Are any of you surprised? I love planning the big meal and then enjoying it with family and friends. Growing up, I was the only one who ever wanted pumpkin pie on the dessert table at Thanksgiving. My dad always obliged and made me a pumpkin pie.
As a side note, I think I get some of my crazy food ideas from my dad – we usually have at least one pie for every person at the Thanksgiving table, so literally everyone can request whichever flavor they prefer. So anyways, growing up, I wanted pumpkin pie. I’d pile on the cool whip and dig in.
As I got older, I was kind of turned off by pumpkin pie. Mostly because there are just so many other delicious Thanksgiving desserts to try. But let me tell you a couple things about this pie. 1: makes me love pumpkin pie again and 2: makes me swear I’ll never make plain old pumpkin pie again.
It’s seriously the PERFECT Thanksgiving pie. It has everything you could possibly want in a pie. The majority of the pie is a subtle spiced pumpkin filling, and then it’s topped with a pecan and cranberry streusel that gets all melting and crispy and delicious in the oven. If you have pumpkin pie on your Thanksgiving menu this year, I strongly urge you to replace it with this Pumpkin, Cranberry, and Pecan Pie.
One Year Ago: Spiced Butternut Squash Cupcakes
Two Years Ago: Cous Cous with Butternut Squash and Cranberries, Crockpot Cranberry Pork Roast and Cranberry Almond Caramel Tart
Three Years Ago: Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie and Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Pumpkin, Cranberry, and Pecan Pie
Ingredients:
For the Pie
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp cardamom
15 oz can pumpkin
3 slightly beaten eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 single pie crust
For the Cranberry Pecan Topping
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 tsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cold butter
4 ounces fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, zest, salt, and all of the spices (nutmeg through cardamom). In a separate bowl, combine the pumpkin, eggs, cream, and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and lightly beat by hand until well combined. Pour the pumpkin mixture into a pie shell. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the brown sugar, flour, and salt, and butter to a small food processor and chop until it resembles a coarse mixture. Stir in the chopped cranberries and pecans.
Remove pie from the oven and sprinkle the cranberry mixture on top. Return the tart to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pie is set, topping is golden and bubbly, and the crust is golden. If the crust starts getting too brown, you can add strips of foil around the edges.
Cool on a wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.
Recipe adapted from Good Life Eats
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I am really very terrible at frosting/decorating cake :\ This came out way better than anything I could make!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:18 pm
Ha – I’m pretty bad too. That’s why I love putting stuff on the sides. Coconut does a good job of hiding my sloppy decorating skills.
Coconut and almond, you’ve already got me reeled in 🙂 two of my favorite flavors rolled into what looks like a moist, fluffy cake. YUM
This cake looks so beautiful and the texture is perfect! I love curd as a filling between cake layers but i never knew the trick for preventing it from seeping out – thanks!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:19 pm
Yea, it’s definitely very helpful. Even more so when you ACTUALLY do it 😉
We’ve all had those cake experiences. It looks like it turned out well in the end! And it sounds delicious!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
Glad to hear I’m not the only one. I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in thinking we all need to project that all of our baking/cooking endeavors are hugely successful…
Regardless of any kitchen mishaps, this cake looks divine! Layer cakes always look so special, and the addition of fruit here makes me swooooon!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
I agree. Layer cakes always look special 🙂
Oh this looks amazing. And aren’t we all our own worst critics when we bake? I can’t tell you how many times I say something is terrible and my husband looks as me like I’m crazy.
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:21 pm
I agree. At the end of the day, it tasted delicious and no one knew about all the issues I had with the cake. I did want to keep it real on the blog and not give anyone any false sense that things are always easy for me…
I always shy away from layer cakes – yours always come out well, I need some more practice I think! Your “mistakes” are great learning points – did not know about the frosting damn, but it makes so much sense!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:23 pm
That’s why I wanted to talk about them. I definitely could have posted about this cake without mentioning any of the issues I had. I’m hoping they’ll help someone (myself included) to learn something for the next time they tackle a layer cake. Yours will definitely improve with practice. Mine surely are. I really want to make that coconut cake you just posted!
i’m always hard on myself too, but you wouldn’t know by the taste i’m sure! looks absolutely wonderful, not to mention i’m drooling over the flavor combo 🙂
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:24 pm
I agree, I think we all are. I wanted to keep it real with this post in case anyone else found it to be a difficult set of recipes…
Yum, your cake looks so delicious and I really love the sound of the blackberry lime curd!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:27 pm
Thanks!
I love coconut cake, and blackberries are my favorite fruit. Such a great idea to put them together. This cake is gorgeous! I would happily take a large slice . . . or maybe the whole thing 😉
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2013 @ 10:02 am
Then you would definitely love this cake!
Could anyone post the blackberry lime curd recipe? The link is no longer working.
Thanks!
beantownbaker — August 12th, 2013 @ 7:39 pm
Sorry about that. I updated the recipe link, but here it is as well: http://www.beantownbaker.com/2013/03/blackberry-lime-curd.html