Its fall pie season again and there is nothing like pumpkin pie. My grandmother would always take a weekend and bake dozens of pies for family and friends. A fresh baked pumpkin pie always reminds me of her. Grandma's spirit was by my side as I set out to bake some fresh pumpkin pies.
With a trip to out local farmers market for pie pumpkins. Oh yes, I did say fresh. It was the end of the season for them and they had a sale on Hubbard squash. They told me that Hubbard squash make an excellent pumpkin pie. I had my doubts, but I decided to do a taste test and baked pie pumpkin and Hubbard squash. Come along on my squash journey.
I had to find out how to bake a Hubbard squash, its a very hard-skinned fruit. I found the easy way for me was to cut it in half. You have to be very careful to cut in to this fall fruit (squash). Its much harder than a true pumpkin. Cutting the Hubbard in half very carefully with a knife and a meat mallet. (Yes, it is that hard) and you have to do it carefully. I would tap it in inches and started in the center and did one side and then move to the other. This squash has almost a melon or cucumber aroma.
Once I had it in half, I baked it two ways: I scooped the seeds out prior to baking and the other after. I found that baking with the seeds made it easier to remove them.
I baked it on parchment paper upside down. As you can see the squash is very large even in half. That is a full size cookie sheet and I made sure to use one of my old pans in case of run off baking on the pan.
As you can see there was a lot of juice splatter, I did not add any oil or butter to the squash.
Oh, and that melon or cucumber aroma dissipated during baking and it smells like any other squash.
Once cooled, I scooped out the seeds into a bowl to set aside for the back yard wild life. I then began to scoop out the fruit flesh to another lager bowl. I found the skin to be very thick and tough and set aside for my compost.
After collecting all the squash in small batches I used my immersion blender to puree the squash.
At this point I followed my pumpkin pie recipe.
While my dough making could use some practice, I was proud to make it from scratch.
My testers were my unknowing family....
This is what we found:
The Hubbard squash made a much smoother and creamier custard. It also allowed for the pumpkin spices to come through much better than the pumpkin did. As you can see in the photo below it has creamier and shiny texture.
Below is a side by side of pumpkin (left) and Hubbard (right) squash pie.
Both were made from fresh squash and same recipe.
The verdict: my family preferred the Hubbard squash pumpkin pie over the true Pumpkin squash pie.
If you get the chance, I recommend trying the Hubbard squash the next time you bake a pumpkin pie.
I would love to know if you have ever tried Hubbard squash before and what dishes you've made.
Maggie
