A long, long time ago, I made a Thai tea pumpkin pie, and I loved it. Thai tea adds such a distinct, perfume-y flavor that just lifts the somewhat bland pumpkin puree, giving it spice, creaminess, and sweetness, all things that work in a pumpkin pie traditionally! This time around, I wanted to go with more of an Americana feel to it. Fall is one of those seasons that I actually love. Cold weather aside, autumnal food is super comforting, warming, and it makes you feel welcomed and loved. When I think of fall foods, I think of casseroles, stews, roasts, and of course, pies. Pumpkin pie, along with cranberry and apple pies, are the absolute classics when it comes to holiday pies. Every time the Thanksgiving comes around, I make it a point to do a pumpkin, cranberry, and/or an apple dessert, just because I love all of those things. One of my favorite things to eat at a Thanksgiving dinner table was the sweet potato and marshmallow casserole. There was something so satisfying about a roasted sweet potato, stewing in a sweet, brown sugary mess, and coated with a toasted marshmallow on top. So that was my main incentive to take that, and do a Swiss meringue on top of my Thai tea pumpkin pie here! The pie itself has a really silky, pumpkin filling that is scented with Thai tea powder that includes cream and sugar in it already. I made it super silky by straining the filling several times, just to remove any lumps or fibrous bits in the pumpkin puree(surprisingly, there was a decent amount!). The pastry itself also uses Thai tea powder, as well as rum – the rum is there to give the pastry a super flaky finish. I feel like pumpkin pie is a little incomplete without a whipped topping to add lightness to the dense, rich filling, so a Swiss meringue, which tastes like a cloud, was the perfect component to round everything out.

With the components, there are some technical aspects to keep in mind. With the pastry, and this applies to basically every pie crust or butter-based dough, is the temperature. The colder the butter, the flakier the dough. Getting that dough too warm is detrimental, because that means that you have to keep the dough in the freezer or refrigerator for longer after you have mixed it, otherwise it will just warp in your hands and fall apart. So my advice here is work quickly, get that dough into the freezer/refrigerator as soon as it forms, and cold butter is your best friend. The dough itself is blind baked(so baked as a tart shell with no filling in it), since baking the dough with the filling in it doubles the bake time, and almost always, there will be raw dough in the center. I used a combination of parchment and uncooked rice to weigh by tart shell dough. It is important to weigh down your tart shell(or just freeze it solid before baking), since that will help the pastry keep its shape through the baking process. Otherwise, the tart shell will begin to shrink, and that means less filling in the dough, and an overall sadder-looking pie. While the dough is baking, that is when I would say you should start working on the filling. The filling comes together quite quickly, which is why I recommend taking your time passing it through a sieve at least once before you pour it into the baked tart shell. If you don’t want the sides of your tart shell to brown too much as you bake the filling into it, you can use aluminum foil to cover the sides to slow down the browning process on the edges. And for the meringue, use a thermometer and an electric mixer for the best results. The cream of tartar is important since it gives the meringue more longevity – meringue without cream of tartar, even when torched, tends to deflate and weep out all of that egg white-liquid and dissolved sugar. Cream of tartar makes it so that the meringue stays stiff, even days later!

Makes 1 10-inch pie:
For the pastry:
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter
2 packets Thai tea powder with sugar and milk powder
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp rum(can substitute with water)

In a bowl, mix together the flour, butter, Thai tea powder, and salt first, until a sandy, crumbly mixture forms in your bowl. To that, add in the other ingredients, kneading until everything is combined into a dough. Freeze the dough for 10 minutes, or refrigerate it for 1 hour. If you refrigerate or freeze the dough for longer, be sure to let the dough sit at room temperature until it is soft enough to flatten with your hands.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a roughly 10 inch-wide disk. Transfer the dough to an 8-inch tart shell, and press the dough against the sides to form the wall of your tart shell. Trim off any excess dough, redistributing it against the sides of the dough that reach just short of the top of the tin. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork, lay parchment on top of it, and weigh down your dough. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes, then remove the parchment. Then bake for a further 15 minutes. Allow the tart shell to cool before filling.

For the filling:
15oz pumpkin puree
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
3 packets Thai tea powder with sugar and milk powder
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2oz heavy cream

In a bowl, mix all of your ingredients together. Optionally, you can pass the filling through a sieve to remove any lumps from the pumpkin puree. Pour the filling into the tart shell, and bake the filling and tart shell together at 375 degrees F for 40 minutes. Allow the tart to fully cool before removing from the pan.

For the Swiss meringue:
1 egg white
3 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a heatproof bowl, whisk the egg white and sugar over a double boiler until the sugar is dissolved and the egg white reaches 140 degrees F. Transfer the bowl to a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, and whip everything together to stiff peaks. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe the filling around the edges of the. Alternatively, you can also quenelle the meringue onto the sides of the tart. Using a blowtorch on a lower heat setting, graze the surface of the meringues, just to get them toasted.