Pumpkin pies

Three recipes for Thanksgiving

By Culinate staff

November 3, 2008

The holy trinity of Thanksgiving pies is usually Apple, Pumpkin, and Pecan. Apple pie, of course, is considered All-American, but folks don’t usually relegate it to the fall and winter holidays. Pumpkin and pecan pie, on the other hand, are truly tied to the turkey holiday (with encore performances at Christmastime), and unlike apples, pumpkins and pecans are both indigenous New World foods.

Pumpkin Pecan Pie

So with a few weeks to go before Thanksgiving hits, we’ve whipped up a few pumpkin-based pie recipes. First we have Mom’s Pumpkin Pie, a classic standard pumpkin pie from Culinate food editor Carrie Floyd. (She cheerfully admits that her version is really nothing more than a homemade take on the popular pie-recipe-from-the-canned-pumpkin-label.)

Next we have Pumpkin Gingersnap Pie, a fluffier, crunchier, spicier version of pumpkin pie that was a family staple before managing editor Caroline Cummins adapted it for Culinate.

And, finally, we have editorial director Kim Carlson’s fusion pie, Pumpkin Pecan Pie, which blends pumpkin and pecan in two layers: pumpkin on the bottom, pecans (and all that gooey corn-syrup filling standard in pecan pies) on top.

Try one, try them all. They’re not difficult, and one of them might just become your family favorite.