Photo: trekkyandy

My friend Paul, who cooks professionally at a local hotel, is always on the hunt for recipes that put a tasty twist on the traditional.

Last year, at Thanksgiving, he made an amazing pumpkin pie — we’ve been having a lot of fun trying to figure out how to make it even better, ever since.

What’s the result when two food-obsessed minds are put to work on one recipe?

A rich and delicious pumpkin pie for a special holiday dinner, that’s what!

Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

Make (or buy) a single pie shell. Cook it as usual, and set it aside to cool while you prepare the pumpkin pie filling, as below:

Ingredients

1 ½ cups sour cream (sorry, but no — the low-fat kind won’t do!)
1 ½ cups cooked pumpkin (solid-pack canned, or homemade with liquid drained off)
3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg (best if fresh-grated from a whole nutmeg)
¼ ground ginger (or a pinch more, if you like ginger as much as I do!)
¼ salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Gently heat 1 cup of the sour cream in the top of a double boiler, stirring occasionally.

Whisk together the pumpkin, egg yolks, brown sugar, spices, salt, and the remaining ½ cup of sour cream until it’s combined — then whisk it into the hot sour cream in your double boiler. Continue to cook over simmering water, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens and reached 170°F. (Paul actually uses a thermometer for this step; but I just “ballpark it” at about 6 or 7 minutes of cooking time.)

Remove from heat and cool quickly — take the top of the double boiler (the pot with your pumpkin mixture in it) off the bottom pot of hot water and put it into a bowl of ice water for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Beat the egg whites in a clean glass bowl with an electric mixer, just until the point where they will hold soft peaks — don’t over do it!

Fold the beaten egg whites gently but thoroughly into the cooled pumpkin mixture. Pour the filling into the cooled pie shell, levelling out the top with a knife or spatula. Bake at 375°F about 40 or 50 minutes (this will depend on how much moisture was in your pumpkin, as that can vary) — until the filling is set, and just a bit puffed up around the edge of the pie.

You can serve this pie at room temperature — cool it on a rack for about 2 hours — or make it a day ahead and serve it chilled. If you’re going to keep it in the fridge overnight, do let it come to room temperature first, then cover the cooled pie with a piece of plastic wrap for storage.