How to Bake a Winter Squash Pie
Know your winter squash, and pick a sweet type., Select your squash., Select your pie crust., Bake the squash., Take out the filling removing skin and seeds., Add sugar and sweet seasonings., Put the squash pie filling into the crust pan., Bake at...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Know your winter squash
A winter squash is grown and, in fact, tastes sort of like pumpkins.
They are harvest during the cold (fall) season and produce one crop per year.
Some squashes can be wrongly called pumpkins in some stores.
The squash group of vegetables is a very diverse group and new colors and shapes are showing up in markets thanks to breeding by garden experts.
You can always pre-taste a squash variety to be sure it's a sweet squash.
In order to know what you're getting, consider the main winter squash options:.
The acorn squash looks like a 3D spade of the playing cards and has tougher skin than the other varieties.
This also has ribbed or waved skin.
It's often a deep dark green color, but they can have creamy white or speckled skins.
This squash as hollow and its cavity is the largest.
This one has a nutty mild taste.
If a cultivar of acorn squash has turned orange or yellow, it might be old.
The butternut squash stands out with its unusual pear shape.
It's a solid type with skin is pale brown pink to beige color.
This squash skin is very tender and butternuts have a lot of flesh in ratio to a small seed cavity.
Sometime the shape is like a 2 balled snowman! The seeds are always on the bottom.
Its flavor gives it its name, because it tastes a lot like butter roasted pecans or walnuts.
The buttercup squash has a round turban shape and hollow with a smallish center seed cavity.
Its colors can be a bright burning red or green with stripes.
Some fruits have a "crown" on top of the main fruit.
Its flavor is more sweet than buttery.
Other winter squash are rarer but may be available in fruit markets or farmer markets.
The Hubbard squash is shaped like a butternut squash but is either a bright red-orange or a bluish gray color and may or may not have "warts" on the skin.
The cushaw, crooked neck or Tennessee sweet potato is technically a butternut squash with dark green skin and white stripes.
Cushaw and hubbard squash can be huge in size.
The delicata squash is a small cute cylindrical shaped type with creamy colored skin and dark green stripes.
Avoid the spaghetti squash for this recipe.
This yellow egg shaped squash doesn't cook down like other winter squash and tastes like zucchini.
Its flesh is pale yellow and comes apart in noodle like strands. -
Step 2: and pick a sweet type.
Winter squash can be found in many markets at any time of the year.
However, a good squash will be heavy for its size and not light.
If it's light the flesh is dry, it means the squash is old or underripe and may be harder to cook down.
Old squash, when cooked, will leave more hard "chunks" in the filling that'll have to be removed, and they can result in a gritty pie.
A good heavy squash will cook down very quickly and give smoother filling.
The size of the squash will dictate how many pies you can make using this recipe and how squash you'll need.
A large fat butternut squash will fill two store brought graham cracker crust forms.
The round or acorn shaped ones produce less flesh than butternuts.
Size will also have to be a consideration when baking the squash.
Larger squash could take longer to cook.
Don't worry about bruises and "warts"; these are natural occurrences. , You can use either a ready made pie crust in the store or make your own pie crust using any recipe.
You can also fill the pie pan with the filling first and drop the crust in as dumplings, crumble or cobbler style. graham cracker or cookie crusts work nicely with this recipe. , You can use the microwave or the oven.
For the microwave:
Rinse in running water and place the whole squash without cutting into the microwave on a microwave safe plate.
If it's too big, you can cut it into smaller pieces first.
Microwave at high power for 10 to 30 minutes.
For the oven:
If you're using an oven, place the squash on any oven-safe container and bake it for 20 to 40 minutes on high heat (350 to 400) degrees.
The squash is ready when it darkens, sweats and wilts.
It will turn very soft to first touch.
The skin becomes easily pierced by a fork.
The flesh should be soft and have a texture like mashed potatoes.
If a huge part of the squash doesn't cook tender like the rest, remove the ready parts and return the squash back into the oven to cook some more.
Don't be afraid to rotate or flip the squash for even cooking.
Some people cut the squash big or small remove the seeds first and then cook it.
This may dry the squash out and affect the flavor, but it's doable if you prefer to cook that way.
Let the squash cool. , When the squash is cool enough to handle, cut the squash in half if your using a round or acorn shaped one.
If you're using a pear-shaped one, cut the fat end off and then cut it half.
You just remove the skin of the skinny or "neck" part of the squash and have lots of flesh.
With a spoon or scoop, remove the seeds.
You don't have to worry about removing the stringy pulp.
The pulp is full of moisture and flavor and is very tender.
Scrape the flesh off the skin and discard the skin and seeds.
If you run into hard "chunks" that don't cook or mash right, throw those out.
Also throw out the two "ends," which are the very top and bottom of the fruit.
Acorn squash can also have strings at every "ridge or hill"; get rid of those as well. , It's totally up to your taste and you can add a little or a lot of sweetness.
A good sweet combo is sugar, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, anise, cinnamon and/or 5 spice.
Mix the mixture in a large container until throughly mixed.
The squash will turn into a smooth velvet texture.
Remove any seeds, hard chunks and skins that might have been missed as you go.
Cloves, allspice and ginger are very strong! Do not put too much of any of these three or they'll overwhelm the other spices and squash flavors.
Taste your species first to see how strong they are before adding.
There's no additional milk, cream, or eggs in this recipe.
Squash has a lot of water in it already in it.
Adding more moisture will make a soupy pie that won't firm up right after baking.
It'll also ruin the texture of the squash.
Give the blender a rest! You don't want to make a squash puree. , Leave a little bit of the crust edge showing.
Don't worry about over filling, as squash doesn't bubble or rise. , If your crust starts burning anytime during baking, turn down the oven.
The pie is ready when the filling dries out and a knife inserted inside the center of the pie comes clean. , Resist the first slice and let the flavors develop. , You might want to even try some nuts with it. -
Step 3: Select your squash.
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Step 4: Select your pie crust.
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Step 5: Bake the squash.
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Step 6: Take out the filling removing skin and seeds.
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Step 7: Add sugar and sweet seasonings.
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Step 8: Put the squash pie filling into the crust pan.
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Step 9: Bake at high (375 to 400) degree oven for 1 hour to 2 hours.
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Step 10: Let the pie stand for 1 to 6 hours.
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Step 11: Serve like sweet potato or pumpkin pie with cream
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Step 12: ice cream
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Step 13: or milk.
Detailed Guide
A winter squash is grown and, in fact, tastes sort of like pumpkins.
They are harvest during the cold (fall) season and produce one crop per year.
Some squashes can be wrongly called pumpkins in some stores.
The squash group of vegetables is a very diverse group and new colors and shapes are showing up in markets thanks to breeding by garden experts.
You can always pre-taste a squash variety to be sure it's a sweet squash.
In order to know what you're getting, consider the main winter squash options:.
The acorn squash looks like a 3D spade of the playing cards and has tougher skin than the other varieties.
This also has ribbed or waved skin.
It's often a deep dark green color, but they can have creamy white or speckled skins.
This squash as hollow and its cavity is the largest.
This one has a nutty mild taste.
If a cultivar of acorn squash has turned orange or yellow, it might be old.
The butternut squash stands out with its unusual pear shape.
It's a solid type with skin is pale brown pink to beige color.
This squash skin is very tender and butternuts have a lot of flesh in ratio to a small seed cavity.
Sometime the shape is like a 2 balled snowman! The seeds are always on the bottom.
Its flavor gives it its name, because it tastes a lot like butter roasted pecans or walnuts.
The buttercup squash has a round turban shape and hollow with a smallish center seed cavity.
Its colors can be a bright burning red or green with stripes.
Some fruits have a "crown" on top of the main fruit.
Its flavor is more sweet than buttery.
Other winter squash are rarer but may be available in fruit markets or farmer markets.
The Hubbard squash is shaped like a butternut squash but is either a bright red-orange or a bluish gray color and may or may not have "warts" on the skin.
The cushaw, crooked neck or Tennessee sweet potato is technically a butternut squash with dark green skin and white stripes.
Cushaw and hubbard squash can be huge in size.
The delicata squash is a small cute cylindrical shaped type with creamy colored skin and dark green stripes.
Avoid the spaghetti squash for this recipe.
This yellow egg shaped squash doesn't cook down like other winter squash and tastes like zucchini.
Its flesh is pale yellow and comes apart in noodle like strands.
Winter squash can be found in many markets at any time of the year.
However, a good squash will be heavy for its size and not light.
If it's light the flesh is dry, it means the squash is old or underripe and may be harder to cook down.
Old squash, when cooked, will leave more hard "chunks" in the filling that'll have to be removed, and they can result in a gritty pie.
A good heavy squash will cook down very quickly and give smoother filling.
The size of the squash will dictate how many pies you can make using this recipe and how squash you'll need.
A large fat butternut squash will fill two store brought graham cracker crust forms.
The round or acorn shaped ones produce less flesh than butternuts.
Size will also have to be a consideration when baking the squash.
Larger squash could take longer to cook.
Don't worry about bruises and "warts"; these are natural occurrences. , You can use either a ready made pie crust in the store or make your own pie crust using any recipe.
You can also fill the pie pan with the filling first and drop the crust in as dumplings, crumble or cobbler style. graham cracker or cookie crusts work nicely with this recipe. , You can use the microwave or the oven.
For the microwave:
Rinse in running water and place the whole squash without cutting into the microwave on a microwave safe plate.
If it's too big, you can cut it into smaller pieces first.
Microwave at high power for 10 to 30 minutes.
For the oven:
If you're using an oven, place the squash on any oven-safe container and bake it for 20 to 40 minutes on high heat (350 to 400) degrees.
The squash is ready when it darkens, sweats and wilts.
It will turn very soft to first touch.
The skin becomes easily pierced by a fork.
The flesh should be soft and have a texture like mashed potatoes.
If a huge part of the squash doesn't cook tender like the rest, remove the ready parts and return the squash back into the oven to cook some more.
Don't be afraid to rotate or flip the squash for even cooking.
Some people cut the squash big or small remove the seeds first and then cook it.
This may dry the squash out and affect the flavor, but it's doable if you prefer to cook that way.
Let the squash cool. , When the squash is cool enough to handle, cut the squash in half if your using a round or acorn shaped one.
If you're using a pear-shaped one, cut the fat end off and then cut it half.
You just remove the skin of the skinny or "neck" part of the squash and have lots of flesh.
With a spoon or scoop, remove the seeds.
You don't have to worry about removing the stringy pulp.
The pulp is full of moisture and flavor and is very tender.
Scrape the flesh off the skin and discard the skin and seeds.
If you run into hard "chunks" that don't cook or mash right, throw those out.
Also throw out the two "ends," which are the very top and bottom of the fruit.
Acorn squash can also have strings at every "ridge or hill"; get rid of those as well. , It's totally up to your taste and you can add a little or a lot of sweetness.
A good sweet combo is sugar, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves, anise, cinnamon and/or 5 spice.
Mix the mixture in a large container until throughly mixed.
The squash will turn into a smooth velvet texture.
Remove any seeds, hard chunks and skins that might have been missed as you go.
Cloves, allspice and ginger are very strong! Do not put too much of any of these three or they'll overwhelm the other spices and squash flavors.
Taste your species first to see how strong they are before adding.
There's no additional milk, cream, or eggs in this recipe.
Squash has a lot of water in it already in it.
Adding more moisture will make a soupy pie that won't firm up right after baking.
It'll also ruin the texture of the squash.
Give the blender a rest! You don't want to make a squash puree. , Leave a little bit of the crust edge showing.
Don't worry about over filling, as squash doesn't bubble or rise. , If your crust starts burning anytime during baking, turn down the oven.
The pie is ready when the filling dries out and a knife inserted inside the center of the pie comes clean. , Resist the first slice and let the flavors develop. , You might want to even try some nuts with it.
About the Author
Jerry Reynolds
Committed to making lifestyle accessible and understandable for everyone.
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