Caramel Pumpkin Mousse Tart with Pecan Crumble – Chew Nibble NoshChew Nibble Nosh

via Caramel Pumpkin Mousse Tart with Pecan Crumble – Chew Nibble NoshChew Nibble Nosh.

“How come when everyone gets together I have to make dessert?”

“Because you make good desserts.”

“I don’t want to make the same thing. Find a recipe that has pumpkin in it but is lighter than pumpkin pie.”

“OK.”

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you cook.  A quick internet search usually produces a number of recipes worth trying.  Reader comments of course can be priceless.  I picked this recipe because I thought to myself, how bad can pumpkin, cream cheese, vanilla pudding, pecans, caramel, vanilla wafers and fresh whipped cream be?

 

 

Good Pie

Good Pie
3 egg whites beaten
1 cup sugar
1tsp Vanilla
Pinch of salt
1 cup graham crackers crumbs
1 cup pecans chopped
½ tsp baking powder

Beat egg whites until stiff then add salt, sugar (slowly), and vanilla. Fold in or beat at low speed graham cracker crumbs, pecans and baking soda.  Bake for 25 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Last weekend the Normal Hill Gang gathered at Barking Dog Ranch.  Another Saturday, another opportunity to share good food and wine with good friends.  I’m reasonably positive my lovely wife has made this pie for the gang not just once but several times.  But everyone raved about the pie as if they never had it before.  As promised I put this recipe on my blog.

While researching a cooking method for sirloin tip roast I opened a 1947 copyright version of Irma Bombeck’s Joy of Cooking.  There are several copies in the house and this copy belonged to my mother-in-law Beverly.  On the inside front cover I found this pie recipe handwritten neatly.  It was the kind of place you put a recipe you don’t want to lose.  We figured the recipe was probably written in the book sometime in the fifties.

So here you go.  My modern day version of the inside cover of a treasured cookbook.  Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  But as I write this I realize why everyone loved the pie.

It was the pumpkin ice cream.  Not vanilla, nor whipped cream.  Pumpkin ice cream and Good Pie.  YUM.