This pie is not only square, but it is also a twofer: pumpkin and pecan in one. I've often wondered why a pie is usually baked in a round pan. I found this little known fact: colonial women used round pans literally to cut corners and stretch the ingredients (for the same reason they baked shallow pies) according to this link.

Here's a little round-up of square pies or tarts that I found this week:

• Gourmet Girl's Key Lime Pie/Tart
• Cook Sister's Pistachio Tarts
• Gluten A Go Go's Lemon Meringue Tart
• Madam Chow's Kitchen's The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart
• Joe Pastry's Caramel-Pumpkin Bars
• Baking Obsession's Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tart

In my reading about pies, I found an interesting article talking about how chic it is to make square pies. As it turns out, Rose Bakery in Paris had some custom square tart pans made and filled their bakery with a variety of tarts that were squared. Eric Kayser of Boulangerie Kayser also makes square tarts, which have become very popular. Kayser has published a book called Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savory Tarts and on the cover is a gorgeous looking square tart.

To bake my pie, I used an 8x8 square pan lined with parchment paper. To remove the pie from the pan, I popped it into the freezer. Then after it was frozen, I removed it from the pan and defrosted it.

Recipe: Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

Tasting Notes
This pie is the perfect combination of pumpkin and pecan and would only be better with some chocolate drizzled on top. But I bet one of the 300+ TWD members did just that! Recipe for Next Week (December 2)
Linzer Sables on pages 134-135 chosen by noskos from Living the Life.

Other pumpkin ideas:
• Pumpkin Chai Tart
• Pumpkin Crème Brûlée
• Pumpkin Muffins

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers from the United States!
An Award
Cathy from The Tortefeasor has given me an award. Cathy's blog is a must read, filled with humorous anecdotes of her life raising three small children, baking, cooking, and working as a lawyer in her spare time. Check out her collection of Pam and Cooking Light annuals! Impressive.


Thanks, Cathy. Here are 5 blogs I want to pass this award to (in no particular order):

1. Gretchen from Canela & Comino is living in Peru as a missionary and documenting her adventure with food and life there. Her beautiful photos and stories feature Peru's food and culture and make you want to visit her kitchen.

2. Kim from Scrumptious Photography has such beautiful photos that I make sure I don't miss out on one of her posts. Lately she's been telling us about her wonderful trip to Greece so you can travel a bit while you visit her blog too.

3. Susan's posts from She's Becoming Doughmesstic are always fun to read, plus she's the brainchild behind the Baking Gals, You Want Pies with That and My Kitchen My World. She's an amazing woman!

4. Bellini Valli from More than Burnt Toast is a fellow Canadian blogger who just launched BloggerAid. Another amazing blogger who always has something brewing in her kitchen and on her blog.

5. Vera from Baking Obsession has such stunning photography and delicious desserts. Grab a large coffee and catch up on the latest desserts at her blog. Scrumptious.

It's pumpkin pie season here, and Thanksgiving weekend just ended in Canada. My 9-year old daughter loves pumpkin pie, so, together we spent an afternoon making pie crust and pumpkin pie filling. She's my buddy in the kitchen, always wanting to help stir or break an egg or taste the batter. And she has an amazing set of taste buds that can differentiate the subtleties of bitter or sour, dark chocolates, and Dutch-processed versus natural cocoa powder. She's my taste tester, and I look forward to many more hours spent in the kitchen with her as she grows up.

For this pumpkin pie, I wanted to add a couple of my favorite flavors: chai tea and coconut. Masala chai is a tea that's infused with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, cloves and ginger. At the grocery store, I found some Maple Sugar made in Quebec so I used it instead of regular sugar. For extra spice, I added some ground ginger to the crust. All these spices and flavors blended nicely with the pumpkin and made a special pie for Thanksgiving.

Playing Around
I bought some wide-mouth canning jars a while ago thinking they were so pretty and hoped to do some canning this year. But, instead of canning, I used the lids as removable bottom tart pans. They worked great. Just make sure you put them on a parchment-lined baking sheet for baking.

Recipe: Pumpkin Chai Tart

Note: The filling makes more than you need for the crust. Either double the crust or half the filling.

Ingredients: