This year’s Friendsgiving (Year 5!! Too much food to fit on the table!) teetered on the brink of disaster from start to finish. My oven, which I generously call “unreliable” on its best days, had basically conked out a week before Friendsgiving, and after multiple frantic calls to my super, I was promised a new oven … which would arrive the day after I hosted 10 people in my tiny apartment.
Since my oven (usually) heated to the correct-ish temperature but was having issues consistently holding that temperature for long periods of time, I had to improvise a few things. My beautiful dry-brined and herb-roasted turkey got spatchcocked*, which reduced the cooking time to just over an hour for my 14-pounder. And my perfect pumpkin pie went the slab pie route, with a quick jaunt in cheesecake land, courtesy of Deb at Smitten Kitchen.
Slab pies, aka pies cooked in a jelly roll pan (which has higher sides that a regular baking sheet … learned that the hard way), are a dream for large gatherings, since they make a large amount of pie, slice up easily and are very portable. I only had 10 people, but I very luckily found a 9-x-13 jelly roll pan that I will now use for any and all sheet-pan dinners.
The problem was that my little half-counter was way too small for rolling out a slab pie crust — at one point, I literally had half of my dough dangling off the side of the counter and drooping dangerously towards the floor. I ended up with a thicker-than-normal pie crust for that reason, and even a longer-than-recommended parbake didn’t get the crust cooked all the way through. (I was the only one who minded, and there are pie crust flakes all over my couch that prove that most of the crust was flaky AF. [Who wants to come help me clean??])
I also had some issues creating the perfect marble. My cream cheese filling was much thicker than my pumpkin mixture, despite leaving my cream cheese to soften for far longer than I’m sure the FDA recommends and using two extra tablespoons of cream. I kind of blobbed the cream cheese first and then poured the pumpkin all around it, but swirls were not really in the cards for me. Yet again, no one minded.
This is something I forget and re-learn every single year — it turns out most people show up for Friendsgiving (or Thanksgiving — or any gathering, to be fair) mostly to spend time together. No janky oven or thick-crusted oddly-marbled pie will change that. As you stress out about the million things on your cooking list, just remember that: you’re cooking for loved ones, and at the end of the day, Domino’s is just a phone call away (as my bro-in-law so kindly reminded me while I was in full oven panic mode).
Looks aside, the pie was delicious. I love pumpkin pie, especially the silky smooth version I made to great success last year, which uses the same pumpkin filling as this one. The added cream cheese marble creates a creamy, tangy contrast to that spiced pumpkin custard. Fun fact: I had some leftover filling and in my infinite laziness, I mixed the pumpkin and cream cheese mixtures together instead of marbling and baked them in muffin tins. It was so delicious that I think I might avoid my marbling woes and mix them on purpose next year.
Hope you have a delicious, stress-free happy Thanksgiving!
*Spatchcocking means removing the backbone so that the bird lies flat on a baking sheet. It allows the light and dark meat to cook evenly, so it’s highly recommended by a lot of chefs, including our Test Kitchen director, who made this great video explaining the process. It’s now my favorite word and I’ve been inserting it into any and all conversations over the past few weeks.
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These measurements are for a 9-x-13 jelly roll pan (I *think* you could make this in a 9-x-13 baking dish with the understanding that your sides won’t crimp, but I haven’t tried it so I can’t be totally sure.) I had leftover filling, which I mixed together and baked up in muffin tins (350F for 25-ish minutes), which was a delicious “baker’s treat.”
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1–7/8 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1–1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, very cold
For the pumpkin filling
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree or 1–3/4 cups fresh puree
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- a hefty pinch of ground cloves
- a hefty pinch of ground nutmeg
- 1–1/3 cups heavy cream
- 3 large eggs
For the cheesecake
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened (very very softened)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the pie dough following these instructions.
- Form the crust: On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough into a 11-x-15-inch rectangle (additional rolling tips in the link above). Fold the dough gently in half and transfer to your jelly roll pan. Unfold the dough and trim the overhang to 1/2 inch. Fold it under the edge of the pie crust and crimp decoratively. (I am a firm believer in the fork crimp.) Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
- Par-bake the pie crust: Preheat the oven to 425F. Prick the crust all over with a fork (this prevents puffing). Line the crust with parchment paper, then fill it with dried beans, uncooked rice or even sugar. Bake for 12-15 minutes like this, then remove the parchment and filling and bake for an additional 2-3 minutes. Set aside to cool completely and lower the oven temperature to 400F.
- Make the pumpkin filling: combine the pumpkin, sugar, salt and spices in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Whisk in cold cream until smooth and let cool for 15 minutes.
- Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
- Make the cheesecake filling: using electric beaters, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, cream and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Dollop blobs of the cream cheese mixture onto the pie crust, then pour the pumpkin batter and using a butter knife, very carefully marble the mixture by forming figure-8s (be very careful to not make holes in the bottom crust).
- Bake the pie at 400F for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350F and bake for another 15 minutes, until only the center barely jiggles and a toothpick inserted into it comes out pumpkin-free. (Damp is fine, but the toothpick shouldn’t have loose pumpkin batter on it.)
- Let cool then chill in fridge until serving. (You can make this up to 3 days in advance and refrigerate it, or make it even earlier and freeze it, defrosting it the morning of.)
Notes
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 18
This pie looks so delicious! I love the combination of cheesecake and pumpkin.
Yes, it was so delicious — great idea of Deb Perelman’s to combine!