TWD: Caramel pumpkin pie

This week's recipe came a week after Canadian Thanksgiving so the smart and efficient thing to do would have been to make it a week in advance and serve it at the family dinner. I didn't do that, not only because I rarely choose the efficient way, but because I was worried that it wouldn't be as good as my regular recipe. I make a good pumpkin pie, if I do say so myself (I guess I just did). Anyway, I didn't even get my own pie made this year for the holiday, as it was a busy weekend. Instead, I melted my pumpkin ice cream down and used that as pie filling the next day. It was amazing--custardy and bright orange, just the way I like it! So good, that my mother called to see if I had told my sister-in-law I had also left some behind for her. She wanted to keep it all to herself. Luckily I hadn't said anything and my mother got 2 her pieces of pie. If you want to use that recipe you don't need to freeze it first, obviously. I'm all about efficiency, you know.

What does all that have to do with this week's recipe? Not much. I decided to make this pie in ramekins rather than in a crust for a change. I also decided to switch up the flavouring, as I find pumpkin pie sometimes just tastes of the spices rather than of the pumpkin. So, out came my favourite homemade essence: extrait antillais. I know I have mentioned it a number of times, but it's vanilla beans, tonka beans, sapote and mace marinated in rum. I sometimes use this to replace rum and vanilla and that's what I did here. Forgetting that I wanted to go light on spice, I added small amounts of fresh mace, nutmeg, sapote and tonka bean. Unfortunately, the spices completely overpowered the pumpkin and I found it inedible. I ate 2 to be sure. I guess the extrait has been sitting long enough that it's really powerful. Anyway, they looked pretty enough, but this recipe won't be replacing my regular one, as the texture wasn't as nice. And the colour! The caramel was delicious, but it darkened the filling enough that it looked like canned. Eeek! I know I ranted about this when I made the ice cream, so I won't do it again, but just look at this:

This week's recipe was chosen by Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs. Great pick, and sorry I screwed up! As always, head on over to the TWD site to see what everyone else baked up. Should be good--lots of positive comments this week. Some pumpkin-haters may even have become pumpkin eaters. :)

Update: Hmm, just had a friend over for dinner and I let her try the reject pumpkin pie. She took them all home, so maybe they're not as bad as I thought. She's going to mix them with ice cream to tone down the spice a bit.
Another entry for Torview's Orange recipe month!