I discovered an unidentified plant growing in my front garden in the early summer. I let it grow since I thought it might be a squash vine and found cushaws! This variety of squash is very green and sweet like pumpkin; it makes a delicious pie filling!
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 55 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 2 10-inch pies |
Ingredients
- 1 large cushaw squash – peeled, seeded, and chopped
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 ½ cups clover honey
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup molasses
- 5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons salt, divided
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 cups hard white flour, or more as needed
- 12 ⅔ tablespoons butter, softened
- 7 tablespoons ice-cold water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Place a steamer insert into a saucepan and fill with water to just below the bottom of the steamer. Bring water to a boil. Add squash, cover, and steam until very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
- Blend squash in a blender until smooth. Pour 6 cups of squash puree into a large mixing bowl. Reserve any extra squash puree for a separate use.
- Add cream, honey, eggs, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, 1 teaspoon salt, allspice, and nutmeg into the mixing bowl with squash puree; whisk until smooth. Cover and set aside.
- Mix flour and 1 teaspoon salt together in a bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture; add water and mix well. Add more flour to dough if it is too wet. Cut dough in half and roll onto a floured work surface; form into two 10-inch circles. Press dough into two 10-inch pie pans; pour squash filling into each.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.
- This recipe usually makes more than enough pie filling. I usually pour the extra filling into a glass casserole dish with a graham cracker crust and bake it along with the pies.
- These pies are excellent served with whipped cream dusted with nutmeg.
- If there is extra cushaw, it can be saved and frozen for up to 3 months.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 460 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 54 g |
| Cholesterol | 132 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 17 g |
| Sodium | 398 mg |
| Sugars | 32 g |
| Fat | 27 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This has replaced the Thanksgiving pumpkin pie in our house and is so much better. I find the traditional pumpkin pie too dense and sweet. To be fair if you look at a can of pumpkin, it’s actually more squash anyway. This is so much lighter in texture and not overly sweet. To put the portions in perspective, 1/2 this recipe with 3 cups of cushaw purée and you get 2 pies. I took a couple of tips from another cushaw pie recipe which said to roast the cushaw for an hour in a 350 oven and then peel off the skin. Either way, cushaw holds a lot of liquid so cook the day ahead and put in a colander over a catch bowl to drain the water. Even with this I still squeezed excess water out with a dish towel. I recommend this so the pie isn’t too watery. I did add a bit of white sugar (just a couple of tablespoons) for a bit more sweetness but also a bit of lemon extract too. Added a dollop of fresh whip cream when served.
I made a grape-nuts crust with about 1.5 cups of cereal and milk. Forms well after the milk gets soaked in. I ended up with 4 pies instead of 2 so I suggest you lower the servings to adjust. One cushaw was close to 12 cups so I vacuum sealed the rest to use later.
I made my first cushaw pie today. This recipe called for 2 pies but it ended up making 5. Not sure why so many but they are good. I’m taking some to a picnic tomorrow and taking the rest to a local soup kitchen. I’m sure they will enjoy it. Thank you for this healthy, tasty pie recipe.