Pumpkin pie: people either love it or hate it. I, as a lover of all things pumpkin, obviously don’t hate it, but I am very picky about it. Most of them have a bad crust and the filling is usually too sweet and cinnamony (I really don’t like cinnamon). But if it’s made well, it’s oh so good.


A number of years ago, I very briefly worked at a fancy Chinese restaurant at which Pichet Ong was the pastry chef. I absolutely loved, and to this day, still do love, his Asian-inspired desserts. About a year after that, the New York Times printed a wonderful recipe of his a few weeks before Thanksgiving for a twist on the classic pumpkin pie: a Kabocha squash pie. Kabocha squash is among the sweetest varieties of squash (see this NYT article if you don’t believe me), so it lends itself perfectly to dessert. My favorite thing about it is its vibrant orange color - it's very Day-Glo-esqsue. Pichet's pie's filling contains the standard pumpkin pie spices, but is heavier on the ginger than the standard. The crust is perhaps the best part – it’s a graham cracker crust that’s perked up with ginger, lime, and walnuts. The addition of nuts make the crust rich and almost candy-like, and the flavor is just outstanding. Overall, it's a nice little Thai twist.

I decided to be a nice co-worker and bring in some cupcakes for the folks in the office. And with Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday, what better than a cupcake rich with the quintessential flavors of fall.

I can’t believe it’s mid-November and I haven’t made anything with pumpkin yet. I absolutely adore pumpkin and all my friends know it, too – one of them joked that I was going to make every course of my Thanksgiving dinner contain pumpkin…for the record, I’m not. In my defense, I didn’t have much desire to cook last week, and I was away for the weekend, so I haven’t really been in the kitchen very much this month. But you can be sure that there will be lots of pumpkin recipes coming your way the next few weeks and months.