Pumpion Pie (Hannah Woolley's 17th-Century English Pumpkin Pie)
Before the custard there was this: slices of squash browned in butter and baked under a pastry lid with tart apples, raisins, currants, sugar, spice and a splash of sherry, adapted from a 1670s English recipe.
Pumpkins are American plants, and Europeans met them only after the late 1400s. The Folger Shakespeare Library's Amanda Herbert traces the English word "pumpion" to the Old French "pompon", and notes its first English mention in "The Grete Herball" (London, 1526) and Falstaff being called a "watery pumpion" in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (Folger, November 14, 2017:). In London, pumpkins were costly and exotic. Hannah Woolley, who made a living writing cookbooks and teaching cooking in her London kitchen, printed "To make a Pumpion Pie" in "The Queen-Like Closet": peel and slice the pumpkin, dip the slices in egg beaten with herbs, fry them, then layer them in a pie with butter, raisins, currants, sugar and sack (a sweet fortified wine) over a bottom layer of sharp apples, and butter the pie when it comes out of the oven. The Folger dates Woolley's pumpkin recipes to as early as 1672. Wikipedia's pumpkin pie article describes 17th-century English pumpkin pies the same way, sliced and fried pumpkin baked in a crust with butter, sugar and raisins. There is no custard yet; that comes later, in America (our Classic American Pumpkin Pie recipe).
🇬🇧 The original
Before the custard there was this: slices of squash browned in butter and baked under a pastry lid with tart apples, raisins, currants, sugar, spice and a splash of sherry, adapted from a 1670s English recipe.
🇺🇸 The American version
America mashed the pumpkin into a spiced custard with eggs and milk and baked it in an open crust: the Thanksgiving pie. See the Classic American Pumpkin Pie recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Brown the squash first
A few minutes in butter drives off surface water and starts the softening, so the squash finishes at the same time as the apples instead of staying crunchy (the job Woolley's fried, egg-dipped slices did).
Sharp apples and dried fruit
The apples' acid and the raisins' and currants' sweetness give the mild squash something to lean on, which is why the pie tastes more like fruit pie than pumpkin pie.
Step by step
- Step 1
Whisk the flour and salt, cut in the butter until it looks like coarse meal, then add the water a little at a time until the dough holds when squeezed. Divide it in two, flatten each half into a 6-inch disk, wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
- Step 2
Heat the oven to 425°F with a rack in the lower third. Melt 1 tbsp of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and cook the squash slices about 10 minutes, turning once, until lightly browned and just starting to soften.
- Step 3
In a large bowl, toss the squash, apples, raisins and currants with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and sherry.
- Step 4
Roll one disk to a 13-inch circle and fit it into a 9-inch pie plate. Spread in the filling and dot it with the remaining 2 tbsp butter. Roll the second disk, lay it over the top, trim, crimp the edges together and cut four vents.
- Step 5
Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, then lower the oven to 375°F and bake 50 to 60 minutes more, turning the pie halfway, until the crust is deep golden and the squash is tender when you push a skewer through a vent.
- Step 6
Cool on a rack at least 2 hours before slicing so the juices settle. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Pumpion Pie (Hannah Woolley's 17th-Century English Pumpkin Pie)
Serves 8 · one 9-inch double-crust pie · 2 hr 5 min total
Pastry (two crusts)
- 300 g (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 226 g (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- About 1/2 cup (118 g) cold water
Filling
- 2 cups peeled butternut squash or sugar pumpkin (about 10 oz), cut into pieces about 3 by 1 by 1/4 inch
- 2 cups peeled tart apples (about 2 medium), cut the same size
- 3 tbsp butter, divided
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup dried currants
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 3 tbsp dry oloroso sherry
Method
- Whisk the flour and salt, cut in the butter until it looks like coarse meal, then add the water a little at a time until the dough holds when squeezed. Divide it in two, flatten each half into a 6-inch disk, wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
- Heat the oven to 425°F with a rack in the lower third. Melt 1 tbsp of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and cook the squash slices about 10 minutes, turning once, until lightly browned and just starting to soften.
- In a large bowl, toss the squash, apples, raisins and currants with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and sherry.
- Roll one disk to a 13-inch circle and fit it into a 9-inch pie plate. Spread in the filling and dot it with the remaining 2 tbsp butter. Roll the second disk, lay it over the top, trim, crimp the edges together and cut four vents.
- Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, then lower the oven to 375°F and bake 50 to 60 minutes more, turning the pie halfway, until the crust is deep golden and the squash is tender when you push a skewer through a vent.
- Cool on a rack at least 2 hours before slicing so the juices settle. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Adapted from the modern version of Woolley's "Pumpion Pie" published with Amanda Herbert's post on the Folger Shakespeare Library's Shakespeare and Beyond blog (November 14, 2017), as written for one 9-inch pie. The Folger version uses butternut squash or a sugar pumpkin, drops Woolley's egg-and-herb dip, uses cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in place of her herbs, and swaps dry oloroso sherry for sack. It calls for two unbaked crusts without giving a recipe; ours is King Arthur's single-crust formula doubled. The serving count is ours. Folger Shakespeare Library. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- For Woolley's historic version, dip the squash slices in beaten egg mixed with finely chopped herbs before frying them. Herbert suggests thyme, rosemary or marjoram, based on another Woolley pumpkin recipe.
- Woolley put the apples on the bottom and the pumpkin on top; layering it that way makes for a striking cut slice.
- No sherry? Apple cider works; it will be sweeter (our suggestion).
- Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days (our guideline for a fruit pie with no custard).
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Pumpkin pie is English, not American. Documented in part: Wikipedia and the Folger show English pumpkin pies in print in the 17th century, but those were sliced-pumpkin pies, not the smooth custard pie Americans mean today.
- Woolley's is the first pumpkin pie recipe. Disputed: the Folger calls it one of the earliest known, dating Woolley's pumpkin recipes to about 1672; Wikipedia's pumpkin pie article says pumpkin reached Tudor England by way of France and was quickly used as pie filling, so earlier unprinted or French versions may exist.
- "Pumpion" means pumpkin. Documented (Folger: from Old French "pompon", meaning a melon).
- Pumpkins were cheap peasant food. Folklore for Woolley's London: the Folger says pumpkins were expensive and exotic in metropolitan Britain, though common in the American colonies.
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