It’s all about the pumpkin these days.
Pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin popcorn.
Not to be outdone, this also is pumpkin pie’s season.
In fact, October is the official kickoff of “pie season” in general, says pie maker Peter Fasano, grandson of the founder of the longstanding South Side company Pies by Fasano that closed for 25 years before making a comeback a few years ago.
And while apple is a perennial favorite among Americans, this is pumpkin pie’s time to shine.
And that should make Illinois proud because it’s estimated that 85 percent of the consumed pumpkin in the United States comes from this state. In fact, in 2015 Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation making pumpkin the official pie of the Prairie State.
Across the Southland people are marking the occasion with classes, bake-offs and even a contest.
Today, we take a look at some of the local pumpkin action.
Whipped cream at the ready? Let’s begin.
Future bakers, future scientists
We begin with a science class because baking and science go together like cinnamon and nutmeg.
On Monday afternoon, some 27 fifth graders at St. George School in Tinley Park collaborated on a pumpkin pie project.
Under the direction of the Rev. Ken Fleck, the students gathered in the school cafeteria kitchen to learn how to make the food that is part of a longstanding American tradition.
The youngsters began with mash made from pumpkins grown in the school garden. Fleck had already cut, roasted and cooled the pumpkin. The students mixed cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, eggs and flour and then poured the custard into pie shells. He showed them how to thicken the filling with a mixture of corn starch and water.
Throughout the hour-plus long lesson, one that Fleck said he learned from his mother some 50 years before, the students took turns stirring, mashing, scooping and smelling the various ingredients.
Then the pies were ready for the oven. While they baked, the students got to work making more pumpkin mash that could be frozen for future pies.
Once cooled, the students sampled their work while the other finished pies were frozen. Later they will be brought to the Tinley Park Food Pantry for Thanksgiving distribution.
“This is a science lesson,” Fleck said, “and a lesson in feeding the hungry.”
Isabella Marshall, of Hazel Crest, said she loved the baking lesson because she loves to bake.
“Red velvet cake and brownies are my specialties,” she said.
Kennedy Driscoll, of Country Club Hills, had just baked brownies at home the day before.
But pumpkin pie was a first for both girls.
“It’s pretty interesting,” Kennedy said of the lesson.
Is your pie a winner?
The point of a sister city program is to exchange ideas with people of another culture.
Sometimes that means sharing recipes. And sometimes that means having a contest to get the best recipes to share.
The Tinley Park Sister Cities Commission will host a pumpkin pie recipe contest at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Kallsen Center at Village Hall, 16250 S. Oak Park Ave.; tinleypark.org.
In recent years, the village has been explaining the custom of Halloween to their German counterparts, commission chairman Michael Hiss said.
“A couple of years ago Halloween started to make its presence (in Budingen) and a lot of the residents weren’t aware what was going on. They had people all dressed up ringing their doorbells and asking for stuff,” Hiss said.
More recently, he said, we tossed around the idea of doing a recipe exchange. The very first recipe the Budingens requested was one for pumpkin pie, he said.
“It is something brand new to them,” he said. “They have pumpkin but pumpkin pie is one of those American recipes they’d like to know. So, in exchange, they’re going to share with us their best recipe for onion cake. That’s a traditional dish there.
“We’re giving them something sweet; they’re giving us something savory,” he said. “Some people who attended (Tinley Park’s) Oktoberfest had been to Germany and had tried onion cake before.
“They couldn’t quite describe the flavor,” Hiss said. “Only that it’s something you have to try.”
Prizes will be awarded for the top three pies. The winners’ recipes will be used as the first installment of the recipe exchange between Tinley Park and Budingen, Hiss said. They will also be shared with the public.
The contest is open to the public but only traditional pumpkin pies are welcome. To register, email SisterCity@tinleypark.org with your name, phone number and preferred email address. There is no cost for registration.
“This is a first for Tinley,” said Hiss, adding sampling sizes will be cut small so the public can taste as well.
The Sister City program is a cultural exchange between two municipalities that “gives you a look at other people’s way of life,” Hiss said.
“It is our hope that through these levels of cultural exchange people will be inspired to try something new, like onion cake perhaps.”
The village also is hoping to do an art and music exchange, he said, to further inspire new and creative thinking.
Learn something new
If your definition of embracing the Great Pumpkin is to make your own pie or dessert, you are not alone.
Rosemary Deneen, baking and pastry instructor at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, said lots of people make their own pumpkin pie, either from scratch or ready-made crusts, and canned pumpkin.
It may, however, surprise some bakers to know that canned pumpkin is mostly squash.
“Canned pumpkin is probably a combination of pumpkin, butternut and acorn squashes,” she said.
If the mixture is mostly squash, why not just call it canned squash?
“I don’t know,” she said. “But the color of real pumpkin is yellowish, not bright orange.”
That could be one reason for the mixing. Texture could another.
In a policy that apparently dates back to 1938, the USDA states “Canned ‘pumpkin’ has for many years been packed from field pumpkin or certain varieties of firm-shelled, golden-fleshed, sweet squash, or mixtures of these. Pumpkin and squash are sometimes mixed intentionally to obtain the consistency most acceptable to users.”
Deneen said she tries to inspire cooks to challenge themselves. Although pumpkin and squash are becoming more common in supermarkets, she said some people are still intimidated by their size and tough shell.
“I don’t think people know they can roast a pumpkin, but you’ve gotta get the right kind — either pie pumpkins or sugar pumpkins, ” she said. “They’re hard to cut. People don’t think about using them or roasting them. But they should.”
Deneen will give two presentations entitled “Beyond Pumpkin Pie” at 11 a.m. Oct. 30 at the Tinley Park Public Library and at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 7 at the Palos Heights Public Library.
“I talk about roasting a pumpkin and I show them how to make other desserts, like a pumpkin bread pudding and a pumpkin mousse,” she said. “Everybody is so used to pumpkin pie. This takes them out of the comfort zone of a pumpkin pie.”
Order up
Fasano has been selling his pies at local grocery stores and off his pie truck at stops around the Chicago area, including Brother Rice High School in Mount Greenwood, for the past several years. He will soon open a brick and mortar shop at 74 S. LaGrange Road in LaGrange.
Meanwhile, he said, he starts taking Thanksgiving orders next week (piesbyfasano.com).
“No other dessert can bring the warmth of family and friends with one bite,” he said. And nothing says Thanksgiving and Christmas in one bite the way pumpkin pie does.
“It is truly a special treat in my book,” he said.
Twitter @dvickroy
