hillarycarter

Memere’s Pumpkin Ca-Pie

A few years ago, my boys asked me if we could have pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. This seemed daunting to me with ALL their allergies. Enter my mom to the rescue! The boys call

her Memere, a nod to our French-Canadian heritage and also what she called her Grandmother. And so, I’d love to share Memere’s recipe with you for her famous Pumpkin Ca-Pie.

Named by oldest son, Owen, this dessert is half cake and half pie. CA-PIE! We have it at every holiday (and every time she comes to visit…!)

She recently made it with my boys, and I asked her to write down her process here for you all.

Welcome and thank you to Memere!

Ingredients:

15-ounce can organic pumpkin

Cherry Book Kitchen Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix

1 cup organic applesauce

Home Free Vanilla mini cookies (at least two 5-ounce boxes; see below)

Heaping Tablespoon organic cinnamon (more or less to taste; we like a LOT)

Splash of vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare a 9-inch springform pan by lightly spraying with canola cooking spray.

Combine all ingredients with a hand mixer. Add about ¼ cup water to make batter more of a “cake batter” consistency.

Arrange a single layer of cookies in the bottom of the pan, face up. We used about 27 cookies.

Pour about half of the batter into the pan (to help support the cookies on the side).

Line the outside of the pan with a row of cookies, facing out. We used 17 cookies on this rim.

(Note that there are about 30 cookies in a box. We have a rule that if a cookie is broken, we have to EAT it, and there are always some “casualties.” Thus, my suggestion to get three

boxes of cookies.)

Grayson says that the cookies are his favorite part, so we also added an additional layer of cookies. We used 15 cookies on this inner rim, but we also learned that ca-pie is easier to cut if the inside cookies are directly in front of the outside cookies. Remember, this second layer is totally optional!!

Then pour in the rest of the batter and smooth it to the edges.