Baked Pumpkin Pie

Here it's summer blue, sun-yellowed gentle days, which is  a reminder of the harsh weather many ex-pats are going into. Celebrate a table laden with the essence of summer with joyful Thanksgiving.

BAKED PUMPKIN PIE - South African style.
“without bread, without wine, love is nothing” Anon

125g butter
200ml sugar
3 eggs, beaten
250ml self raising cake flour
2,5ml salt
5ml cinnamon powder
120g walnuts, chopped
rind of one lemon
750ml pumpkin, raw, grated
5ml vanilla essence

SAUCE:
125g butter
125ml cream
60ml sugar or ring the changes and use honey
stick of cinnamon

METHOD:
1 Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. Whip eggs lightly with a fork in a separate bowl and then add little bits at a time to the butter mixture, beating continuously.
2 Sieve dry ingredients very well. Add to the butter mixture, folding lightly. Add grated pumpkin and the rest of the ingredients. Folding the mixture lightly with a metal spoon.
3 Grease a baking dish well with melted butter as the pumpkin can be quite sticky.  Bake in a pre-set oven of 180°C for 45 minutes, check after 30 minutes, pie should be a golden colour and quite firm to the touch.
4 SAUCE: Heat all the sauce ingredients until almost boiling point. Remove the stick of cinnamon and pour over the warm tart.
5 SERVE: Serve tart at room temperature with a dollop of thick full cream Greek Yoghurt, with a good teaspoon of honey added for flavour, or slightly whipped fresh cream, or crème fraiche (to make crème fraiche mix half fresh cream and half Smetena (soured cream). Cream can be spruced up with a 1/2 t Vanilla paste and a pinch of sugar. Serve the accompaniment on the side in a beautiful bowl.
6 GARNISH: garnish tart with a few lemon zest tendrils, whole or chopped walnuts and a sprig of mint or lavender.  Dust lightly with Icing sugar just before serving as it will melt.  Serve on a silver tray
Bon appétit