Pie pal, Debbie Judson (Here’s to You, Mrs. Robinson) still thinks of Dr. Robert Atkins as her primary care physician, undiscouraged by the fact that she never actually had an appointment with him or that he is deceased. Still, she believes deeply in his philosophy of living the low carb vida, and decided to bake an Atkins verison of this Orange Pumpkin Pie.

Having achieved near pie perfection with the true carb rendering of the recipe, she was totally confident, blithely substituting Splenda for sugar, Atkins Quick Cuisine Bake Mix for flour (1 cup of Atkins Bake Mix = 1 ½ cup flour), and sugar-free marmalade for the real thing.

A few minutes in, however, the consistency of the low-carb dough wasn’t encouraging. It was softer and stickier than the true carb edition, with the butter bits not integrating well at all. Nevertheless, she persevered.

Turns out the low-carb version was much better than she thought it would be, although not nearly as good as the real thing. So she had to eat twice as much to get not quite as much satisfaction as half as much of the original. Like Penelope told her, if you’re going to have pie, have pie.

The Filling and Topping

• ½ cup orange marmalade
• 2 cups canned pumpkin puree
• ¾ cup sugar [or ¾ cup Splenda]
• finely grated zest of 2 oranges
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 tbs confectioner’s sugar

Penelope’s Ultimate Pie Crust

Roll out the dough, place it in a pie pan, and prick the bottom of the dough with the tines of a fork
Prepare a double thickness of foil and line the pie shell
Poke some holes in it and fit into the pie pan
Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes

Preheat the oven to 425°
Put the orange marmalade in a small saucepan over low heat until melted
Set aside
Take the pie shell out of the refrigerator and bake for 10 minutes
Remove the foil and bake until golden, 10-12 minutes longer
If the bottom of the pan puffs up (and it will) prick it with a fork
Take it out and brush the inside bottom and sides with the marmalade (Don’t brush the rim or it will burn when you bake it)

The Filling

In a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, sugar, orange zest, cloves, ginger, allspice, and salt.
Mix in the eggs and then 1 cup of the cream
Stir until smooth
Pour into the pie shell and smooth the top
Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325° and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes longer

Orange Whipped Cream

Whip one cup of the heavy cream, slowly adding the confectioner’s sugar and zest from the second orange
Spoon on individual slices of the pie

Adapted from Holiday Favorites, Williams-Sonoma, The Best of the Kitchen Library, Oxmoor Press