Awesomely festive 1950s Coconut Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

✯ Day 292 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

With less than two weeks to go until All Hallows Eve, it's all I can do to contain my excitement. There's no holiday I look forward to - or get more eager about - than Halloween!

Decorations long out, spooky movies already in heavy rotation (vintage and light-hearted ones, I'm not a fan of modern day slasher and horror films, but I'll certainly take Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi any day!), Thanksgiving now behind us (those of us north of the 49th, that is), it's time to turn my thoughts to fantastically festive foods to make in the days leading up to - and very much including on - October 31st.

Naturally given their longstanding association with Halloween, few foods better lend themselves to this spooky, fun filled day than pumpkins.

I’m wild for the taste of pumpkin in pretty much any recipe, from soups to muffins, pureed and stirred into hot cereals or even in the sweet form of pumpkin ice cream. Not only do I love the flesh, but I adore eating pumpkin seeds, freshly roasted and squeezed out of this sinewy ivory hued shells as a well earned reward for a day spent carving jack-o-lanterns.

Just as pumpkin is a complete natural for this gorgeously autumnal time of the year, so do are all things sweet! From caramel apples to tiny foil wrapped chocolate bars gathered in a pillow sack, October is the month that just begs to be dipped in chocolate and savoured!

Pairing sweet with pumpkin in the vintage cooking arena, one comes across today's delightful recipe from 1951 for Coconut Pumpkin Chiffon Pie.

Billed in the original Baker's Coconut ad it appeared in as being a "Cloud O' Pumpkin", this silky, fragrant, delectable recipe is nearly cloudlike, thanks to the fact that it's a chiffon pie (making it a good choice after a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs comfort food meal of the sort fall time is naturally chocked full of).

{This frighteningly delicious vintage recipe for Coconut Pumpkin Chiffon Pie would make a most welcome addition to any Halloween or Thanksgiving Day spread. Image via curly-wurly on Flickr. Click here for a larger version of this great 50s recipe.}

 

The inclusion of nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon - not to mention the coconut itself – insures that as this creamy, rust hued pie cooks, your whole home smells so intoxicatingly fabulous it'll be all you can do not to stick a form in a steal a bite or two while the pie is still cooking!

If you're serving this pie as party fare, you could always duplicate or multiple the recipe as needed and turn it into tiny coconut pumpkin chiffon tarts, if you wanted (another option would be apply the same winning combination of flavours to your favourite plain/vanilla cupcake base, topping the tiny cake with spiced buttercream frosting and a hefty sprinkling of toasted coconut).

Beautifully yummy whether eaten piping hot, room temperature or chilled, this wonderful pumpkin dessert takes a 1950s classic (chiffon pie) and turns it into a truly timeless recipe that will see you through a lifetime of autumn and Halloween meals!