Thanksgiving is such an appropriate time to catch up with Lisa as without her, Annelie and I would already have a Catch Me If You Can/Bonnie and Clyde-esque Lifetime TV movie made about us.

We aren’t proud of our scamming days or that we lied to Lisa about it while living in her mansion, but we are thankful that Lisa is kind enough to give us a second chance (amirite Brandi)?

Lisa and Giggy pulled up in the Bentley yesterday afternoon for a spot of tea and unlike most of the tea parties she goes to in Beverly Hills, this one didn’t end up in a brawl.

We sat down to a seasonally appropriate Lisa Vanderpumpkin Pie and talked about our resurgent fame, her relationship with Kyle and why we are so thankful that we have each other in our lives.

The filling was all at once delicate and robust with a hint of spice on a glitzed up version of Jamie Oliver’s shortcrust pastry, with maple and pecan.

Lisa quoted her friend and party planner, Kevin Lee, to describe the pie saying it was, “Better than Beverly Hills darling, shi shi shi.”

Lisa Vanderpumpkin Pie
Serves 12 people…or the three of us

Ingredients
Pastry
250g plain flour, plus more for dusting
50g icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp maple syrup
50g pecans, crushed/bltized/pulverised etc.

Filling
½ butternut pumpkin, deseeded and diced (roughly 500g pumpkin)
500ml milk
200g raw caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, halved and deseeded
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Method
Pastry
Sieve flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Using hands, work the butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles wet sand. Mix through maple and pecan, add eggs and work together until it forms a ball. If the dough seems too wet, add more flour until it is at the desired consistency. Don’t overwork the flour otherwise it won’t be short, as the name demands.

Pat dough-ball into a disc, wrap in cling-wrap and place in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

Dust a surface and a rolling-pin with flour and roll out the pastry until it is 5mm thick. Roll the pastry over the rolling pin, then unroll it into a 25cm loose-bottom tart tin (I’d go non-stick but I am crazy lazy) and push it into the sides.

Trim off any excess dough and prick the base with a fork, cover with cling-wrap and place in the freezer to set for 30-ish minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Filling
Place pumpkin, milk, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla pod and seeds into a medium saucepan, over medium heat. Keep stirring until it comes to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Cook for a further 15 minutes, or until pumpkin is soft/tender/flaccid.

Remove from heat, discard the pod and blitz with a stick blender until smooth. Leave aside to cool with the lid on.

Baking
While pumpkin mixture is cooling, remove pastry from freezer and line with baking paper and blind bake with baking weights/beans/rice for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, remove baking paper and weights and return to oven for further 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to 160C.

Beat the eggs for the filling (you thought we forgot, right?) and whisk through the cooled pumpkin mixture. Pour the mixture into the pastry case and bake for the 30 minutes or until it is set with a slight wobble.

Leave to cool and then serve with a sprinkle of icing sugar and fresh vanilla ice cream.