Grant Crilly is the Executive Director and cofounder of ChefSteps. Grant is a classically trained chef and, prior to ChefSteps, he worked on the award-winning cookbook series Modernist Cuisine and cooked at various restaurants, including L’Astrance in Paris, Busaba in Mumbai, and Mistral Kitchen in Seattle.

Grant Crilly

Think about pumpkin pie—that tender crust, that soft custard made of mashed pumpkin, sugar, eggs, evaporated milk and the spices redolent of the holidays. On top, a dollop of fresh whipped cream. Everyone seems to crave a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. We decided to revisit this autumnal dessert and make it with corn instead of pumpkin. Why corn? Sure, tradition says that we need pumpkin pie for the holiday tables. But pumpkin season is corn season too. The corn has been harvested and flash frozen or starting to dry for cornmeal, animal feed, and seed for the next year. The pumpkins have been harvested and are waiting to be carved. They are both symbols of the harvest, a culinary way to mark the movement of the seasons and the bounty before winter. And yet, we have in our national consciousness that we have to reach for that can of pumpkin purée. Corn right off the cob is a sensory experience of crunch and sugars, some starches, and lots of juiciness. It turns out that replacing pumpkin purée with a corn purée makes for a sweet pie with all the familiar sensory experience and a wave of pure corn taste at the back of the mouth. When corn sits for a while, the sweetness recedes, and the flavorless starches move forward on the tongue. Older corn is used to make cornstarch, for this reason. If you have access to fresh corn now? By all means use it. But we recommend good frozen corn for this recipe for its sweetness. Let’s get into it. Let’s make corn pie.

Corn Pie, Pumpkin-Style