The most delicious pie of this fall - we prepare pumpkin manna with kefir with lemon and raisins

Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Number of servings: 8

Mannik has long become a symbol of a quick pie, when guests are suddenly almost on the doorstep, and, as luck would have it, you didn’t buy anything sweet for tea. Manna with pumpkin is another story. First of all, the best time for it is the autumn harvest of “red” vegetables, so at this time the pie turns out much tastier. It is not so easy to prepare, although it does not require special culinary skills. A little free time and a desire to treat your family or guests to an unusual delicacy is an excellent reason to bake a wonderful bright pie. You may not be able to say “quick and tasty” about it, but for the sake of “tasty” you can sacrifice a little “fast”!

Ingredients:

• pumpkin – 350–400 grams;
• semolina – 1 cup;
• wheat flour – 1 cup;
• sugar – 1 cup for the dough and 3 tablespoons for the syrup;
• kefir – 1 glass;
• chicken eggs - 2 pieces;
• butter – 100 grams;
• lemon – 1 piece;
• raisins - a handful;
• vanilla sugar – 1 teaspoon;
• baking powder – 2 teaspoons;
• powdered sugar - for sprinkling the pie;
• vegetable oil - for greasing the mold.

What else will you need:

• cutting board and knife;
• paring knife (“housekeeper”);
• kitchen scales;
• a glass for measuring ingredients;
• small saucepan;
• two deep bowls - one large;
• grater;
• tablespoon and teaspoon;
• fork;
• oven.

Cooking process

1. First, take the butter out of the refrigerator so that it warms to room temperature. Now mix the semolina with kefir in a separate bowl and leave it for half an hour so that the semolina swells properly and absorbs the liquid.
   
2. Now let's get to work with the pumpkin and grater. First, peel the fruit, remove the seeds, and then grind it on a medium or coarse grater. Be careful when working with this kitchen utensil: the pumpkin pieces have a rather slippery surface, which is why you may accidentally grate not the vegetable, but the tip of your finger.
   
3. Now, using a fine grater, remove the zest from the lemon. We act very carefully - if you overdo it, then white pulp will get into the zest, which is very bitter.

   Squeeze all the juice out of the lemon itself. By the way, in order for it to be squeezed out better, you first need to roll the lemon on the table, pressing hard on it, then cut it in half, and then the juice will flow like a river - just put a bowl or cup on it!

   

4. Grind soft butter with a fork with a glass of regular sugar and a tablespoon of vanilla sugar into a single mass. Beat the eggs into the sugar-butter mixture and stir with the same fork until smooth.
   
5. We turn on the oven heating to 180–200 degrees now so that it warms up at the right time. A step-by-step recipe for pies is not always consistent, because saving time is not only pleasant, but also useful. We combine two mixtures: sugar-butter and semolina-kefir. Mix well with a spoon or fork.
   
6. Add grated pumpkin and lemon zest to the resulting mass. Mix the ingredients again until smooth. Well, isn't it easy? Just rash and stir, rash and stir!
   
7. Finally, add flour with baking powder and raisins.You can pour out the flour all at once without fear of lumps forming, since the rest of the dough is saturated with moisture and will easily absorb this dry ingredient. The main thing is to mix well!
   
8. A baking dish - I use a tall one with a diameter of 22 cm - should be thoroughly greased along the sides and bottom with vegetable oil. In order not to overdo it with the amount of “lubricant”, just drop a few drops of oil on the bottom and rub them on the inner surface of the mold using an ordinary napkin that is used for table setting. It’s both economical and there’s no taste of vegetable oil in the dessert!

   Place the pie in the oven for 45–60 minutes. The baking time is indicated with such a range not by chance: the fact is that the operating characteristics of ovens differ depending on the type, brand and model of the stove, so you should focus on two signs: the color of the surface and edges of the pie, the “toothpick test”. The finished cake has a golden, crispy color on the surface, and a toothpick inserted into and out of the center of the cake comes out dry with no visible batter.
   

9. When the cake is almost baked, prepare lemon syrup for it. Mix lemon juice with water so that you get about 100 ml of solution, add 3 tablespoons of sugar. Heat a mixture of sugar, water and lemon juice to a boil in a small saucepan and, reducing the heat on the burner to medium, simmer for 5–7 minutes.
   
10. Pour the resulting syrup evenly onto the surface of the finished pie and allow the sweet liquid to be thoroughly absorbed. In the photo, by the way, you can see that very beautiful, crispy surface of the pie, which has almost absorbed the lemon syrup.
    
11. We just have to wait a little while for the cake to cool to an acceptable temperature. Before serving, sprinkle the surface with powdered sugar through a small sieve.

    You can invite everyone to the table and offer hot drinks or cold milk with pumpkin pie. Bon appetit!

Nuances and tips

The raisins should be sorted to prevent too hard dried fruits or anything inedible from getting into the pie, which can sometimes get caught in handfuls of raisins.

In addition, raisins can first be infused in cognac or rum to give the manna a little piquant taste and aroma. Don’t be afraid, this “option” will not make the delicacy inaccessible to children at all: when baked, all the alcohol will evaporate from the fruit! By the way, along with raisins or instead of them, you can use other dried fruits, candied fruits or fresh fruits - apples, pears, plums, cherries.

Keep in mind that this pumpkin pie with semolina does not need to be cooked in the oven. It also turns out quite tasty in modern kitchen units designed to simplify the cook’s life - multicookers. To do this, you just need to load the fully prepared dough into the greased bowl of the miracle machine and start the “Baking” mode for 80–90 minutes. During cooking, check readiness with a toothpick.