Pumpkin Pie

Let the Thanksgiving cooking....BEGIN!!!!

Seems easy enough to get this one out of the way. Since there are a lot of steps to it, it even makes more sense.


First off, take a small pumpkin. The recipe I found called them Sugar Pumpkins. I cut it in half, removed the stem and the guts and then placed it in the oven at 350 for an hour. I've also read you can steam smaller pieces in a saucepan. This is what it looked like.


After its done, pull off the rind and mash it. You need 2 cups for the pie. The pumpkin pictured above provided twice that. I'm freezing half of it.

1/2 C brown sugar
1/3 C white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
lemon zest from 1 lemon
2 C pumpkin puree
1 C heavy cream or 1 12oz can evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 egg yolk

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs and yolk and add.
Add pumpkin and cream and mix well.

Add to pie shell and bake for 15 min, then reduce oven to 350 for an additional 40-50 minutes. Mom reminded me that you want the middle a little underdone. The pie will continue to cook for awhile after its pulled from the oven.

Shell

I'm altering the pie crust, too. I'm going to make the normal amount and just use the left overs for cinnamon sticks.

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening (Crisco preferred)
4 Tbl butter

Mix these together using your hands. Its important to use the heat from your hands to begin to soften the shortening. Once you get pea-sized bits of flour, its ready for the liquid amounts.

1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vinegar
milk (amount below)

Mix the liquids and fill the measuring cup with milk until it gets to about 2/3 cup. Add this liquid to dry ingredients in doses mixing each time.

This time the crust was better, but still kinda fell apart. I'm thinking a touch less crisco.