make a pumpkin pie

I have never eaten pumpkin pie, I don’t think you can get it in the UK so my last resort is to make one. Wrong time of year, expect this goal to be an autumn one.

I finished my first ever pumpkin pie last night. Yah. Everything made from scratch, except for the pumpkin. Yes, yes, yes, I admit that it was store bought. I had my fist slice this morning for breakfast. It was very tasty. Sad though that I don’t own any pot holder so I had to use white tube socks on my hands to take it out of the oven when it was done. This goal is totally worth doing..!

Last night the crust was made, but alas, I didn’t make it. My boyfriend did. But I’m going to help put the inside together today so I guess it’s a 50/50 effort. I think that counts. Now I need to find a recipe on what to put in it.

2 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin

1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cut the pumpkin in half and discard the stem section, seeds, and stringy pulp. In a shallow baking dish, place the two halves face down. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) oven for about 1½ hours for a medium-sized sugar pumpkin, or until tender. Once the baked pumpkin has cooled, scoop out the flesh and mash it.

2. In a large bowl with mixer speed on medium, beat pumpkin with evaporated milk, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Mix well.

3. Pour into a prepared crust (i used a frozen marie calender pie crust). Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until when a knife is inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean (we actually had to bake it for an hour to get the knife to come out clean).

more pictures: http://flickr.com/photos/tumbled/sets/72157594348554513/

This one was made with golden kuri squash, but the receipe’s your basic pumpkin pie with the spices jacked up:

Pumpkin – cut a kuri squash or pumpkin into quarters. Scoop out the seeds. Put in boiling water for about 15-20 minutes or until the pumpkin’s soft enough to insert a fork through with minimal pressure. Remove from heat and drain in a colander.

When it’s cooled off, peel off the skin and any stringy parts you missed. Store the pumpkin in the fridge for up to a week.

• Pie crust
• 1 1/2 C fresh pumpkin (see above)
• 1 can (15 ounces) evaporated milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 C sugar
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 t ground cloves
• 1 t ground ginger (I’ve not had much success using fresh ginger because of its graininess.)
• 1T ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Beat the egg. Mix in the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and stir until smooth.
3. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 325°F, and bake for 45 minutes, until the filling is firm.
4. Cool & enjoy

Another use for extra pumpkin is Pumpkin bacon cream penne

i’m going to try this before halloween, but i’m not sure how early in the month we should bust open the pumpkin, you know?