A Pumpkin Piefest

Clearly, I love pumpkin. (and according to my family and friends, I say “clearly” a lot too) This weekend was a pumpkinfest at my house. I was in the baking mood on Saturday, and in need of a pumpkin treat, so I made a pumpkin pie.

I had two little (probably about 6 lbs) pumpkins that I cleaned, cut, gutted, roasted and pureed. That nasty stuff you get from a can doesn’t come close to fresh pumpkin. I tried a new Martha Stewart recipe instead of my classic pumpkin pie recipe, and it was good. I’m a little impatient, and maybe I burned my tongue on the pie because I couldn’t wait for it to cool. After eating a little bit I went in the kitchen to clean up and realized Karen and I had single-handedly finished off half of the pie - before it was even cool! Oh, and don’t worry, we finished the rest of it Sunday after church. And I have about three cups of pumpkin puree in the freezer just waiting for my next treat.



Pumpkin Pie
Pie crust (prebaked)
1 ½ cups pumpkin (about a 4 pound pumpkin if fresh)
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
Whipped cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix pumpkin, brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, nutmeg, eggs and evaporated milk in a large bowl; whisk until combined.
Pour pumpkin mixture to pie shell. Bake until all but the center is set, 50 to 60 minutes. Let pie cool completely on a wire rack.