Pumpkin Puree Recipe #2: Pumpkin Pie

In case you haven’t noticed, there aren’t many recipes for desserts on my Food Blog.  There’s good reason for that.  I’m  not good at baking desserts.  At least I don’t think so.  My husband probably wouldn’t agree with that statement, but when I think about the level that I would like to be at, I’m FAR from being able to call myself a pastry and dessert expert.  However, the good news is that with practice I have gotten better and can now replicate most dessert recipes.

The second pumpkin puree recipe I will be sharing is an Old Fasioned Pumpkin Pie recipe I found onSimplyRecipes.com that I made with a slight tweak.  I also used a pie crust recipe I got out of The Pioneer Womans most recent cookbook that was perfect!

When I made this pumpkin pie I forgot to take a picture of all the ingredients unfortunately.  However, there is 1 ingredient that I wanted to point out to you so I made sure to at least include a picture of it.  Pumpkin Pie Spice.  I use this for all my pumpkin puree recipes and love it.  Most pumpkin pie recipes (including the pumpkin pie recipe I found on Simply Recipes) require 3-5 different spices.  Now, if you are the kind of person who likes to follow a recipe precisely, that’s great!  I on the other hand enjoy experimenting with recipes.  Typically I follow a recipe’s base ingredients, but when it comes to spices and I don’t have all of them, I will improvise if I know that the result won’t be too far from the original.  My style is all about simplifying and minimizing the amount of ingredients without sacrificing flavor.  In this case for example, the Pumpkin Pie Spice eliminated 3 of the 5 spices required for this pumpkin pie recipe, and it still came out good and tasting like a traditional pumpkin pie.  So that’s why I felt it was important to share this spice with you in case you haven’t tried it yet.  If you’re not comfortable changing the original recipe you can view the original here.

Lets start off with the crust.  If you’re making it from scratch here are the ingredients and steps to PW’s good friend Pam’sPiecrust.  I’ve tried a few pie crust recipes and they all turned out ok.  This one has been my favorite so far.  You can also see a much better tutorial at Pioneer Woman’s website here.Here is what you will need for the crust…
2 1/2 cups all-purpose or pastry flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into chuncks
1/4 cup cold water
2 pieces of parchment paper that are 12″ squares

Once you have decided you’re going to make a pie, chop the butter and put it along with the water in the freezer while you get out your food processor, flour, sugar and salt.

Combine 2 cups of the flour, the sugar and salt, and add them to the food processor.
Give the flour mixture a few pulses to mix it all.

Add the butter and pulse until it resembles large crumbs and starts to clump together.
Add the remaining flour and pulse 2 or 3 more times quickly.

Pour the dough into a bowl or onto a cleaned countertop and sprinkle the ice cold water over it.  Mix the water into the dough with your hands until it forms a ball of dough.  Cut the dough in half to make two discs.  Wrap the two discs of dough with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge while you prepare the pumpkin pie filling.

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Next…

prepare the pumpkin pie filling with…2 cups pumpkin puree
1 12oz can evaporated milk
2 eggs + 1 yolk
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup regular sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

**Recipe adapted from SimplyRecipes.com**

In a large bowl or mixer combine the pumpkin puree, evaporated milk and eggs, and whisk until everything is well blended.

Add the sugars and seasonings and mix well again.  Set it aside and take one disc of pie crust out of the fridge.

Get the parchment paper squares and place the dough on top of one.  If the dough feels sticky, sprinkle a little flour over the dough and parchment paper, then cover it with the other piece of parchment paper so that the dough is now between the two pieces of parchment paper.Get your rolling pin and start rolling from the center to the edge of the dough. Roll, turning clockwise often as needed to make a large circle that is the big enough for your pie pan.

Remove the top piece of parchment paper then place the rolled out dough over the dish.  Peel off the other piece of parchment paper.

This step is not in pams method and since I wasn’t sure what to do next I called my cousin who is the baker of our family.  She recommended using pastry weights so that the dough doesn’t rise in the oven when it’s being baked.  Well I don’t have pastry weights, so she said this: Poke holes all throughout the bottom.  I followed her instructions but noticed with the first pie that the middle still rose a lot and didn’t go back down.  So on the next pie I poked the holes again except this time I made an X down the middle and pressed down with my index finger on the center of the X to keep the crust from separating in the middle as it cooks.

Now I need to work on my rolling skills. Can you tell I never make homemade flour torillas? This is why. They never take on a round shape. Poor pie crust never had a chance at being perfectly round. Oh well.Put your pie crust in the oven (while the oven is at 425°F ) for about 7-10 minutes or until it starts to bubble and turn a light golden brown around the edges.

Pour the pumkin pie batter onto the partially cooked pie crust and return it to the oven.Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 350°F.  Bake 40-50 minutes, or until a knife or fork inserted near the center comes out clean.

And there you have it.  Pumpkin Pie with homemade crust!I would love to hear your thoughts about any of the recipes on my food blog, especially if you have tested them.  If you have or are planning on trying to make this or anything else on my blog, let me know in the comments section! I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for visiting me 🙂