Pumpkin Pie

After reading Missy's blog about cooking down a pumpkin, I was inspired to make pumpkin pie from scratch (except for my store-bought pie crust). After a family project of carving the other pumpkins, the smallest pumpkin was sacrificed for the greater good of pleasing our taste buds.

Since this was my first attempt, I relied on Betty Crocker again for baking wisdom. She graciously wrote out her recipe for me to follow. See? Now Betty also told me how to cook the pumpkin but cooking with Kareem was much more exciting to me and Missy has a much more inspiring and funny way of giving directions than Betty. No offense, Betty. And I could recount how I cooked the pumpkin but again... Missy already covered that.

Moving on...

Pumpkin Pie according to Betty:
Pastry for 9-inch one-crust pie
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin or 1-1/2 cups cooked pumpkin
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Put the crust in the pie pan.
2. Beat eggs slightly in medium bowl with wire whisk or hand beater. Beat in remaining ingredients.
3. To prevent spilling, place pastry-lined pie plate on oven rack. Pour filling into pie plate. Bake 15 minutes.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake about 45 minutes longer or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Refrigerate about 4 hours or until chilled.
5. Serve with Whipped Cream!

This takes 20 minutes to prepare, an hour to bake, and 4 hours of chill time. Makes 8 servings.
Be sure to used canned pumpkin or cooked pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix, in this recipe. For a special garnish, cut leftover pastry into special shapes and bake separately on a cookie sheet until light golden brown. Arrange cut outs over baked filling.

After baking, decorating, and chilling our pie, Josiah and I called Grandpa and Grandma to join us for our Pie Fest before bedtime. The pie passed the Grandpa test and, well, everyone's taste test except perhaps Noah who may have suspected that it was his own little pumpkin which had been baked in the dish set before him.

My next pie ambition is to bake Sweet Potato Pie! Mm. Just the name of it sets my mouth to watering.

What is your favorite pumpkin pie recipe? Or for that matter, what is your favorite pie? And do you have the recipe?

Sincerely, Sarah