The Spell Has Been Broken

Aren't these mini pumpkin pies darling? They are absolutely adorable, but deceiving. They are gross. For the past couple of months I have been drooling over everything at 101cookbooks.com. She is a marvelous cook and everything I have tried is extra yummy. Until now. The pie filling is a deviation from the standard pumpkin pie. It uses coconut milk and hazelnuts. Sound great, right? Nope. Maybe she doesn't have the exact same taste as me, after all. The spell her website had over me has been broken. I will now broaden my recipe horizons.

Actually, it could have been the new silicone mini muffin pan. Has anyone else used silicone and had a disgustingly gross taste bake into your food? Can you get rid of it? Yuck-O-Rama

Anyways, it is back to the standard pumpkin pie recipe for me. Good old evaporated milk.

Pumpkin-Licious

It all started with one giant pumpkin. There is no picture to document the existence of this beast. But here is HALF of the flesh, roasted and cubed. Doesn't it look just like a giant bowl of cantaloupe? It doesn't taste like it. Trust me - I tried it.After I bought the giant pumpkin, I read that you should use a sugar pie pumpkin if you are planning to make pie. So I went back to the store and bought a sugar pie pumpkin. Then I saw an organic one. Does the organic produce really taste better? I thought I had better try it out, so here they are: the organic is less than half the size of the regular one, and it cost slightly more. Needless to say, we've got a lot of pumpkin. So far we have had pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin dip, and now pumpkin pie. All pumpkin recipes are yummy.

And here are, cut in half, spritzed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. The seeds are also getting roasted at the same time.

After all the work cutting and roasting the big pumpkin, I simply didn't have the energy to actually make a pie. So I put everything in the fridge. Then I saw Jeffrey and he told me that I needed to strain the pumpkin before using it, or else it will be too wet and will ruin the recipe. Thankfully, he caught me in time, and I rushed home to strain it in a cheesecloth.

It is amazing how 1 pumpkin produces less than 2 cups of roasted pumpkin puree. Straining reduced the puree by half.
The pie is great. I was too leery of spending a lot of time on cute little pie-lets, so I opted for one big pie the second time. It isn't as cute, but it is a lot less work. And many fewer tears will be shed it it doesn't taste good.

Now that we made a pie from scratch, next time I will buy the pumpkin puree in a can and be done with it. That one step will take the pie from an all afternoon event into a 1/2 hour breeze. And it will be just as good. It you are looking for something fun to do with your family, making a pie from an actual pumpkin might be a fun family activity.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

1 pie crust
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin (or 2 cups if roasting the pumpkin yourself)
1 (12 fluid ounce) can Evaporated Milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.
Bake for 50to 60 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Dive in and eat it all before anyone else tries to come and try it.