From Pumpkin to Pie

 When we shut down the fruit stand for the season, we still had some pie pumpkins left over. I'm not one to let something waste so the farmer brought home some pie pumpkins for me to experiment with. I made it my goal to make a pumpkin pie this weekend and with it currently in the oven, I feel like I actually accomplished something this weekend. Now to see if it's any good. 

You're probably like me before I took this weekend project over and you've always used canned pumpkin for pies. Same. When I was given these pumpkins I just sat staring at all of them a good minute thinking, "How in the world do you even turn this into a pumpkin pie?" So I hit up the one place I can always count on to give good advice.... Google. 

Okay, sometimes it gives good advice.

Anyway, So first you need to get the stem off. I couldn't break the stem off so I slice the pumpkin in half then cut the stem off. 

Next, you scoop out the guts and seeds. 

After that, you turn them upside down on a lightly greased baking sheet with the sides around it and bake the pumpkin at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. 

When they've cooled off, take a spoon and scrape out the flesh and put it into a bowl. 

One small pumpkin is enough for one pie. (I even had a little left over.)

Puree the pumpkin with a hand mixer or blender until it's smooth like baby food. 

Strain the pumpkin flesh in a cheesecloth or thin kitchen towel (It may get stained so if it's special to you, don't use it.) and set it aside for an hour. I put mine in the fridge overnight in a bowl. 

When you open the cloth the next day it will look like the canned pumpkin. 

Now, you're ready to use it just like the canned pumpkin. 

Here's the recipe I used for my pumpkin pie! 

INGREDIENTS YOU'LL NEED FOR THE PIE: 

2 cups Pumpkin Puree 1 can evaporated milk 12 ounces 1/2 cup dark brown sugar packed 1/3 cup white sugar 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs 1 egg yolk 2 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 1/4 tsp. cloves 1/4 tsp. lemon zest 1 pie crust

DIRECTIONS: 

Preheat oven to 425 F Add sugar, salt, spices and lemon zest to bowl and mix. Beat the eggs very well and add them to the bowl of mixed ingredients. Mix in pumpkin puree. Add evaporated milk and combine well. Roll out pie crust and put in pie plate. Blind bake your pie crust.  This helps prevent a soggy crust. To do this, line your pie crust with tin foil, fill with pie weights, rice or dried beans, bake for 10 minutes, remove tin foil and weights, then bake another 5 minutes. Remove baked crust from the oven and fill with pumpkin mixture. Bake at 425 F for 15 Minutes, then turn oven down to 350 F and bake an additional 40-50 minutes.  If the crust starts to darken, cover it with tin foil for the remainder of the bake. Pie is done when a knife comes out almost clean.  Just a speck or two of filling on it.   If it comes out completely clean the pie will be overdone.  But it'll still be delicious, so who cares. Let cool on wire rack until the pie is set. Now that my pie is in the oven, we must wait to see if it's any good!  UPDATE: I tried the pie, I didn't bake it before putting the mixture in, which is definitely not a step to be skipped, the bottom of the crust was a little soggy/rubbery but the rest was yummy!