Grandma's Pumpkin Pie

No one made pumpkin pie like my grandma. She used to raise a special kind of pumpkin and cook it down for hours to get the right texture for her pies, but I make do with canned pumpkin. I like to use the organic canned pumpkin from Whole Foods which my daughter brings to me.

2 eggs
2/3 c. sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp. flour
1 can pumpkin
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sorghum molasses (substitute cane molasses if sorghum can't be found)
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prepare an uncooked piecrust and place in pieplate. (Pastry recipe follows.) I use a standard 9" or 10" pieplate - if using the 9" there will be a little filling left over for a "baby pie" for the little ones.

Using a mixer, beat eggs until light and frothy. Add sugar and beat well. Beat in remaining ingredients. Pour into prepared piecrust. (If desired, place strips of foil around edge of crust to keep from getting too dark while baking.)

Place pie in oven, and cook for ten minutes, then turn oven temp down to 350 degrees.

Bake an additional 30-45 minutes, or until filling is completely set and cooked through in the middle. Cool and serve with whipped cream.

(I make whipped cream in my Magic Bullet. I fill the larger container 2/3 full of whipping cream, add a couple of spoonfuls of sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla and whip it several seconds until thick. Don't overwhip or you'll make butter.)

Here is the pastry recipe I usually use.

Dice 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter and return to 'fridge to keep cold.

Add to the bowl of a food processor:
3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt

Pulse a few times to mix well.

Add:
1/3 c. refrigerated lard
the diced butter

Pulse a few times until the butter and lard are about pea-sized.

With the motor running pour in 1/2 c. ice water, or a little more if needed until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides.
Turn out onto a floured board, roll into a ball, and cut in half. Put the halves into sandwich bags and place one in the 'fridge for about 30 minutes before rolling for the pumpkin pie. Place the other crust in the freezer for another time.

I have never tried pumpkin pie. Can you describe what it tastes like. Thanks for the recipe, I will pass it on to my daughter who loves baking. You never know she may suprise me with a slice.

it's similar in texture to a typical custard. only d/t to the combo of flavors (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger) americans think of pumpkin when they smell/taste those aforementioned.

the pumpkin adds the density to the dessert.

if you enjoy custard style desserts, i think you'd really like pumpkin pie.

when people talk about a can of pumpkin puree - that usually translates to 2 cups or 454 grams (if i remember my conversion correctly) of cooked pumpkin.

and btw, yum! your recipe looks really tasty - i don't usually use brown sugar (or combo of molasses/white sugar) in my pumpkin pie though - - but i can see how that would be a lovely addition!

thanks for sharing!!!

i think i might throw in a bit of molasses next time i bake my pumpkin pie to try.

Jumiclads, Americans are the odd ones out on pumpkin -- we very rarely eat it as a savoury dish, but almost always add sugar and spices! Pumpkin pie originated from 17th century pudding recipes from England, using pumpkin because it was there!

You won't be able to buy tinned pumpkin in the UK, as far as I know - but a big chunk of soup pumpkin can be roasted and pureed to end up with the same thing. I find it take about a kilo of raw pumpkin to make 2 cups (500ml) of pumpkin puree.

Nobody I know has ever tried it and NOT liked it. The French, in particular, are used to pumpkin in savoury recipes, so they tend to back away from the sweet recipe...then once they've been convinced to try it, LOVE it.


More things you'll need to know before trying this in your kitchen:

You can substitute treacle for the sorghum molasses.
The sugar is caster sugar.
1 can of pumpkin is about 1 cup = 250ml
450 degrees (F) is about 220C, then turned down to 350F=180C

For the pastry recipe:
about 175g butter for 75g flour (NOT self-rising) and 75g lard and 125ml ice water.

Look here: http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking for a quick way to convert ingredients and their measurements.

All of our exchange students (germany, itally, switz, norway) while I was growing up loved Thanksgiving because of the pumpkin pie! None had ever had it. Any time they come to visit the requset that we make it. When we go to visit them, we take canned pumpkin to make it there! That and stuff to make mexican food! It's been years since we've been to Europe though!

Thanks for the info everyone. I will pass it on and see if my daughter can cook us up a pie.