Pumpkin Is Everywhere – It All Started With Pie!

Wherever you look today pumpkin has found its way into everything: Oreos, gourmet coffee, yogurt and although Pumpkin Is Everywhere – It All Started With Pie!

You can’t argue with something so traditional and delicious as pumpkin pie with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream floating atop. At FFTA we know it’s hard to make one pumpkin pie stand out against the others and there are no canned pumpkin recipes that will take you into the flavor stratosphere. So to get an above-average result, you must roast your own pumpkin.

Look for it at your grocers: pie pumpkin. I got a fairly small one as it is just the two of us and 2 cups of cooked pulp is what most pie recipes call for in a single, 9-inch pie. If you get a bigger pie pumpkin to roast it keeps for a couple of weeks in the fridge so you can do other things with it (iced pumpkin cookies, pumpkin coffee cake…you get the idea!)

I cut my pumpkin in half, removed the seeds (John is allergic to the seeds so we toss them; you can roast and salt them for an extra treat)…

…and roasted my pumpkin at 425 F for about 45 minutes…

Once it was cool, the roasted pumpkin skin peeled away easily and the strings and stray seeds were a snap to remove. Then I blended it all with my  Cuisinart hand blender with a bit of water to rehydrate it to what I thought was the consistency of canned pumpkin.

There was no time to make The Best Pie Crust Ever so I used a ready-made pie crust. According to a highly respected pie maker friend of mine in her 80s, the commercial pie crusts are so good now, why even bother making homemade…but that is for another blog post. You decide how you want to roll with the pie crust. Pillsbury’s pie crusts are delicious, I just couldn’t find one today so I am using Safeway’s Signature brand. I will update you on the flavor once we dig in. (Taste update: the pie was “d@x! good,” according to John and the crust was good with it. Recommend!)

I used my go-to fave recipe in The Joy of Cooking, with a few flavor-enhancing changes…

Pumpkin Pie – Pumpkin Is Everywhere – It All Started With Pie!

Makes One, 9-inch pie

Pre-heat oven to 425 F

Mix together until well blended:

• 2 cups roasted pumpkin or one 15 ounce can of pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 slightly beaten eggs

Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake for 15 minutes at 425 F then lower heat to 350 F and cook another 45 to 60 minutes until an inserted knife comes out clean.