Girl of a Thousand Faces: Classic Pumpkin Pie

yep, with evaporated milk and everything! lol. Having made a number of pumpkin pies in my day but always following the directions on the orange libby's can, I was under the impression that evaporated milk was an absolute necessity. Little did I know there are a thousand (awesome sounding) other ways to go about making a pumpkin pie! But silly me, I didn't even consider these possibilities when I bought the 50 cent pie pumpkin, and immediately went straight to the baking aisle to pick up the "required" 12 oz can of milk. By the time I got online and started looking up pumpkin recipes (thinking I would find a hundred recipes that closely mimicked libby's), it was too late to consider making a pie with cream cheese or maple syrup or separated egg yolks. I had a can of evaporated milk, so evaporated milk it must be.

And of course the pie turned out great, like pumpkin pies always do. But this isn't going to be finished until I try out a couple of those other recipes... just a warning :)

Today's post is about the canned milk pumpkin pie though.

There's really no reason to buy canned pumpkin, because pie pumpkins are super cheap in grocery stores these days and just about the easiest things to turn into puree ever. All you have to do is cut off the top, slice it in half, scoop out the seeds, and place them face down in a baking dish filled with an inch of water. Bake at 350 degrees for about 90 minutes. Let cool and then peel off the skin (it will come off pretty easily) and mash or blend the orange stuff up 'til it's smooth. Voila, fresh pumpkin puree. I found that my small pumpkin produced about 2 cups of puree- just the right amount for a pie.

Start with 3/4 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon cloves in a small bowl. Mix to combine. I bet this would be good on buttered toast... like a step up from cinnamon sugar toast. pumpkin spice toast!

In a large bowl, beat four eggs. Then add 2 cups of pumpkin puree (fresh or canned, your choice. One 15 oz can of libby's is about 1 3/4 cup and that works fine, but I had two cups so i used it all.) combine into an orangish slush.

Add the sugar/spice mixture to the pumpkin/egg mixture and stir it up.

Slowly add in one 12 oz can of evaporated milk, stirring to combine.

Then pour it in a pie crust. You made a pie crust, right? Forgot to mention that. Look, you can buy a crappy processed frozen pie crust from the store or you can make a delicious flaky and chemical free one in the comfort of your own home. Pie crusts really aren't that hard, people. Here's a link to my favorite pie crust recipe (there are all butter people and there are all shortening people. I myself am a half-butter half-shortening person and I'm sticking to it)

yummy. Ok, then you have to put it in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. After that, turn the oven down to 350 and bake for another 30-50 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. I'd like to say I could tell you exactly how long that will take, but the pumpkin pies I've made in the past have always seemed to take almost as long as the thanksgiving turkey. Maybe it's the high altitude? i don't know... the one you see above was done ten minutes before the recipe said it would be though, so keep an eye on it. OH, and before you put it in the oven, make some kind of foil contraption to put over the pie crust edge to keep it from burning.