Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Here's a bonus recipe for this week!

I know the holiday season is over but I happened to have a couple of pie pumpkins lying around and my family just loves homemade pumpkin pie, so I decided to make some this past weekend. It may seem like it's difficult to do, but it's really easy and tastes so much better than pumpkin pie made from canned pumpkin. Oh and don't forget the whipped cream, or you'll never hear the end of it! 

Pumpkin puree
What you'll need:
1 pie pumpkin

How to make it:
Cut top off pie pumpkin and then cut in half. Clean out all guts and seeds. Place pumpkin halves in baking dish, skin side up. Put water in baking dish to cover about 1/2 inch. Bake at 375° for 35-45 mins, until pumpkin is fork tender. Let cool completely and peel off skin. Place in food processor and puree. Place puree in colander lined with cheese cloth and place colander in larger bowl*.  Drain pumpkin puree 2-3 hours until no more water is readily dripping out.

*Note: if you don't have any cheese cloth, paper towels work just the same.

This is what it will look like when the puree is done draining:

Pie crust
What you'll need:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/4 cup ice water

How to make it:
In large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours up to overnight. Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate.

To transfer the rolled out dough to the pie plate, roll the dough around your rolling pin and then unroll on top of the pie plate:

Make sure the dough is pushed down and flat against the pie plate. You'll need to then trim the edges off with a sharp knife. To make the edge look nice, go around and pinch the dough between your fingers like this:

Pumpkin pie
What you'll need:
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 unbaked pie crust

How to make it:
Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mix. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie crust.* Bake at 425° for 15 mins. Reduce temperature to 350° and bake 40-50 mins or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

*Note: place pie on cookie sheet before baking, just in case pie bakes over dish.