Best Pumpkin Pie I've Ever Made

 

Who doesn’t love pumpkin pie? It’s traditional, tasty, and an essential pie to know how to make.  It’s the perfect dessert to bring to any Autumn occasion, and making it with real pumpkin will delight your fellow guests (and impress upon them how awesome you are).  I first made real pumpkin pie last year.  I just had a craving to see how it would taste, and I wanted to work with every part of the pumpkins I am so fond of eating.  What I discovered was not only a better taste, but a more-enriching baking experience.  If you’re just joining us today, go back to the post on Oct 1 to see what I mean, and learn for yourself how to cook-up a pumpkin to use in this real pumpkin pie.  If you already have you’re pumpkin, then here we go!

Step 1: Get your Ingredients Ready.  Read through ingredients first before starting to make the pie because I’ve added some helpful tips as you go along. 

[Pro Tip: If you’re cutting and cooking your pumpkin (see Oct 1^st) along with baking the pie then start early because the whole endevour will take about 3-4 hours, but it will be well worth it!]

Ingredients:

Sugar, one cup.  I’ll be making it with 1/3 cup of sugar, but I’ll be adding extra cinnamon and a squeeze of honey (if you use honey, add it right after you add the pumpkin).  I do this because I’m cutting down my intake of sugar and I find that the natural pumpkin taste is yummy enough.

Cinnamon, Allspice, Ginger, Nutmeg.  I find that all these together make the best pumpkin flavor.  But if you don’t have them all use whatever spices you have on hand. If you’re missing one or two, that’s OK.  Just compensate by adding more.  I use a healthy couple of shakes of the bottle.  You can also use a pinch of salt, which I won’t use.

Eggs, 3.  Scramble them up first before adding to your pie mixture.

Pumpkin (that mushy stuff you made yesterday and put in your fridge, or that you just made.  Use most of it and save 2-3 spoonfuls in the fridge for your pumpkin pancakes, which I’ll be posting on Oct 4^th.)

(If you’re using honey, add it here)

Evaporated Milk, 1 can.

Vanilla Extract, a drop or two.

Step 2: Preheat the Oven to 425 degrees

Step 3: Unroll the pie crust and place it in the pie dish.  No, I’m not using homemade pie crust, but this isn’t 31 days of pie crust!

[Pro Tip: I like to place the pie dish on a baking sheet, in case of spillover. Also, this makes it easier to put in and out of the oven]

Step 4: Combine all the ingredients in a bowl in the order listed.  Then stir until thoroughly mixed.

Step 5: Pour into the pie crust.

[Pro Tip: I like to use a fork to press around the edges of the pie to make a pretty little pattern that looks super fancy!]

[Note: depending on how big your pie dish is, you may have leftover pumpkin pie mixture. Depending on how much, you can either discard or turn it into a separate pie]

Step 6: Place pie in the 425 degree oven for 15 minutes and you’re done. The time you used cooking the pumpkin substitutes for the time the pie needs to bake- no I’m kidding!  After 15 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 350 and bake pie for 45-60 minutes until you can put a fork into the center of the pie and have it come out clean.

Step 7: Cool the pie, even though you are eager to dig right in because it looks so delicious!  If you’re not eating it warm, place in the fridge or freezer after the pie has cooled down significantly.

Yum!  I just love pumpkin pie. The taste and smell bring in that warm feeling of Autumn.  I just made this pie along with you and it was the best pumpkin pie I ever made!  It was so incredibly delicious I can’t wait to make it again!

Don’t forget that tomorrow I’m going to show you how to make roasted pumpkin seeds (a great snack) and that Thursday we are making those much-talked-about pumpkin pancakes.  Then Friday I’ll let you in on a little secret about pumpkin spice ; ) Hint: If you love coffee, you’ll love Friday’s Post!

And don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest and like me on Facebook!  You can also follow me on Twitter.  There you’ll find even more pumpkin stuff because 31 days is a lot of pumpkins, but I still want more! You can also access this blog in app format. Get your 31 days of pumpkin fix on the go!