Eat it, Sandra Lee: Homemade Pumpkin Pie

I confess: This Thanksgiving, I did not make the turkey.  I did not make the stuffing.  I did not make the cranberry sauce.

Here’s what I did do, though.  I make a pumpkin pie.  From scratch.  I made the crust, I baked a whole pumpkin, and with that pumpkin, I made the filling, with spices that came from individual spice jars, not a packet of “pumpkin pie spice”.  And guess what, Sandra?  It was damn good.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Okay, so despite my big talk, the crust was a little ho-hum, so I will leave you to find your own crust recipe.  If you use the roll-out one from the grocery store fridge, I promise not to tell.  Here’s the rest of the recipe, though.

Make (or buy) and bake a pie crust.

To puree a whole pumpkin:

Note: The pumpkin I used was about the size of my two-year-old’s head, and yielded more than enough puree for the pie.  First, cut open the pumpkin as though you are going to carve it.  Clean the inside of seeds and strings.  Put 2-3 T. of water inside the pumpkin, then put the top back on.  Bake at 350 until you can stab a fork easily through the skin.  When the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, peel the skin off.  The flesh will be sort of stringing, like most other squash.  To get the consistency I needed for the pie, I used an immersion blender, though a food processor might work just as well.

Now that you’ve done the hard part, the rest is easy as, well…

Combine:

2 c. pumpkin puree
2-3 beaten eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. grated  or ground nutmeg
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. salt

Pour filling into pie crust.  Bake 35-45 minutes until the center no longer looks jiggly.  Cool 15-30 minutes to allow to set.  Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.