Pumpkin Pie From Scratch

This past week me and my girlfriend made pumpkin pie from scratch, in order to get into the Halloween spirit, and it came out delicious. If anyone is looking to make pumpkin pie for this Halloween season or Thanksgiving season, these few steps and ingredients will be sure to make for a great dessert.

Ingredients: Straight from the Betty Crocker Recipe

Pat-in-the-Pan Pastry

1 1/3

cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1/2

teaspoon salt

1/3

cup vegetable oil

2

tablespoons cold water

Filling

2

eggs

1/2

cup sugar

1

teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2

teaspoon salt

1/2

teaspoon ground ginger

1/8

teaspoon ground cloves

1

can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1

can (12 oz) evaporated milk

Topping

Whip Cream

*We added a teaspoon of vanilla extract in the filling mix just for some extra flavor. I also took the liberty of using a pinch of Kettle Corn powder simply of curiosity.

*Also, for the pie crust we mashed up some vanilla graham cookies to give it more of a thick sweet taste.

Step 1: Cut,Bake & Puree Pumpkin

Cut the Pumpkin in Half:

• This is actually the hardest part of making pumpkin pie, simply because the pumpkin is built like a rock. This part will take patience, and will take about 15-30 minutes. Best advice is to use a small sharp knife as well as a large thin one. Make an insertion with the small knife and continue to cut from it, occasionally inserting the larger knife every so often to help pry the pumpkin a little.

Scrape Pulp & Seeds from Inside of Pumpkin:

• Take a spoon and simply scrape the inner pulp and seeds from inside of both halves of the sliced pumpkin. You can save the seeds if you want to bake pumpkin seeds, but separating them from the stringy pulp can be a bit of an annoyance.

Bake the Pumpkin:

• Place the two sliced halves of the pumpkin face down on a baking dish (glass preferably), with a little bit of water in the bottom. Let it bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour in preheated oven at 350 degrees, or until skin is very tender.

Making Puree:

• Scrape out the inside of each baked pumpkin half (should come out very easily) until the only thing remaining is the skin of the pumpkin (do not use skin). Place pumpkin content in medium bowl and either mash or place in blender until it becomes a smooth puree texture (blender seems the easiest method). Place puree aside for later use.

Step 2: Let's get to baking

Making Crust:

• Add all Pat-In-the-Pan-Pastry ingredients together in a bowl (excluding the cold water), and whisk together, add in tablespoons of water while whisking, making sure all water is eventually absorbed. Stop when you are left with pasty-like dough.
• Roll dough into ball and place inside a pie tray, then gently spread dough with fingers around and up the sides of the tray.

Step 3: Mixing the Filling

Getting to the Core:

• Add all Filling ingredients together and whisk finely.

Step 4: Pumpkin Pie Time

Free Sailing Now:

• Pour Filling content into the now dough covered pie tray, and place in oven set at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until crust edges are golden brown.
• Remove pie tray from oven and set to cool for about 2 hours.

Step 5: Enjoy!