Fresh Pumpkin Pie
Fresh Pumpkin Pie
This is a from scratch pie, no canned pumpkin, for where I live, plenty of winter squash, which is a pumpkin, but depending on your location, feel free to use orange pumpkin, acorn squash, butternut, or Hubbard squash. I am really surprised I have not made this before as winter squash, called pumpkins here, is grown here locally and available everywhere. I made this on 16 Oct 2017 and it came out beyond all expectations, this was just perfect, very liked by the family, so much so, I was asked to make this again on 17 Oct. Most of the steps and photos is just to prepare the pumpkin, keep in mind, you are going to go from a whole pumpkin to making the mix, crust, and baking, this actually moves along quickly however.
Equipment
- Pie Dish (9 inch)
- Oven
Ingredients
- 750-800 grams fresh pumpkin, I used a large section from a large pumpkin, 26-28 oz)
For the Filling, after pumpkin is cooked
- 2 cups pumpkin, cooked, peeled, and mashed
- 1 can evaporated milk, (368 ml Thailand, 12 fl oz US)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the Pie Crust
- 1⅓ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup shortening, lard, or frozen butter that is shredded
- 3½ tablespoons cold water
Instructions
To Cook the Pumpkin
- First things first, you need to prepare then cook some pumpkin. If you have a preferred way, use that. Here are my steps I used. I bought a 3½ kilo (7 lb) pumpkin, yes, this is what is called a pumpkin here, not very attractive looking. I cut a section out, removed the seeds and weighed (I use a digital scale) and the piece was 770 g (27 oz).
- Cut the piece into large chunks. I used my little rice cooker to steam this, place the chunks in the steamer basket, add water to the pot, set to Cook setting. Use your preferred way to steam the pumpkin.
- About 10-15 minutes to bring the water in the rice cooker to a boil, and about 15 minutes steaming the pumpkin, done. It is cooked when it easily pierces with a fork. Turn off the rice cooker, remove the steamer basket and let the pumpkin cool, about another 20-30 minutes.
- Once the pumpkin has cooled, use a pairing knife and cut off all the green skin, it comes off very easily, takes 2 minutes if that. Place the trimmed pieces in a small pot. With a potato masher, fully mash the pumpkin well, takes just a minute or two, no need for a food processor or any other kitchen devices.
To Make the Filling
- Add the cooked and well mashed pumpkin to a large mixing bowl, add the rest of the Filling ingredients and mix well. I used a spoon at first then switched to a whisk, takes just a minute or two.
- Now is the time to preheat your oven to 200° C (390° F).
For the Crust
- Mix together the flour and salt from the Pie Crust ingredients, cut shortening, lard or butter, into the flour with a fork, add cold water 1 tablespoon at a time, mix until dough is moist enough to hold together. Shape into a ball and place on a floured work counter, roll to about 1/8 inch thick and larger than your pie dish. roll the dough on the rolling pin and transfer to the dish and unroll. Press the dough in, trim away excess, flute the edges.
Assemble the Pie
- Give the pumpkin another good stir, then pour into the prepared pie dish. As you can tell, I absolutely horrible at fluting a pie crust.
- When the oven is heated, bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean. Remove from oven, place on a rack, and allow to cool.
- Cut and top slices with whipped cream, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Variants: 1. Reduce sugar to ½ cup. 2. Use 1 can (15 oz / 425 g) of canned pumpkin in place of fresh pumpkin.
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Absolutely a perfect pumpkin pie! Made as written, no need to change anything, excellent crust, spot on in taste. Highly recommended!