We recently went to a homeschool fall celebration party, where the kids all painted pumpkins. My kids spent a lot of time brushing the perfect picture on their sugar pumpkins for Halloween, and were extremely proud of their artwork. We displayed them on the front porch with our other fall decorations. But then, Halloween was over, and coincidentally I also needed to make some pies for Thanksgiving . . . .
As I chunked up these adorably decorated pumpkins, my daughters walked by the kitchen counter and their eyes grew wide with horror. My 7 year-old’s mouth flew open, and she asked with dread, “What are you doing?? I worked so hard on that! You just cut apart my black cat!” I replied with no regret in my voice, “Yes, you did a great job!” My 10 year-old chimed in with disgust. “Only our mom would do this kind of thing.” I said the choices were to either let their pumpkins rot, or turn them into delicious pies. They weren’t buying it, and I told them it’s a circle of life kind-of-thing. They will get over it when they taste my pies this Thanksgiving, because I have the perfect recipe.
This pumpkin pie has been declared the “best ever” by my husband, children, mother, sister-in-law, and the list goes on. It really is special. This year I’m putting the pies in the freezer after I bake them, as I’m trying to prepare as much food ahead of time as possible.
You can make your own evaporated milk for this recipe. Here’s how.
The timing on cooking this pie just depends on different factors, ie: density of your pumpkin and your oven. I roast my own pumpkin, and it’s not as thick as canned pumpkin. Custards are tricky, and sometimes it’s difficult to determine when they are done. The middle should be set for sure. I cooked mine at 450 for 10 minutes, then at 325 for about another hour. Just keep an eye on your pie. You will see two pies in this post, because I doubled this recipe. After all, I had two perfectly good pumpkins . . .
Perfect Pumpkin Pie
3/4 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
Preheat oven to 450.
Add the sugar gradually to the pumpkin puree. Beat well and stir in the flour, salt and spices.
Stir in the corn syrup and beat well. Stir in the slightly beaten egg, then slowly add the evaporated milk, mixing until well blended. Pour the batter into the unbaked pie shell. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes then reduce the oven temperature to 325, and continue baking pie for an additional hour or until a knife inserted into the mixture comes out clean.
Cool pie completely and top with whipped cream and sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice if desired.
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