Pumpkin Pie

You have to love a dessert that counts as a vegetable...

It's the nice thing about pumpkin pie. True, one could count those apple and blueberry pies as a serving of fruit -- but you get to count pumpkin pie as a vegetable. And a tasty, nutritious vegetable at that, full of fiber and vitamins. 

But pumpkin also holds a certain spirit that satisfies the soul as well as the stomach and good health. Those orange orbs embody the sunshine of the whole growing season, the open sky and fresh air of the fields, those perfect autumn days. 


Deep in January, biting into a slice of pumpkin pie brings the wheel of the year firmly to mind, and thoughts roll back to last year's garden, and forward to looking at the prize-winning pumpkins at next year's fair. Pumpkins bring us continuity across the seasons, across the years. 

That continuity is strengthened by the bonds of generations when you use an old family recipe. There is something magical about cooking the same thing my grandmother did, an invocation of those who are gone from us. 

I start with a Long Island Cheese pumpkin -- a flattened, tan heirloom. It could be any other kind -- but then it wouldn't be MY pumpkin pie. But choose your own -- that's part of what makes is special. I quarter the cheese pumpkin, scrape out the seeds, and roast it on a cookie sheet with a little water in it at 350 degrees for... well, for as long as until it's done. Perhaps an hour, I just keep testing till a knife pokes through it easily. Then I let it cool a bit, scoop out the flesh and measure it, and bag it up in 2 cup measures  in small zipper-seal freezer bags (suck the air out, seal them, and lay them flat to freeze -- then you can 'file' them upright in a milk crate in the big freezer). My recipe calls for 1 and a half cups of puree -- but when using home-cooked pumpkin, I find freezing 2 cups works best as you'll lose some liquid and volume when it thaws.    

This is the only think I cook in which I use canned Carnation evaporated milk. I rarely use canned anything in my cooking, but this is an exception. You can use cream or whole milk or raw milk; since I want mine to taste like my grandmother's pie, I use the old-school kitchen staple for this.

Pick your favorite pie crust -- I use the basic shortening crust from my ancient, tattered edition of Betty Crocker's cookbook. But this recipe also works wonderfully as a pumpkin custard with no crust at all.

Pumpkin Pie: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Line a pie plate with your chosen one-crust pie pastry. 

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin, or a two-cup bag frozen home-cooked pumpkin puree
1 cup rich milk
1 cup sugar (not quite full)
1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of cloves
 --you can add more of these spices to taste if you like

2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 shot glass whiskey

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour into the pastry-lined pie pan -- I avoid sloshing by putting the pan on the oven rack first and pouring the filling in there.  Bake about 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool before cutting.

Top with maple whipped cream, and the coup de grace, a maple sugar candy leaf.