Alright, I accepted someone’s challenge. (the challenge wasn’t posed to me, but I accepted it anyways) Someone was making fun of a friends mom for using canned pumpkin and premade pie shells for her pumpkin pies. She challenged him to make a pumpkin pie from scratch, using pumpkins and from-scratch dough. The dough’s no problem for me; I’ve made it before. However, all of the pumpkin pie recipies I’ve found (even at epicurious.com) use canned pumpkin. Help me out here with a from-scratch recipe (please).
No problem. I used to make 'em all the time, having in a country where pumpkin puree was unavailable.
Use your favorite pie recipe and for the puree do this:
For the pumpkin puree, cut a pumpkin in half and stick it in a 350 - 375 degree oven. Let it sit there until it’s soft and done. This should take about an hour or so, depending on the thickness of your pumpkin. Let it sit and cool.
Now, scoop out all the pumpkin mush and put it in a cheesecloth. (I’ve used a clean teeshirt in a pinch) and squeeze out all the excess moisture (which should be quite a bit.)
There you have pumpkin puree. It’s really absolutely simple.
Do I need to scoop out the seeds before putting it in the oven (If there aren’t seeds in a cooking, non jack-o’-lantern pumpkins, I apologize; I’ve never used them before)
Yes, definitely scoop out the seeds.
On the pumpkin, see if you can buy a Sugar Pie pumpkin, not your regular jack o’lantern pumpkin. The Sugar Pies have much less water in them.
I personally like to roast them longer than an hour–I like to get the pumpkin sort of brown and caramelly–it helps add to the flavor.
For the rest of it, just follow your basic pumpkin recipe. That should be just fine.
The username of a member of this board comes to mind-Shirley Ujest
You might also want to try using acorn squash rather than pumpkin–I think it has a better flavor. You’d probably also get good results using hubbard or kabocha squash, but I haven’t had a chance to try it out myself yet.
Sweet potato pie tastes almost exactly like pumpkin-only sweeter.
(And better, in my opinion-I hate pumpkin pie).
I pare the pumpkin into quarters, scrape out the seeds, put rind side up in a cassrole dish with 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the pan and bake for about 2 hours at 350ish. Then remove the rind, put in food processor, then through the cheesecloth. Use as you would regular canned pumpkin…
FB