Pumpkin Pain...oh I mean Pie! Pumpkin Pie!

I grabbed these pumpkins for Halloween decoration. The sticker said they were "pie pumpkins" but they didn't have to because as soon as Kojak saw them he said "You're gonna make me a pie right"?

For some reason James and Cameron thought they should have candy in them and they were sorely disappointed when I told them otherwise.
So anyway, I decided to take a tip from Pioneer Woman and make some pumpkin puree....to use in Pumpkin Pie, of course.
Only one problem, Pioneer Woman didn't seem to have to hack into her pumpkins.

That's the best knife I have. A 7-inch Santoku, might as well have had a butter knife.

I wasn't aware that some pumpkins came with a very hard, very thick outer shell. Luckily, Kojak had pity on me....or maybe he just really wanted some pie! Either way, we eventually hacked our way into the little suckers.

Pretty huh?

So I baked the first batch on a pan. Then I realized my mistake and corrected.

The next batch I placed in a casserole with some water in the bottom. These came out tender and juicy (except for the shell, of course). Plus they retained that beautiful orange color!

Ahhhh...pumpkin puree!! Looks yummy? Yes?
I used some in the pies below and the rest I put in the freezer. There's enough in there to make roughly 6 pies.

And this is what happens in less than 20 minutes after they came out of the oven. Cameron dug into the one on the right with a spoon.

Lesson learned: Although the pumpkins were a pain I will never make pumpkin pie from a can again. This is THE BEST PUMPKIN PIE EVER!!!!!


Perfect Puree Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin (6-8" diameter)
• 2 & 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (from above pumpkin)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/2 tsp. allspice
• 1/2 tsp. cloves
  
• 1 & 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 2 eggs
• 3 regular unbaked pie crusts or 2 deep-dish unbaked pie crusts
  

For Pumpkin: Remove stem and cut into quarters. Bake in dish (shell side down) with a little water (water should not touch meat of pumpkin) @350 until tender. Peel off shell or scrape out the pumpkin. Now you can use a hand mixer, stand mixer or food processor to make the puree. Once it's smooth and puree-ish (hahaha), dish out 2 & 1/2 cups for the pumpkin pies. Put the rest in freezer safe container with as little air as possible for future use. No, it won't last forever but it will still be good when pumpkins are out-of-season and you get a hankering for pumpkin pie. Moving on!
For the pie:Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix your puree and the remaining ingredients with the exception of the pie crusts. (Sorry, but I must be very clear here....there are some folks out there that just can't understand recipe-nese). Mix until smooth, may be a little watery. Pour into pie crusts, bake for 15 minutes @ 450. At this point I take mine out, wrap the edges with aluminum foil to prevent the crusts from getting burned, reduce heat to 325 and bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Or you could skip the aluminum foil by using a pie crust shield that I need and don't have! Either way, don't burn the pie!
ENJOY!!!!