A Fairytale Pie

Here's Kate, holding the evil-looking, brown-green squash called, upon research, a fairytale pumpkin! From the patch of Cinderella's step-sisters perhaps? At any rate, I picked this one up at the orchard down the road (where I work), having been told that it made excellent pumpkin pies. Time for some food experimentation!!

I used my mom's recipe for Pumpkin Pie from fresh pumpkin. The recipe said to bake the gunked out, halved pumpkins in a dish filled with 1/4 inch water for 1 hour. Being impatient, I decided to quarter the squash and microwave it instead. It took about...1 hour.

While waiting for my pumpkin to cook, I mixed together the dough for my Oma's pie crust and lined three pie dishes. This is the step that for whatever reason keeps me from making pies more often. An odd thing because I love to make pie crust. I suppose just the concept of having to flour the counter, get my hands all messy, and have to deal with greasy dishes afterwards that makes me THINK it will be a big undertaking. ;) Definitely worth it though. This is yummy crust! Flaky and delicious every time.

Once my pumpkin was soft and fully cooked, I scooped out the insides and discovered that I had 6 cups. Enough to double the recipe! Originally, the recipe would have made 2 8-inch round pies. I got 2 9-inch pies and 1 8-inch. By the way, Mom and I tasted the pumpkin at this point, and found it to be a bit sweeter and less bland than normal pumpkin. At least that was my opinion. Mom just kinda made a face that said "it still needs butter and brown sugar."

And then....I guess I could have used a mixer. But who wants to use something man-made when you could use something God-given? I mean, it's so much more practical and saves electricity. Not to mention that I don't have to wash an orange-splattered kitchen afterwards. The fewer things to wash in the end the better, I say!!

Next step: mix the smooooth pumpkin with brown sugar, spices, and beaten eggs. Pour into prepared pie pans and bake at 350*F for 35 minutes. You wouldn't believe how marvelous our house smelled! Pumpkin pie candles might have to do occasionally (though I think it's cruel...you walk into a house, smell pie, and...what a LET DOWN!!) but as for me and our house, we make real pumpkin pie!

Beautiful.

Though I do admit, the piece should have been bigger. Or maybe it was just dwarfed by that blob of cream on top? But anyway, I personally liked this pie better than the pumpkin pie made from canned pumpkin. Had a good texture and more spicy-ness. And although we have some pumpkin pie-dislikers in our family, it was generally approved of by those who tried it. :) Yummy!