Twelve Days of Recipes- Day 6

If you recall, this fall I made a recipe post for Pumpkin Muffins. Hopefully you remembered how much I love a good pumpkin recipe. Over the years I would make the Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe, it was easy to make and the recipe was conveniently located on the side of the pumpkin puree can. That recipe relationship ended (I am however, still using Libby's canned Pumpkin Puree) when I discovered the food blog Simply Recipes. I tried her recipe for a Pumpkin Pie last Thanksgiving 2009. The recipe was a hit! I made again this year for Thanksgiving but used a homemade from scratch pie crust recipe. I'm
a little bias when it comes to my baking and cooking, but I thought it ROCKED!

Suzanne's Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients
•2 cups of pumpkin pulp purée from a sugar pumpkin* or from canned pumpkin purée
•1 1/2 cup heavy cream or 1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk
•1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
•1/3 cup white sugar
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•2 eggs plus the yolk of a third egg
•2 teaspoons of cinnamon
•1 teaspoon ground ginger
•1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
•1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
•1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest
•1 good crust (see pâte brisée recipe)

* To make pumpkin purée from a sugar pumpkin: start with a small-medium sugar pumpkin, cut out the stem and scrape out the insides, discard (save the seeds, of course). Cut the pumpkin in half and lay cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet lined with silpat or aluminum foil. Bake at 350°F until fork tender, about an hour to an hour and a half. Remove from oven, let cool, scoop out the pulp. (Alternatively you can cut the pumpkin into sections and steam in a saucepan with a couple inches of water at the bottom, until soft.) If you want the pulp to be extra smooth, put it through a food mill or chinois.

Method
1 Preheat oven to 425°F.

2 Mix sugars, salt, and spices, and lemon zest in a large bowl. Beat the eggs and add to the bowl. Stir in the pumpkin purée. Stir in cream. Whisk all together until well incorporated.

3 Pour into pie shell and bake at 425°F for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 350°F. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

4 Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours.

Serve with whipped cream.

Enjoy the Taste of