National Pumpkin Day--October 26!

Now that pumpkin pie spice-flavored food and drink items are everywhere, it makes sense to celebrate this amazing vegetable!

I like pumpkin pie spice as well as the next person--but I think it belongs best where is was intended: in pumpkin pie. Preferably homemade. And with Thanksgiving just around the corner, it's time to get serious about the pie that makes the holiday!

This post is from Thanksgiving 2021, but I hope you--if you like your sweets as much as I do--think it's worth a rerun. So here we go:

When it comes to my Thanksgiving pies, I'm a traditionalist. 

Sure, pumpkin cheesecake, or pumpkin pie with a cookie crust or chocolate somewhere in there sounds yummy. But give me the basic pumpkin pie recipe on the Libby's canned pumpkin label and I'm your girl. 

Still, I don’t follow the recipe to the letter. A few years ago, I figured out two things simultaneously: 1) evaporated milk didn't really agree with me, and 2) local whipping cream (not the ultra-pasteurized cream grocery stores generally carry) makes the most amazing pumpkin pie you'll ever eat. 

I also concluded that any given dish can only be as good as the ingredients. So for every step of the process, I try to work in one or more high-quality ingredient. 

For two pumpkin pies, I prepare two large or deep-dish pie crusts, using butter, not shortening, and organic, locally-milled flour, in glass pie pans.

Once I've made my crust, I follow Libby's recipe (with a few tweaks), with the best ingredients I have on hand.

4 farm-fresh large eggs from our own hens, lightly beaten by hand

1 1/2 cups organic granulated sugar (A few times, I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup and substituted a little organic maple syrup and a big spoonful of local honey. But now I just go 100% sugar, as local honey has become eyebrow-raisingly expensive!)

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 29 oz can Libby's 100% pure pumpkin (I once used an organic brand of canned pumpkin, but it wasn't as well strained as Libby's, and the filling was a bit watery.)

2 heaping teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 heaping teaspoon organic ground ginger

The Libby's recipe calls for ground cloves, which I don't care for. So I use 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

I mix the above by hand in the order given, and when it's thoroughly blended, I add:

About 12 oz locally produced heavy whipping cream, more if you prefer.

The cream we buy is produced on the other side of the county, about 20 miles away. It comes in a glass bottle and is non-homogenized, so you'll find a layer of butterfat in the neck of the bottle. To use, all you have to do is make sure the cap is secure and shake it thoroughly. The cream also comes from Jersey cows, so the color of the cream isn't white, but slightly golden, which is lovely.

I gently fold in the whipping cream until everything is well-blended, then I fill the prepared, unbaked crusts. Using the reduced amount of cream instead of the larger amount evaporated milk that the Libby's recipe calls for, this recipe does make considerably smaller pies. 

I bake the pies at 350 until the middle is just about set. If you wait until the top begins the brown, the filling won't be as tender. Anyway, you can start checking the pies at 45 minutes--my pies in 9-inch glass pans are done in about an hour.

Some years back, I noticed almost all pie recipes called for pre-baking the crust, which I don't get--and never do. It seems like the crust would be so browned, all the flavor would be gone. But that's just me.

Thanks to Libby's large can, you can always double the deliciousness!

Anyway, after you take out the pies, let them cool on racks at least 1 hour. The filling may seem a bit too soft for some folks--evaporated milk makes a firmer filling. Still, the pie is so rich and flavorful you don't even need whipped cream on top!