The Roman Household: Homemade Pumpkin Pie

So in my endeavor to start cooking things from scratch (or darn close to it) I decided I would attempt to make Pumpkin Pie from scratch. I took my son, Joshua, to the local tree farm and let him pick out a pumpkin to make the pie with.

Here is Joshua with the pumpkin he chose

Homemade Pumpkin Pie From Scratch

Ingredients:

A Pie Pumpkin

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

3 cups of pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk

Directions:

1. Wash your pumpkin in cool or warm water. DO NOT USE SOAP.

2. Cut the pumpkin in half. A serrated knife and a sawing motion works best. Next time I'll but one of those electric carving knives they sell at the store around Halloween.

3. Scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff. Save in a bowl for later. You can dry them out and plant them in your garden next year.

4. Cook the pumpkin. I cut the pumpkin up into smaller portions and put them into a cast iron pot with the lid and added two cups of water. I cooked it in the oven at 350F for 90 minutes. It is finished cooking when you can scoop off the meat from the rind easily.

5. Scoop out the meat and put into a bowl and let sit for 30 minutes to let some of the water drain out of the meat.

6. Puree the meat in the blender. You can use a hand blender as well if that is what you prefer.

7. The spices and evaporated milk all combined with 3 cups of the pumpkin puree.

8. With just that amount in the picture above made two pumpkin pies. I had three cups of puree left over that I put into a freezer bag and froze for use later on in either more pies, pumpkin muffins, or bread.

9. Bake the pie(s) for 15 minutes at 425 F, then turn the temperature down to 350 F and bake another 45-60 minutes. The pie will be done if you can stick a butter knife into the center and have it come out clean.