I never would have done this. I think I actually told myself
when I started this website over ten years ago that the one
recipe I would NOT post is my pumpkin pie recipe. But recent
events have changed my mind — namely, having all of my
recipes packed away.
A couple of weeks ago, when we were figuring out our
plans for Thanksgiving dinner, I was told to not bother
showing up for dinner without my pumpkin pies. I know
right where my recipe is — it's packed in a cardboard box
inside of a giant metal box someplace in the United States.
Since I originally got the recipe from my mother, I called
her asking for it — but she couldn't find it. I made
calls to friends, my sisters, everyone to whom I thought
I may have given the recipe over the years. No luck —
although I did get a copy of my great grandmother's
recipe, upon which mine is based. Desperate, I started
looking through ALL of my iPhone photos, because I was
pretty sure I had taken a pic of the recipe and texted
it to a friend a few years ago.
To my great fortune, I was able to confirm that I
HAD taken such a photo in 2015. And I was able to use
that image to recreate the magic I've documented
below.
Ingredients:
| 2¼ c | sugar |
| 3 T | corn starch |
| 1½ t | salt |
| 3 t | cinnamon |
| 1½ t | ginger |
| 6 | eggs |
| 3 T | butter (less than 1 stick) |
| 4 c | whole milk |
| 1 large can | Libby's pumpkin |
| 3 | standard one-crust frozen pie crusts |
Steps:
- Cut the butter into small cubes or slices so they may melt
into the mixture more easily. Set aside. Keep pie crusts frozen
until ready to bake.
- Stir the dry ingredients (sugar, corn starch, salt,
cinammon, ginger) together, then fold into pumpkin and
set aside.
- Slightly beat the eggs and set aside.
- In a large pot, heat the milk only until warm — do
not boil.
- Eggs and milk:
- Option 1: Add the eggs to the
warm milk over low heat and stir to ensure the eggs
don't cook to the bottom of the pot.
- Option 2:
Temper the eggs by stirring a couple ladles of the milk
into the eggs, then add the egg and milk mixture back
into the warm milk (easier).
Add the butter.
- Stir the pumpkin mixture into the milk and eggs
until smooth. Take it off of the heat.
- Refrigeration isn't really necessary, but I find it
firms the mixture up enough to make ladling it into
pie pans much less messy later on. So if you're inclined
to take a break for dinner before the long baking process,
stick it in the fridge.
- Pour the mixture into a total of three standard one-crust
frozen pie crusts. Bake each pie for 10 minutes @ 450°,
then for about 50 minutes @ 350° or until knife comes
out clean from center. Cool each pie and refrigerate.
I bake these one at a time over three hours, filling one
shell at a time and putting the mixture back in the fridge
after each fill.
Thanks to my sister, I now know that the recipe my great grandmother
or great great grandmother handed down originally appeared in a cookbook
of recipes for corn products (recall the corn starch) and differs in a
few ways from this one — chiefly in quantities of ingredients. Both
recipes make 3 pies.
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