Pumpkin Pie: Yeah it's that easy

Thought I’d continue my documentation of food…by showing the steps for making a pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Pie Filling
1. Need to bake and/or boil a pumpkin and/or butternut squash. Peel it then mash it down so that there’s no chunks. You can simply fork it, mix it or puree it.

2. There’s about 2 1/4 c. of mashed pumpkin.
Add a 12oz. can of evaporated milk, or about 1 3/4 c. of milk or soy milk.

3. Add three eggs and 1/2 tsp. of salt. Mix together by hand and/or with a mixer

4. Add 2 T of white sugar and 2/3 c. of packed brown sugar. I added about 1/4 c. more of white sugar.

5. Add spices. I didn’t spice it as much as the recipe calls for, because I was asked not to. However, I prefer it to taste like the spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves). Mix together. Let sit while you’re making the pumpkin pie dough.

PRE-HEAT OVEN. 425 F

Pie shell making
1. Mix 3 1/3 c. of flour, 2 tsp salt and 1 1/3 c. of shortening. You can use Criso, lard or butter. I used vegetable Crisco.

2. Mix the shortening into the flour mixture. You want it to be ‘crumbly’.

You can do this with a fork, fork/knife, knife/knife or with a pastry cutter. I used this awesome pastry cutter.

3. In a separate bowl. Mix together 2/3 c. flour with 1/2 c. water to make a paste. Add to the shortening/flour mixture and mix together. *I noticed that I needed to add about 1/8-1/4 c. more water to the mixture. It was too dry. The trick to pie dough is to not overwork it, and not too be too sticky or too dry. It should stick together but without much excess moisture or crumbs. It’s a tricky thing to figure out.

Pre-cut flour/shortening mixture. The flour/water mixture

The paste in with the mixed shortening/flour mixture.

The pie dough mixed together. The bottom has a bit of crumbs in it. If you see that, then you need to add a bit more water. I mean, 1 TB at a time. It doesn’t take much. Too wet dough is bad, because it ends up taking a lot more flour to get to get it unsticky and you have to ‘work’ it more which isn’t good for dough.

4. Depending on the size of the pie pan cut the dough into equal portions. If it’s a 9 inch normal pan, then this recipe makes 4 single/2 double crusts. If it’s a deep dish, it makes about 2- 10 inch singles and 1 – 9inch single. Therefore I cut into four balls, then took about 1/2 from of the four and added it to another. That was about enough for a 10 inch round single.

5. Rolling of the dough. When disaster happens. Below is the Pastry Mat, non-stick. It’s amazing. However, if you don’t have one, make sure that you flour the surface that you’ll be rolling your dough out on. About 1/2 way through, flip over your dough and re-flour. The trick is to make sure that your dough doesn’t stick. Further, it doesn’t get too thin.

Once your rolled out your dough to fit into your pie pan and hang over the edge, remember you have to make a crust, you’ll need to get the rolled out dough off the rolling surface.
The Pastry Mat makes it easy, because you just need to pick up the mat and fold over, so you 1/2 the dough. If you’re doing it without a pastry mat, I usually lift the edge opposite to me. Thus folding the pie dough in half towards me. You may need to then fold in 1/2 again.

6. Transfer the halved or quartered dough into the pie dish. GENTLY unfold the pie dough in the pan. Make sure that there’s enough edge around to fold over and pinch together to make the crust. My rule of thumb is that when trimming the edge, before crimping, your need the dough hanging on the far edge of the pie pan. No more than that. If there’s a section that doesn’t cover out to the far edge of the pie pan, then take some of the excess trimmed off and pinch into the needy area.

7. Once trimmed. Roll the edge over so that it’s resting on the upper inside of the pie plate rim.
Here’s a ‘how to’ with pie crust making that’s a bit more helpful, especially explaining the crimping part.

8. Add in the pumpkin pie filling. Place in a pre-heated oven, 425 F. Bake for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 F for about 30 minutes. Mine too a bit longer..maybe 35 minutes. Insert knife into the middle of the pie. If the knife comes out clean, then it’s done!

9. Enjoy! You can make shapes out of the remainder pie crust. Cookie cutters are great. I didn’t have anything ‘Thanksgiving/Autumn’ themed cookie cutters. So, I used a Moose . Just bake the cut out pie pieces in the oven until cooked. Put on pie after cooking.

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