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 |
| OPTIONAL: plastic containers larger than 24 oz |
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.
UPDATE: Also, if you're planning
on not baking all of the pies in the same evening, consider
ladeling about 24oz. of filling into separate containers
for each pie you'll bake later.
- 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, filling one
shell at a time and putting the mixture back in the fridge
after each fill. UPDATE: I *think* each pie crust will
take about 24 ounces of filling.
- Here's a trick I learned in 2020: If you're baking a single
pie in the evening (as I tend to do), cool the pie overnight
by simply turning off the oven after the bake is done, and
sticking a wooden spoon in the oven door. This will allow
the pie to cool very gradually, and prohibit cracks from
appearing in the filling! (How "cool" is that?!)
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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