Pumpkin Pie

 

2 cups canned pumpkin

1 can evaporated milk

3 eggs

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 t. cinnamon

¼ t. ground cloves

½ t. ground ginger

½ t. freshly ground nutmeg

1 unbaked deep dish 9” pie shell
 

Preheat oven to 450o.  Create a scalloped pie shell with a folded under edge and your thumb, making wide scallops that will hold the filling as it expands in the oven.  Stir dry ingredients together then stir into pumpkin.  Mix in milk and eggs with wire whip and pour most of filling into a 9” unbaked pie crust.   Set on oven rack then add rest of filling.

 

Bake at  450o  for 20 minutes, reduce to 300 o for 35-40 minutes.  Filling is done when the custard no longer jiggles in the center.  Serve with plenty of whipped cream.

 

I’ve tried using the Hallowe’en jack-o-lanterns, baking the cut up pumpkin in a large pan with 1” water in the bottom, covered with aluminum foil.  Puree the baked pumpkin (cut away the rinds), drain off excess water, freeze until time to make the pies.  The fresh pumpkins are OK, but not as smooth or as orange as canned pumpkin, and probably not worth the effort.

 

Mama:   Well Bobby, what did you learn in school today?

Bobby:  We learned “Pi R Squared”!

Mama:   What are they teachin’ you at that school?  Pie aren’t square! Pie are round!!

 

                π = 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028…