How To Make The Perfect Pumpkin Pie

What do you think of when you think of your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal? Some people think of the turkey, some people think of the sweet potato soufflé, and others think of the stuffing. Personally, I think of the pumpkin pie. Maybe that’s because I love how it tastes, but I also love making it from scratch with my mom every year since I was a little girl. I think everyone should know how it make this delicious dessert, so here my recipe and directions on how it make it.

Before you begin making the pie, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. To begin making the pie, you first make the pie crust. My mom uses an old recipe from a cookbook from her hometown of Buena Vista, Georgia. You can use any pie crust recipe, or even be lazy and use a pre-made refrigerated pie crust. For the homemade recipe my mom uses, the ingredients are:

1 1/3 cup of plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
½ cup of Crisco
3 tablespoon of ice water
*1 ¾ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice may be substituted for the cinnamon, ginger and cloves, but the flavor may differ

Once you have all your ingredients out on the counter, you need to get out your bowl, your measuring instruments, your pastry cutter, and a rolling pin. If you don’t have a pastry cutter, a fork may be used. You will mix the 1 1/3 cup of plain flour, ½ cup of Crisco, and 1 teaspoon of salt in the bowl for a few minutes until it is crumbly. Next you add the ice water, which will make it smooth and not crumbly anymore. After you have added the ice water, you need to get your rolling pin and cover it in flour. Now take the pie crust out of the bowl and roll the crust out on a flat nonstick surface such as your countertop. Once it is flat and thin, place it in an ungreased glass 9 inch pie pan that holds a volume of 4 cups. Press the crust firmly against the sides and bottom of the of the glass pie pan. You are going to trim the excess crust even with the pan edge and press the edge with a fork to prevent shrinking. Place the pie crust aside and get ready to make the pumpkin filling. The ingredients for the filling are:

¾ cup of sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon of ground ginger
¼ teaspoon of ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can of 100% pure pumpkin
1 can of evaporated milk

When you have all those ingredients out on the counter, the tools you need to get out are measuring instruments, a small bowl, a large bowl, and a spoon. First, mix the ¾ cup sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon of ground ginger, and ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves in a small mixing bowl. You will mix all those ingredients together with a wooden mixing spoon. Next, take the two eggs and crack them against the edge of the large mixing bowl. Then you will beat them with either a whisk or a power mixer. Now take the pumpkin and sugar-spice mix you just mixed together in the small bowl and stir it into the large bowl that contains the two large beaten eggs. You are going to gradually pour in the can of evaporated milk and mix it into the rest of the filling. Lastly, you mix all of the ingredients of the filling up very well and slowly and carefully pour the filling into the pie crust you made earlier.

Once all the filling is inside the pie crust, it is time to put it in the oven. You should have already preheated it to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, so it should be ready to go right in. Put it on the top rack of your oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. It will bake on this temperature for 40-50 minutes depending on how your oven cooks. If it cooks quickly, set it for closer to 40 minutes, and if it cooks more slowly, set it for closer to 50 minutes. You might even want to set it for a lower time, even if your oven does cook more slowly so you make sure your pie doesn’t overcook. When the timer goes off, check the pie by sticking a knife or other utensil through the center of the pie. If it does not come out clean, put it back in the oven for a short amount of time, checking it regularly. If the utensil does come out clean, you know the pie is finished and it can come out of the oven. Now let it sit out and cool on a wire rack for about two hours. After two hours you can either serve it immediately or cover it with saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I do. This pumpkin pie recipe serves about 8 people, so you may need to make more depending on how many people you serve at Thanksgiving dinner. It is great when served with a dollop of cool whip and some vanilla ice cream. It is also good left-over, which is convenient since everyone is usually too stuffed with all the other Thanksgiving food to eat much dessert, but I guarantee they will want some pumpkin pie the next day!