How To Make Pumpkin Pie From REAL Pumpkins?

[chelsea]

I bought a pumpkin yesterday and would love to be able to cook come *real* pumpkin pie with ds. Does anyone have a recipe for it, and how on earth do you do it? I'm wondering if you gut the pumpkin first, or cook the whole thing first and then scoop it out? Do you blend the pumpkin to make it the right texture?
Thanks!

[Jillian]

I have always wanted to do this! :popcorn

[heartofjoy]

allrecipes.com has a recipe for pumpkin pie from a fresh "sugar" pumpkin. You gut it, slice it, bake the slices, then scrape the pumkin and puree.

[Iarwain]

I've cooked and frozen pumpkin several times and used it to make pie. People always seem to give me extra pumpkins from their garden. I cut it in half and scrape it out then put it in a baking pan cut side down with a little water to keep it from drying out. Bake at 350 degrees until it feels tender with a fork. It should be pretty soft. Let cool a bit then peel the skin off. I put it in a big mixing bowl in chunks and take my hand mixer to it until it's uniformly mushed up and smoothish. Two cups is roughly equal to a regular size can of pumpkin for substitution purposes.

[Blue Aurora]

I did that last year and made my first real pumpkin pie for christmas. My dh absolutely loved it..he said it was much better than any pumpkin pie he'd ever had.

[hiddenhippie6]

I have always boiled my pumpkin and it was fine, but I am thinking that I may do Iarwain's method this year. Fresh does make a wonderful pie

[chelsea]

allrecipes.com has a recipe for pumpkin pie from a fresh "sugar" pumpkin. You gut it, slice it, bake the slices, then scrape the pumkin and puree.

I found that recipe (I think) but it doesn't have sugar in it. Would that taste ok or did the poster forget sugar? :scratch
http://pie.allrecipes.com/az/RLHmmdPmpkinPi.asp

[chelsea]

P.S. Is it easy to scoop pumpkin guts out of a raw pumpkin? I would love to leave the outside intact so that ds and I can carve a face in it. :D

[chelsea]

Ok, so I did it the hard way. I wanted to use the pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern so I cut off the top and used a apple-corer to scoop the entire inside out :jawdrop (ds "helped" me). I then put all of the inside (minus seeds and "stringy" part) into a pot of boiling water and cooked until soft. It is in the fridge now and awaiting me to buy the missing ingredients for the pie that I didn't realize that I didn't have. :rolleyes I'll let ya know how it turns out! :tu

[Garnet]

you have to run the stuff through a food processor to get it smooth. And take out the seeds.

[chelsea]

you have to run the stuff through a food processor to get it smooth. And take out the seeds.

Thanks! I used a hand blender type thing and it seemed to go all nice and smooth.

[Garnet]

yup, those work too. The first pumpkin pies were made more like apple pies, with chunks of pumpkin. Then they began to boil and strain the chunks and mash it like potatoes before baking. Commerical canned pumpkin has the skin, and the inside in it. Its all cooked and pureed. I live near the Pumpkin Capitol of the World....can you tell :roll

[chelsea]

yup, those work too. The first pumpkin pies were made more like apple pies, with chunks of pumpkin. Then they began to boil and strain the chunks and mash it like potatoes before baking. Commerical canned pumpkin has the skin, and the inside in it. Its all cooked and pureed. I live near the Pumpkin Capitol of the World....can you tell :roll

Yep, you are a fountain of pumpkinous knowledge! :rockon I had no idea they keep the skins in commercial canned pumpkin! :jawdrop Should I have done that with my real pumpkin too, or do they only do that to be able to make more pumpkin with less money? :scratch

[Iarwain]

I didn't know that about commercial pumpkin either! How neat. I'm sure there's lots of good stuff nutritionally in the rinds, but I bet they'd be a bear to get adequately pureed with home equipment. I have left the gooey stuff on but it is more fiber-y and gets wound up on the mixer blades. For me it's just easier to use my mixer since I usually do several pumpkins at one time. I don't have a food processor either, but it'd take forever to do quarts and quarts of pumpkin that way. As for the seeds I prefer to save them and roast them. They are a tasty and nutritious snack.

[chelsea]

As for the seeds I prefer to save them and roast them. They are a tasty and nutritious snack.

I did the seeds up with a recipe I found on here in the X-files. :giggle It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good! Maybe I should revive the post I found the recipe on? :think

[hiddenhippie6]

As for the seeds I prefer to save them and roast them. They are a tasty and nutritious snack.

I did the seeds up with a recipe I found on here in the X-files. :giggle It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good! Maybe I should revive the post I found the recipe on? :think

I would love that recipe! :tu
Look at the beauty in my garden. I am guessing it is about 60lbs right now. That's alot of pie :tu
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/colettes6/IM000704.jpg

[chelsea]

I made the pumpkin pie! :grin Actually, I made two of them and they are really good! They taste totally different than the usual "pumpkin pie" that I eat, the pureed pumpkin was very light in color and tasted like squash actually. It made good pie, it just tasted well, *lighter* somehow, like not as condensed or something. :shrug Anyone else notice this with their "real" pumpkin pie vs canned pumpkin pie? :scratch
I've got a question...can you freeze pumpkin pie? Or would it go watery or something? Please let me know, this pie is good but I really do not need to be eating two right now. :shifty
And Colette, I will go right now and revive that thread for you! :grin

[chelsea]

Here ya go Colette! :grin
http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/mb/index.php?topic=28376.0

[hiddenhippie6]

Here ya go Colette! :grin
http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/mb/index.php?topic=28376.0

Thanks! :grin

I would think it would think that you could freeze the pie cooked or uncooked.
Here is a site that talks a bit about pumpkin, but they do not recommend freezing it. :think
http://www.netwrite-publish.com/recipes/pumpkin-pie.htm
I know you can get them in the store frozen though.

[hiddenhippie6]

Look what else I found: :tu
http://www.four-h.purdue.edu/foods/Freezing pies frame1.htm

[Garnet]

its a pain to puree the rind with home equipment. our stuff don't have enough power. LOL. the same can be said for apples, many companies just press them, skins and all for juice, and boil them skins and all for apple butter. the only time they peel is for applesauce.

[chelsea]

its a pain to puree the rind with home equipment. our stuff don't have enough power. LOL

Darn. And here I was eyeing that jack-o-lantern me made! :yum

[Mollycurls]

I find my best pumpkin pies have been made when I baked the pumpkin instead of boiling it. I halve the pumpkin, "gut it", than roast it after wrapping each piece in foil. When it's done, I scoop out the pumpkin and puree it in the food processor. The few times I've boiled it, I always strain it in cheesecloth after pureeing it to remove any excess water.

:yum Ummm, now you've got me craving a big ole piece with some real whipped cream! :D

[chelsea]

its a pain to puree the rind with home equipment. our stuff don't have enough power. LOL. the same can be said for apples, many companies just press them, skins and all for juice, and boil them skins and all for apple butter. the only time they peel is for applesauce.

Good thing I didn't use the rind! I asked my Dad (rather proudly I must say) if he liked the pie, and he was like "Did you blend it?" and I said "I just used your ice cream blender" and he was like "You should have blended it." :/ Imagine what he would have said if I used rinds as well! :rolleyes
Guess that just means there's more for me! :yum :yum