Fresh Pumpkin Pie
Every year we take our pumpkins from Halloween that didn’t get cut up to pieces, broken up, or otherwise uneatable and process them so we can use the delicious fruit (yeah, they are a fruit) for our Thanksgiving pies. You can do all kinds of other wonderful things with the pumpkin, but here is our favorite pumpkin pie recipe with fresh pumpkin. We compost or feed the rest to our animals so nothing goes to waste!
Process the pumpkin
- Clean the outside of the pumpkin.
- Slice into chucks (quarter pumpkin or smaller). Don’t make them small as you’ll be scraping the pumpkin out.
- Scrape all of the pumpkin guts out. Save the seeds if you like, compost the rest.
- Bake at 350 for 45-90 minutes
- When it is done (fork test) cool and scrape all of the pumpkin out and compost the hide.
- Run the pumpkin through the food mill with the pumpkin strainer.
Pie filling
- 1 cup sugar (metric: 300 grams). Instead of sugar or 1.25 cups honey (or a 50 50 mix)
- 4 teaspoons pumpkin spice
- OR separate spices for a better taste:
- 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- one half teaspoon ground ginger
- one half teaspoon salt (optional, I don’t use any)
- 4 large eggs (only 3 if you want it more dense)
- 3 cups fresh pumpkin from above
- 1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)
Mix well using a hand blender or mixer.
Bake at 425 F (210 C ) for the first 15 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 350 F ( 175 C ) and bake another 45 to 60 minutes, until a clean knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Delicious pumpkin pie – made from standard Halloween pumpkins.