Homegrown Pumpkin Pie

Here is my recipe for homegrown pumpkin pie!

Flaky Pie Crust:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

½ cup unsalted butter

¼ cup lard

5-6 TBSP ice water

1 egg (beaten)

Combine flour and salt in generous mixing bowl.  Cut in the butter and lard until they are both in small, crumbly pieces in the flour.  This can either be done with a pastry blender, the food processor or your fingers rubbing.  Gradually add ice water a couple tablespoons at a time, stirring lightly with a fork until mixture holds together but must be squeezed lightly to form a ball.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour or up to two days.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Roll dough to 3/16” thickness lightly floured surface.  Line 9” pie plate and brush with beaten egg wash.  Dock (poke holes) with a fork generously to prevent the dough from bubbling.  Place pie weights or ceramic beads in pie shell and blind bake for 12-15 minutes until just lightly golden.  Remove from oven and cool slightly.

Roast Pumpkin:

1 small pie pumpkin (My favorite is a Jarrahdale or Sugar Pie pumpkin)

Vegetable oil

Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds (an ice cream scoop is perfect for this job!).  Place both halves, cut side down, on a baking sheet or casserole dish if your pumpkin will fit.  Rub outside of pumpkin with a few drops of vegetable oil and roast for an hour.  Pumpkin should be easily pierced with a paring knife when done. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

When cool, scoop the meat of the pumpkin from the skin with a spoon and puree with either a food processor or potato masher.  Pureed pumpkin can be used immediately, refrigerated for three days or frozen for six months.

Filling:

3 eggs

1 ¾ cup pureed roast pumpkin

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup half & half

Beat eggs lightly with whisk in mixing bowl, then add and combine remaining ingredients.  Pour mixture into blind baked pie shell. 

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 45 minutes more.  Allow to cool to the perfect temperature of still warm, but not burning to the tongue, about 10 minutes.

Jordan Durbin

Jordan Elise Durbin is a cultivator of five wondrous children, a slightly out of control garden, and a small-but-efficient pottery studio. Her laundry piles can attest to her many activities and willingness to do anything but manage said piles. She can frequently be found running Ohio’s magical trails with her children, baking large quantities of buttery goodness, and writing about the woes and wonders of medieval chickenry. She is the author of The Chicken Pox: A Feathery Retelling of Hansel and Gretel, Periwinkle, and The Prodigal Fox. She has contributed to Cultivating since 2018. Jordan is the curator for the column “Cultivating A Maker’s Life”. She looks for the glory of God in every corner of creation and regularly finds it.

www.thepotteress.com%20