Actually, the hardest part is scraping the seeds out. After that it is pretty easy. Basically, you just:
- Cut the pumpkin in half (use a small pie pumpkin - I don't know if all pumpkins are good for baking)
- Scrape the seeds and membrane out
- Put both halves upside down in a baking dish with 1/2 cup or so of water (to keep it from drying out) and
- Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until you can poke a fork into it (through the skin)
- Let it cool a little and scrape the pumpkin out of the skin
Oh, and also - since I can't eat gluten - it had a gluten free crust - which was AWESOME!
What you need:
FILLING
- 2 cups cooked fresh pumpkin
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. allspice
- 1/4 tsp. cloves
- 1/2 cup milk
CRUST
- 5 Tbs butter
- 8 oz. gluten free cookies or graham crackers - I used Trader Joe's Gluten Free Ginger Snaps
DIRECTIONS
Start with the crust:Turn the oven on to 300 and melt the butter in a pie pan.
Crush the cookies. I used the whole bag and crushed then right in the bag. You can put them in a food processor to make them finer if you want.
Swish the melted butter around in the pie pan to coat it and then pour it into a bowl and mix it with the crushed cookies.
Press the cookie mixture into the pie pan to form the crust. Put it in the refrigerator to set while you make the pie filling.
Pie Filling:
Heat the oven to 425.
Beat all the filling ingredients together until smooth (I burned out my mixer a couple of weeks ago, so I used the blender. It worked fine.)
Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared crust and bake at 425 for 10 minutes.
Lower the oven temp to 350 and continue to bake for 40 - 50 minutes or until the filling is set (stick a table knife into the middle - if it comes out clean, it is ready).
Take it out and let it cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting.
Top with whipped cream. Share with your friends and/or family and be prepared to be praised for your culinary prowess! :-D
