Pumpkin Pie: Paula Deen Style

HAPPY OCTOBER! [and happy Friday! :)]

I LOVE October. It's such a great month. It's the start of fall and fall is my favorite season. It just makes me feel so warm and cozy when I think of things like falling leaves and hot apple cider and pinecones and PUMPKIN PIE. I really, really love pumpkin pie. I look forward to it all year (and I was slightly disappointed when I realized you can buy frozen pumpkin pies any time you want from the grocery store. Lame.)
I've been wanting to make pumpkin pie from scratch for a few years but just haven't gotten around to it, so I decided that this year will be the year I perfect the pie.. I made a pumpkin pie at FSU a few years back and it was so awful we covered it in maple syrup to try to get it sweet enough. I must have left out the sugar? No idea. We'll just ignore that little cooking disaster.
This time I followed my dear Paula Deen's pie recipe. It's not the perfect pie recipe, it's a little more like pumpkin cheesecake, but it is darn delicious.

I bought a pumpkin (for $2, as you can see) from a little produce stand in North Georgia when I was up there flea-marketing. It's not a pie pumpkin, it's just a regular old pumpkin, so next time I think I'll try to get a true pie pumpkin.

And I hacked it all to pieces.

I cut it into 5 big pieces and then scooped out all the guts, making sure not to scoop out the pumpkin flesh. The seeds could be saved for cleaning and baking, but I wasn't feeling that much in the spirit yet and I just threw them away.

Then I put the pieces in a pan and roasted them for 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

They start to get mushy when they're done. They're kinda fun to play with at this point.

I scraped all the flesh away from the skin and into a bowl. It came off very easily. It got harder as the pumpkin cooled though.

And then I started to mash. (The masher is one of my great flea-market steals. I love it.)

I mashed for a very long time. Like a whole episode of Law & Order. I really wouldn't recommend it. The pumpkin was certainly mashed, but it was still kinda stringy, so having a food processor would have made it so much smoother. At this point I put the mashed pumpkin into a container and popped it in the fridge overnight, for no reason other than I was tired and wanted to finish cooking the next day.

So the next day, I gathered all my ingredients. Paula, of course, uses individual spices, but I use pumpkin pie spice because I'm not Paula.

I put a whole package of cream cheese in a bowl (probably why it tastes like pumpkin cheesecake..) and beat it and then added the mashed pumpkin and beat until blended.

Mmm. pumpkin cream cheese. (Don't actually eat this. It's not that good yet. TRUST ME.)

And then I added the rest of the ingredients in the order the recipe calls for.

I got my pie shells ready, prebaking them a little.. I didn't make those from scratch, obviously.

And I poured the filling into the shells. This recipe makes a LOT of filling.

I baked them for about 50 minutes on 350. The whole apartment smelled like heaven.

This pie is good. It's not perfect, but it is very, very good. I think I'll try a Martha recipe next time....

Paula Deen's Pumpkin Pie Recipe

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 cups canned pumpkin, mashed (I used the homemade stuff)

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1 cup half-and-half

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (instead of this and the ginger, I used about a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, optional

2 pre-made pie shells

Whipped cream, for topping

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare the pie shells according to their directions.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger, if using, and beat until incorporated.

Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.

I like how Paula calls for a generous amount of whipped cream. Who's surprised?

And now for a little bonus.. yay.

I knitted a sweater vest for a family friend's baby shower this week and made a fatal error. I was in a hurry to make it and didn't pay close attention to the pattern. I was supposed to start on size 4 needles and switch to size 7 after a few rows... and I never switched. I didn't realize what I'd done wrong until I finished the whole back and thought it looked a little slender. Babies aren't slender. So I had to reknit the entire back again. Luckily I caught it before I knitted the front too or I might have just killed myself.

To show you the difference between the two:

The one on the left is slightly more baby-shaped, don't you think?

 

And for the finished piece, which I'm absurdly proud of:

 

How stinking cute is that?! That will be one stylish baby.
The pattern is available here for free on Ravelry.