1st Good Experience

Making a Pumpkin Pie from Scratch

It happens to me every year, when fall starts and the weather turns colder and school starts again. It happens to everyone else too, you can tell by the way people react when Starbucks brings out their seasonal flavors. We crave pumpkin. “OMG, pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks, #pumpkinspice,” says everyone on Facebook and Twitter.

Well last year, this happened to me, too. My husband, Trevor, and I were invited to go to the corn maze in Renton with our friend Eli and his family. Subsequently, there was a pumpkin patch and a seasonal fruit and vegetable stand also there. We finished the corn maze and I just had to have a pumpkin. As soon as I saw the pumpkin patch, I called my grandma and my Auntie Gloria to ask them what kind and size of pumpkin is the best for pies. I knew I wanted to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. “No Libby’s canned pumpkin for me, that’s the cheap way!” I thought. I picked and bought the perfect pumpkin, and went home to look up recipes.

When I got home, I found a site that has step-by-step instructions on how to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. Not many people do this; even my grandma had never made a pumpkin pie out of a corn maze pumpkin. So, I got to work. I sent my Trevor to the store to get the ingredients that I needed – ginger, allspice, ground cloves, and pecans. Pecans in pumpkin pie? Online, there was a supplemental recipe for pecan topping on your pumpkin pie. “If I’m going to make a pumpkin pie out of a corn maze pumpkin, why not go all out?” I thought.

First, I prepared to cook the pumpkin. First, I took off the top of the pumpkin and scraped out the guts. I separated the guts from the seeds so that I could later make baked and salted pumpkin seeds, which taste just like french fries. Then, I had to cut the pumpkin into chunks, which was really hard. Pumpkins are naturally hard to cut, especially if they’re not pie pumpkins, they’re crude ones from the corn maze, and you are using a butcher knife. After I had my pumpkin chunks, I baked them in the oven for a long time, until the pumpkin was soft and done. After I scraped out the pumpkin glop, I had to let it drain overnight. This is sometimes typical with pumpkins, but is extra necessary if you don’t buy a pie pumpkin. If you don’t drain it, your pie will be watery and turn out like soup. After I had my thick pumpkin glop, I prepared to make the pie.

I made and baked the crust, with my signature crimped edges that my grandma taught me. Then, I added all the spices, eggs, and milk to my pumpkin glop until I had the perfect pumpkin filling. I filled the crust with the filling, covered the edges of the crust with tin-foil, and baked it. While it was baking, I made the pecan topping. I caramelized sugar on the stovetop and added butter and the pecans. When the pie was done, I topped it with the pecan topping, and it was finished!

I called my grandma immediately. My grandma doesn’t understand why anyone would take the long way. When I was researching making pumpkin pie from scratch, I found out that any canned pumpkin you can buy is actually butternut squash, because it’s illegal to can pureed pumpkin. Its chemical makeup is not USDA approved to can and sell. She never believes me. But she was still proud that I finished. I took a photo of my finished pie, and sent it to the website where I got the recipe, and they chose to use it as the main picture for the page! That made me feel good.

My husband Trevor doesn’t like pumpkin. His family doesn’t have traditional meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas, they eat steak and salmon, so pumpkin isn’t really an ingredient he grew up with. He still had a piece of pie and loved it, though, and he got sick on the pumpkin seeds!

I am proud of myself for making the pie from scratch. I would consider it one of my accomplishments, because baking is something I love to do, and making pumpkin pie from scratch is not something that everyone does.