A Pumpkin Pie improvement

[Jenise]

So yesterday I made a pumpkin pie to take to a friend's home for dinner. I started by roasting a fresh sugar pumpkin. In spite of the fact that my pumpkin was larger than average, unfortunately the pumpkin's walls were thinner than expected so it didn't yield as much flesh as I needed. Where I was looking for two cups, I got more like a cup and a half. To extend it (nothing looks stupider than a shallow pie), I added an extra egg and more cream, and then I added a trick I saw in a King Arthur flour recipe not that long ago: a tablespoon of flour for a sturdier custard. It's a morning-after observation that I probably needed two, but I'm sure glad that one was in there.

Recommended!

I haven't made pumpkin pie in a few years, due to logistic reasons, but the last few I did make, I substituted acorn squash for the pumpkin. They have more flavor.

For whatever reason, my pumpkin pies are always very jiggly in the oven. Recipe calls for 45 mins bake time but I can go 1'15 hr and it still rolls and waves. But it does set firm (enough). Weird.

I once went from gourd to pie, and once was enough... the whole kitchen was orange by the end of it and it still tasted like canned pumpkin. I now use canned organic pumpkin and it's fine.

I thought the 'improvement' was going to be not using pumpkin!

But, I suppose this works too...

[Jenise]

Howie, I've never used anything but pumpkin. I've also heard that butternut is a terrific pumpkin sub.

Jeff, 45 minutes is ridiculous. I bake mine for at least an hour. Every year it seems to vary how much time it takes, especially with my unreliable Viking oven. I won't take it out of the oven until the toothpick comes out clean.