While out picking out pumpkins for my daughters I saw some nice organic heirloom pumpkins (Winter Luxury Pie) and decided to try my hand in using a couple of these to make a pumpkin pie instead of using canned pumpkin.  One note make sure you are using a pumpkin labeled as a sugar or pie pumpkin, using your standard jack-o-lantern variety will lead to very watery and less velvety pie.  So in the end, not only does this give you a better tasting pie, but given a organic pumpkin cost $6 a can you also save quite a bit of money with just a little additional work.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups of pumpkin puree (see above)
• 12 oz. can of evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1/3 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions

1. Mix sugars, salt, spices, lemon into large bowl.  Beat in eggs then pumpkin puree.  Finally add the evaporated milk and whisk until thoroughly combined.
2. Pour mixture into chilled pie shell and make at 425F for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes reduce temperature to 350F.  Bake 45-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
3. Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours
4. Note: If you are lacking some of the spices above…you can replace the spices above with pumpkin pie spice.