Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie (Uses Fresh Pumpkin)

This is the one pumpkin pie recipe I keep coming back to year after year. I was at a military ladies' coffee when I first tasted this pie, and it was the most moist & eggy pumkpin pie I had ever eaten. I asked the hostess, Barb, for the recipe, and she shared the recipe with me - which I believe came from her mother. I made my own changes to the recipe over the years and now I have written down my changes so that I can share my version with you. I only use fresh pumpkin in this recipe and it is well worth the little bit of extra effort. PLEASE NOTE: This recipe calls for a DEEP DISH pie plate and intended to be a egg custard textured pie. Even using a deep dish pie plate, you may still find you have a small amount of extra batter, as some deep dish pans are larger and deeper than others (mine fits all of the batter in one pie). You can use whole milks in this if you prefer, however I like the lighter taste of the skim in this. If you only have small pie plates, then you might want to prepare an extra pastry round and divide the batter between two smaller pies.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1  unbaked 9-inch deep dish pie pastry (9-10-inch)
• 2  cups  freshly  cooked pumpkin, seeded, peeled, mashed
• 3⁄4 cup granulated sugar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1⁄4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1  teaspoon ground ginger
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3  large eggs, beaten lightly
• 1 (12 ounce) can  evaporated skim milk
• 1⁄2 cup skim milk

Directions

1. (To make your own freshly cooked pumpkin, quarter 1-2 small pie pumpkins, de-stem, seed and de-string them. Then steam them in a steamer over boiling water until very tender--the skin will peel right off. Then mash them using a stick blender or a food processor-hand mashing will somtimes produce lumps/strings so unless you like that, go for the stick blender/processor).
2. Preheat oven to 400°F and have ready a pie shield and a large rimmed cookie sheet.
3. Line a DEEP DISH glass pie plate with the pie pastry round, fluting the edges decoratively as desired.
4. Combine in order the pumpkin, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
5. Lightly beat eggs together with both milks, then add to the pumpkin mixture, stirring well to combine--it will be rather thin.
6. Pour as much filling as you can into unbaked pie pastry and bake at 400°F for 50 minutes (or until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out without any goo on it). If there is any extra filling use to fill a smaller mini pie plate or discard.
7. NOTE: Set cookie sheet on the rack below the rack you are setting your pie plate on in order to catch any drips.
8. If the pie edges start overbrowning, place a pie shield or a ring of foil over the edges--this will be needed or not depending on the type of pastry you use.
9. Pie should be served chilled and should be stored in the refrigerator.