I love October, Halloween, the whole damn autumnal shootin’ match. This fall Violet is old enough to get hyped up about things, and young enough to allow those things to come from her own mother. Thus, pumpkin night! See Roasted Pumpkin Seeds for more excitement!
First we made a pumpkin pie. You can tell from this video that she was sufficiently influenced by yours truly to be excited about making a pumpkin pie!
Pumpkin Pie With Whole Wheat Crust
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3 tablespoons cold water
1/4 teaspoon salt
30 oz can of pumpkin filling (okay, I didn’t make the filling from scratch)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
Put the flour and salt in the food processor and throw in tablespoons of butter, pulsing rather than mixing continually. When you reach the end of the butter, add water one tablespoon at a time and you’ll see the dough form almost immediately. Take it out and add some more flour as you begin to stretch it out.
I’m sure Violet’s dirty fingernails added some excellent flavor. Speaking of unprofessionalism, I didn’t roll the dough – I just smushed it into the sides of the pan. I don’t know why – I have a rolling pin in the drawer right underneath where this picture was taken. Anyway, it explains why my crust looked like this, all pockmarked with fingerprints.
It went into the oven at 350 degrees for about ten minutes as a ‘pre-cook’ which I’m not sure was necessary with this particular pie because it cooks a long time and the crust came out a little browner than it should have.
Meanwhile Violet mixed together the pumpkin filling, eggs and evaporated milk and stirred! Then we poured the mixture into the pie crust and baked for 15 minutes on 450 degrees, then 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
You’re supposed to let it cool for a hundred years (two hours), but we couldn’t wait for that. We let it cool as long as it takes to hand whip whipped cream when you have no electric mixer; about fifteen minutes. This process did not help my tendonitis, and now I’m wearing my brace as a type this. It also explains why there’s no picture of the whipped cream – too tired. But I have this picture to show you the finished product!
You see how the crust is a teeny bit dark (okay, charred) in one section? Maybe no pre-cook for the crust required. But the crust taste is delicious! And actually next time I think I’d use two cups of flour to make more crust. I fucking love crust.
I think that white spot is evaporated milk. Maybe it wasn’t stirred to perfection, but my stirrer was 3 years old, so when you look at it that way, it’s amazing we ate pie at all tonight!
So don’t be afraid to make your own damn pie – look how easy it is – and you don’t get that rubbery ‘I bought this at the store’ consistency!