Pumpkin Pie

Autumn and pumpkin pie go so well together. The colours of Autumn are reflected in the rich brown and orange. The smell is just a tiny bit Christmasy which gets me childishly excited. And warm pie on a cold wet evenings is just heaven!

So here is my recipe.

Sweet Short Crust Pastry

You could buy pastry if you want but since this blog is about making something yourself I really think you should give it a go. The secret to all pastry is keeping everything cold and taking your time. You need to make this at least an hour before you intend to bake it as you leave it in the fridge to get cold again.

500g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
225g butter (cold straight from the fridge)
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs

1. Sift the flour salt and sugar together into a bowl.
2. Cut the butter into small chunks and add to your flour.
3. Either blitz in a food processor or mix in a normal mixer until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. (Hint: if you put a tea towel over your mixer it will stop flour going everywhere)
4. Keep mixing and add your eggs, the mixture will turn into pastry really quickly.
5. Put in a sandwich bag or sealed container and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to an hour. This makes sure the butter stays solid so when you bake it the pastry gets nice a crisp.
6. Grease your pie dish (the recipe will make a 25-30cm wide pie) and pre-heat the oven to 190c.
7. Roll out to about 1cm thick and gently place in your greased pie dish. Make sure you squish the pastry into all the edges and then get some anger out stabbing holes at regular intervals to stop air bubbles.
8. Put the pie dish and pastry back in the fridge for about 10 minutes. This way when you bake it blind you don't have to mess around with paper and beans to keep it flat.
9. Bake for 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

450g Pumpkin Flesh
125g Dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 large eggs
150ml cream

1. Boil the pumpkin until it is tender, drain and either mash or blend.
2. Once the pumpkin is cooled mix all the other ingredients together and add them to the pumpkin.


Now gently tip your filling into the pie casing and bake at 190c for around 40- 45 minutes.

And here is the one I made earlier! The decoration is some cute mushroom shaped marshmallow sweets I found which I think add to the Autumnal feel :-D

Notice how it is not perfect? How the edges are slightly over the pastry and the colour is slightly different on one side? That's because it's home-made! Never ever feel that what you create has to look like something out of a box or magazine, it's yours and that makes it perfect!