Perfect Pumpkin Pie

As I'm full into the fall spirit, I wanted to make a pumpkin pie. So I did! It was delicious, and not too sweet. I like being able to taste the pumpkin! It annoys me when people dump tons of spices into the tasty pumpkin. I decided on the recipe from The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, Scribner 1998, page 198.

Again, I used the pie crust recipe that I learned in one of the classes I took with Leslie of Helen's Kitchen. I don't feel right sharing the recipe, but there are lots of good pie crust recipes out there! The good ones are surprisingly simple. I will say that the one of the tricks is that you have to keep the butter super cold, and don't process the dough too much. You should be able to see slivers of cold butter in your dough when you're done. When these slivers melts in the oven, it creates the flakiness. Yuum.

With my disclaimer out of the way, on to the pie!

1 pie crust recipe, rolled 1/4 inch thick

Drape over 9 inch glass pie pan, folding the overhanging crust under to make the walls of the pie crust thicker than the bottom.

4 (2-inch) gingersnaps
1/4 pecan halves

1 (15 ounce) can of unsweetened pumpkin puree (no added spices - the only ingredient should be pumpkin)
3/4 cup of light brown sugar, packed (author makes a note not to substitute dark brown sugar - will mask the flavor of the pumpkin)
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 liquid cup milk
2/3 liquid cup heavy cream (make sure to read the ingredients of the cream, and if there is more than the one ingredient of cream, don't buy it and check a different brand)
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Process the gingersnaps and pecans in a food processor until finely ground. Sprinkle over uncooked pie dough (in the pie pan) and press into dough with the back of a spoon.

In a medium saucepan, stir the pumpkin, spices, brown sugar and salt together and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn down heat to low and let cook for another 5 minutes (stirring constantly the whole time).

Scrape mixture into food processor and process for 1 minute. With the motor on, add milk and heavy cream. Add eggs one at a time, process for 5 seconds after each egg. With the 3rd egg, add the vanilla.

Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell and place on a cookie sheet as close to the bottom of the oven as you can. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until knife comes out mostly clean. Keep an eye on your pie and if the edges of the pie crust are getting too brown, cover with a ring of aluminum foil (just the outside, the center of the pie should be exposed).

I had some extra pie crust, so I rolled it out and cut out shapes (a leaf and a few pumpkins, to be exact) to put on top of my pie. I was a little overly excited to feed Doug some pie (after it cooled, of course) and I completely forgot to take a picture before I cut into it. Oh well, here is the pie - minus 1 slice!