I couldn’t cook with a pumpkin and not try a pumpkin pie.
If I really wanted to be scientific, I would have used the recipe on the back of the Libby’s Pumpkin I found an old recipe in the Kitsap Sun archives for a pumpkin pie made with ice cream (recipe written out below):
One snag I hit with the pumpkin was that it was pretty hard raw, and I missed some of the stringy pulp. I scooped it out a little after it was baked, but I still found strings when I mashed it. To try and fix it (and maybe this shows what a novice I am), I smooshed it through a sieve.
The recipe called for solid-pack pumpkin, so do reduce the moisture of pure mashed pumpkin, I lined the sieve with cheesecloth and let the mashed pulp sit for about an hour so extra water drained out.
Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups (15-ounce can) solid pack pumpkin
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 pints (3 cups) vanilla ice cream
2 unbaked 9-inch frozen pie shells (not deep dish)
Preheat oven to 425 F. Remove ice cream from freezer and place near warm oven to soften.
In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs slightly.
Stir in pumpkin. Stir in sugar, salt and pumpkin pie spice. If ice cream is still hard, place ice cream in microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds on high setting.
Add ice cream to pumpkin mixture and stir until ice cream is fully melted and batter is smooth. Pour into prepared pie shells.
Bake pies at 425 F for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 F and bake for an additional 30 minutes.
Cool on wire racks for 2 hours and chill before serving.
I had to cook the pie an 20 additional minutes so it wasn’t too mushy. The resulting pie was silky and creamy, and the Galeaux D’Eysine lended a subtle pumkin flavor, not at all squashy-tasting.
It gave me confidence to go try out some new recipes before Thanksgiving. Please send me any recipe suggestions you have, and I’ll compile them for another pumpkin pie-flavored post before the holiday.
