pumpkin pie from a can - for *you*
The winter season can bring short dark days and chilly drafts that get up under your clothes and prickle down your spine. Your plants might have lost leaves or died back and been pulled up or maybe are rotting place in some mix of frost and freezes and rain and mist and sleet and…other winter weathers. It can get more difficult or even more dangerous to exercise for a few months – I chipped something in my elbow while going for a run in a blizzard some number of years ago and it still aches when the temp drops below freezing. Fresh fruits and veggies become more expensive, you can’t snack from your garden while walking past, it is dark and chilly and difficult to get out of bed, the slugs all hide and the soil spirits can feel far far away, the whole planet is basically telling you to slow down, let the unnecessary parts die back, conserve your resources and sustain only that most authentic bit that remains when everything optional is frozen out. Make sure that your fertile sparks of life are safe and protected (wall them up! and save that magic for later) and then just prepare for a time of external discomfort while just about everything turns inward to rest and heal and quietly be refined and concentrated and grown into something new and vibrant with a tiny starlight brighter than fire. As winter starts to shift to spring that vibrancy becomes stronger, even the oldest of old dogs can feel those pure randy vigorous sparks just before spring, just one shake away from bursting out of the dirt. But we aren’t there yet. Right now all that feels far far away, it is supposed to feel far away so that we give in to what is happening now, to conserving and pulling in and cutting back everything unnecessary, everything dead. Such a sneaky yet insistent way of quietly distilling us down to our most important parts, year after year.
There are billions of wonderful things about winter, it is tough for me to even write this gloomy introduction because my heart keeps saying wait! Cozy and content and muffled peace and joyful loved ones and sparkling snow and ice and lights and frost and eyes and noses and YES! I know! Winter is wonderful too, humans are really good at enjoying it but STOP. I’m trying to make a point here. Sometimes all the good feels distant and the dying back process starts to hurt. That is when strong capable adult Cere turns to the pumpkin pie train. Any other season and quesadillas (with pico de gallo?) are my comfort food. Refried beans in a can are what I eat when I can’t patch together a single thought beyond ‘is food?'. But pumpkin pie, sweet spicy pumpkin pie, when winter turns dark and cold, or when it is full of love and fellowship, either way I’m jumping on the pumpkin pie train as soon as possible. I have tried countless special homemade pumpkin pies, numerous variations on the pumpkin pie spice blend, when cooking one from store pumpkins didn’t taste right I even tried growing my own damn pumpkins from seed to nurture and water and fertilize and raise and then cut and roast and stir stir stir into a pie mix. I love starting from scratch, but nothing ever turns out as good (to me) as the recipe on the side of the can. I’m posting it here (single pie quantities) to invite you to the pieabration and to save it in case they ever change the recipe, but I have spent enough time trying to improve on the recipe and tasting failure. This is the pie that I turn to when I am gonna winter-comfort-eat, or winter-celebrate-eat, or winter-day-that-ends-in-y-eat. Please enjoy, and credit Libby Canned Pumpkin (I hope they are an ethical company, I don’t know anything about them. Except that the pumpkin mix is not all pumpkin!! Its ok, I’m not always ‘as advertised’ either. Maybe next year I’ll grow some butternuts (heh) from seed to smash into pie.
Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie (8 servings is a lie, it is 3. You get 3 servings. Take your time. Until you finish that 1/3 pie, this is your time. Rest your face muscles and shake out your cheeks, let down your guard and start crying, put on your fuzzies and call your mom/aunt/sister/bff, stretch forward so your winter belly fits nicely between your legs, do whatever you need to do, this is your pietime.
- ¾ c sugar (I use 1 or 2 tbsp less)
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger (don’t use fresh ginger. That makes it a different pie. And I don’t know how much ginger to recommend
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 2 large eggs
- 1 can (15 oz) Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin (Libby, your definition of ‘pumpkin’ is pretty loose but like I said, I’m loose about stuff sometimes too so its ok. Ha got you now we are bffs.)
- 1 can evaporated milk (I don’t think the brand matters, but the recipe says to use Carnation. I think they were part of that don’t-brestfeed-use-formula-starve-your-babies conspiracy thing. Oh daang, that was Nestle. So Libby did it too. sales reps dressed as nurses! Guess I should plan for growing some butternuts and stuff.)
- 1 unbaked frozen 9-inch deep-dish pie shell (10inch would be perfect, if they existed.
Preheat oven to 400
Bake the pie crust for 10(ish) minutes. If it has bubbled up then press down the bubbles with a clean dishtowel, flaky is good, but you need room for pie. It should *not* look baked, it should look almost waxy and translucent.
Change oven temp to 425
Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in a small bowl
Beat eggs in a large bowl (you know the drill, a nice fluffy milky yellow with bubbles on top, but nothing even close to peaks, we’re not making mayonnaise here)
Stir the pumpkin and the sugar-spice mixture into the eggs. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. It doesn’t have flour, so I don’t think you can over-stir it, but it is nice to keep a little egg fluffiness in somehow. Maybe it would be better if you fold the eggs in last? You’re welcome to go against Libby if you want, but…not-it)
Pour into pie shell. It will be too much. Put the pie shell on a cookie sheet to protect your oven. Pop some cupcake papers into a cupcake pan, grease or oil-spray them, and pour the rest of the mixure into 2 or 3 of those suckers. You are such a nice person, thinking about your gluten-free friends while making comfort foods (Oh, except spray-pam might have flour in it, check for that it if they are actually celiac)
Gently place the stuff in the oven, continuing to not spill just like you did not spill while putting the pie on the cookie sheet.
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.
DON’T OPEN THE OVEN.
After 15 min at 425, just turn the temperature down to 350 and set the timer for 40-50 min.
Actually bake until a knife in the center comes out clean. I probably do an extra 10 min every time. But the cupcaske ones are usually a little overcooked by now.
Do not substitute pumpkin pie spice, it will not taste as good.
Do not freeze the pie (ok I do this sometimes, it is worth it but the warning is honest) the crust will separate from the filling.
I refrigerate after baking and cooling to room temperature, my family did not. eggs...
Some other day I’ll tell you about my keep-you-regular muffins pumpkin edition, and maybe about the plant itself. But for now, get out your fuzzies, that 1/3 of a pie needs your full attention, for as long as it takes. :)
