Organic Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Organic Pumpkin Pie (from a real pumpkin no less!)

2 cups of pumpkin pulp puree from a sugar or other pumpkin*
1 1/2 cup organic heavy cream or same amount of hemp milk (hemp milk is my choice by far)
1/2 cup packed organic dark brown or raw cane sugar
1/3 cup organic white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 organic, free range, cageless eggs plus the yolk of a third egg
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
1 good crust (see recipe below)

* To make pumpkin puree from a sugar pumpkin: Start with a small-to-medium (about 2 pounds) sugar or other pumpkin. Cut out the stem and scrape out the insides. Discard the stringy, goopy parts and rinse and set aside the seeds for roasting. Cut the pumpkin into sections and steam in a saucepan, with a couple inches of water at the bottom, until soft. Scoop out the pulp from the skin. You can also bake your pumpkin whole or halved in a 350°F oven until fork-tender. If you want a super smooth pulp, you can run your cooked pumpkin through a food mill or chinois.

NOTE: I don’t bother with making extra smooth pulp. But, I do bother with real pumpkin. Start it first and it will be done by the time you assemble the rest of the ingredients and it is totally worth it!

Preheat oven to 425°F. Mix sugars, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Beat the eggs and add to the bowl. Stir in the pumpkin puree. Stir in cream/hemp milk. Whisk all together until well incorporated. Pour into pie shell and bake at 425°F for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 350°F. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours.

Isophene’s Short Pie Crust

My grandmother’s middle name was Isophene and this is her recipe. I am most definitely not a pastry baker, and was in fact utterly scared of attempting pie crusts until I was 34 and my mother assured me I could make this crust. I was also living in Costa Rica, pre-made crusts were nowhere to be found, and I had 30 coming for Thanksgiving dinner. It turned out to be really easy, and fun, and is now the only pie crust recipe I use!

2 C Flour
½ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Baking Powder
½ C Salad Oil (this is what my grandma called it.) I use soy, corn or safflower oil, but not olive as its flavor is too strong.
¼ C Water

You’ll need a pie tin and you’ll use it as your mixing bowl. Put your dry ingredients in the pie tin and mix well with your hands. Add wet ingredients and mix with your hands – remember back to your mud-pie days. This crust will not look super even, white-ish spots are fine. You want it blended, that’s all. As my mother wrote in the recipe she transcribed for me from the one she has handwritten from my grandma, “This falls apart easily. Don’t worry. It also smuches back together easily.” Once it’s mixed, start smuching it out towards the edges of the pie tin. Leave a little extra at the lip of the tin and using a pinching method make the little scalloped edges.

I have my sugar pumpkin sitting on my counter and have promised myself I’ll take the time to make it into a pie this week.

- Jocelyn Broyles

Headline image © PBrody