The Easiest Pumpkin Pie Ever

It has been nearly 24 hours since the Mad Men season finale.  If you don't watch Mad Men, you may not understand.  And if you don't watch Mad Men, I suggest you get thee to Netflix and start watching.  You are missing out.

Now that the season is over, I'm pondering what in the world I'm going to do with myself on Sundays.  I have spent my Sundays for the past 3 months feeding myself caffeine to stay awake from 10pm until 11pm so I can watch the entire episode.  I can't possibly wait until Monday to watch it on TiVo (even though I record it anyway--just in case).

I suppose since I have all of this time on my hands, I might as well bake.  Doesn't that seem like the obvious thing for a food blogger to do?  It seems that way to me.  So I did.  I baked.  Already.  Less than 24 hours after the finale--it's not even Sunday yet!   

:sigh:

It's going to be a long year until the next season...

I picked up a "pie" pumpkin at the grocery.  I think it was a sugar pumpkin, but it's possible the store was tricking me and just selling me a small, regular pumpkin.  And then I'm not sure it really matters.  Any thoughts on pumpkin selection?

I baked the pumpkin the same way I baked the butternut squash, using the method that I saw on Annie's Eats, and after it cooled I pureed and strained it.  I got quite a bit of liquid out of the pumpkin puree and then I cooked it over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly (notice my penchant for things that require a lot of stirring?), until most of the liquid was cooked out. 

Then, I made the easiest pumpkin pie ever.  I'm not kidding--ridiculously easy.  I cheated a little and used store bought pie crust that didn't require any pre-baking, but it was still--even if I had made my own crust--the easiest pumpkin pie ever.

I mixed all of the filling ingredients, poured it into the pie shells, baked, cooled, sliced, and ate it.  And that was it.

I highly suggest you make this.  It will be the perfect thing to quell your Mad Men withdrawal--or any reason you might want some pie!

The Easiest Pumpkin Pie Ever
adapted from Gourmet, November 1999
8 slices per pie

Don't feel pressure to make your own pumpkin puree.  It was just something I wanted to try out.  If you decide to make your own, you will probably need 2 or 3 small pie pumpkins.  But if you don't want to go to the trouble, canned pumpkin will do just fine!  Also, the original recipe called for whole milk but I used skim and I couldn't tell that anything was missing.  Lastly, the original recipe is for 1 pumpkin pie, but my pie crusts were shallow so the filling made 2 well-filled pumpkin pies. 

Ingredients
1 deep or 2 shallow pie crusts
15 oz can of pumpkin puree or 2 cups homemade pumpkin puree
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
3/4 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt
whipped cream for topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients together.  Pour into prepared pie crusts.  Bake in middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes.  Check done-ness.  If the center still jiggles slightly, that is okay because as the pie cools, the filling will cook a little bit more and set up.  But if you feel like it is not quite finished cooking, allow to cook for 2-3 more minutes. 

Cool completely on a wire rack.  Serve room temperature or cold with whipped cream.