Pumpkin Pie Season
Nov. 13th, 2021 03:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ermingardenIn the past two(ish) weeks, I've made eight pumpkin pies. This is intimately related to the fact that I have slightly less than a month before the start of exams. Hooray for stress baking! At least my roommates are reaping the benefits.
Baking – as well as crochet, which I've also been doing a decent amount of – is really good for my mental health. Law school is largely intangible: You spend your time studying, and what you have to show for it is...an interior sense that you understand an abstract concept better. Or you work on a paper, and then you've produced...some words on a computer screen. But you spend time baking, and at the end of it you have a pie! It's right there, and you made it!
I usually make my own crust when I bake pies, but I've been taking the lazy student route and using store-bought frozen crusts. The filling is just your standard pumpkin pie recipe:
For one pie:
- 1 can pumpkin (Edit: If you're interested in trying using fresh pumpkin, seeatamascolily's comment below!)
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- about 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves (You can also substitute allspice for cloves, or use whatever other spices you prefer.)
Mix well, pour into crust, and bake for 15 minutes at 425°F (220°C), then reduce heat to 350°F (175°C) and bake an additional 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out (mostly) clean.
(When using a homemade crust, you'll have to blind bake your crust before pouring in the pumpkin filling.)
Baking – as well as crochet, which I've also been doing a decent amount of – is really good for my mental health. Law school is largely intangible: You spend your time studying, and what you have to show for it is...an interior sense that you understand an abstract concept better. Or you work on a paper, and then you've produced...some words on a computer screen. But you spend time baking, and at the end of it you have a pie! It's right there, and you made it!
I usually make my own crust when I bake pies, but I've been taking the lazy student route and using store-bought frozen crusts. The filling is just your standard pumpkin pie recipe:
For one pie:
- 1 can pumpkin (Edit: If you're interested in trying using fresh pumpkin, see
atamascolily's comment below!) - 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- about 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves (You can also substitute allspice for cloves, or use whatever other spices you prefer.)
Mix well, pour into crust, and bake for 15 minutes at 425°F (220°C), then reduce heat to 350°F (175°C) and bake an additional 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out (mostly) clean.
(When using a homemade crust, you'll have to blind bake your crust before pouring in the pumpkin filling.)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-11-13 11:49 pm (UTC)You can also get around the watery problem by squeezing the liquid out of the squash flesh before you freeze it (I do this with some of my moschatas because they are very juicy!), or by tweaking the recipe to accommodate them--basically, you need more thickener to hold it together. Custard is more forgiving in this realm that the classic pie because you don't have to worry about it staying in the crust; it takes the shape of its container.