A post for PIE!

I love pie. I particularly love Pumpkin Pie...but I know something that a lot of folks might not. Pumpkin Pie is often not actually pumpkin. Wha...wha...what??????? Yep, you heard me. Pumpkin pie is often not pumpkin. It may be a variety of winter squash varieties. Some might be pumpkin, some might not. Who knows? Let's start with the basics, shall we? Often when folks think of pumpkin they think of

These are all pumpkins but only the little tiny one should ever be used for pies, lol. That's usually the sugar pumpkin. The others are used as jack o laterns and are often too big and too flavorless to be even thought of for pie. Trouble is though, sugar pumpkins can be hard to find. That's okay. There are bunches of other things that can be used! These are Sweet Dumpling squash...

These are my favorites to use for pie. They're often easily found this time of year and are quite sweet and flavorful. They're also so very easy to cook and use, especially if you're going to "martha stewart" the pie and start from absolute scratch...which I recommend, LOL

 In the grand scheme of things, most of my favorite squash are found here:

Acorn, sweet dumpling in the back, carnival and delicata (the colorful looking cucumber thing) in the front. They generally are crosses from each other. Acorn plus delicata equals a sweet dumpling. Sweet dumpling crossed back with an acorn is a carnival. Acorn and delicata are so so in sweetness. Sweet dumpling and carnival are more sweet overall. All can be used for squash...you just might need to add more sugar in the end depending on your taste.

Now, for Sandy...a recipe!

First off...take your squash (whether sugar pumpkin, sweet dumpling, delicata, kabocha, or whatever) and cut in in half. Scoop out the guts and seeds. (I don't like them and don't use them, blech!)

Next cover the squash in oil center, cut edges, and outside skin side. I like vegetable oil myself. Put them cut side DOWN on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 375F for about an hour or until you can squeeze them from the outside and they give way and are soft. Pull them from the oven and let cool to the point you can touch them.

Next...take a spoon and scoop out the flesh of the squash into a big bowl. Try to keep OUT as much of the skin as possible or you'll just have to pick it out later.

When cool...put the cooked squash either into a food processor or put a stick blender into it and blend until smooth. Now you've got puree.

Excellent! Now heat oven to 350F and mix the following together with a deep dish frozen pie crust of your preference waiting on the side line:

2 cups squash puree
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Using a whole fresh nutmeg, grind with a rasp 15 -20 times directly into the mixing bowl.  (I have no idea how much this might be in dried nutmeg spice - I never use that, lol...just guess if that's what you're using!)

Mix it all together.  Does it taste the way you want it?  Yes...cool, cook!  If not add more sugar (brown sugar if you need more sweet as opposed to opening another can of condensed milk!) or add whatever spice you think might be missing or you might like more of.

Pull pie crust out of freezer and pour mixture in.  Drop on counter several times to get bubbles out of it.  Put pie on cookie sheet and bake on center rack or so for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the edges are fairly solid and only the center is a little jiggly.  If it's not done, keep cooking and check it every 10 minutes or so until it is.

Pull from oven and let cool completely before cutting into it.

You can actually use any squash you like:

Kabocha or buttercup:

Blue hubbard:

Turban:

whatever.  I've personally used sweet dumpling, sugar pumpkins, blue hubbards, and kabocha.  I find they all taste lovely though I prefer the dumplings, pumpkins or hubbards if I can find them.  I also find that once you add the spices, they all taste pretty much like "pumpkin" pie.  Use what you can find and just spice it to your general liking.  No one will ever know the difference!