The Perfect Pumpkin Pie - Chowhound recipe

The most devastating thing happened to me earlier this week. Aaron and co are here from Queensland for Easter and he has been at me the whole time they have been away about how I better make him a pumpkin pie the minute they arrive. Obviously it made sense to make one for Good Friday seeing as Donna loves it too and all the family would be there.

Since I began making pumpkin pie many years ago, I have always used the same recipe, the "Perfect Pumpkin Pie" recipe from Chowhound. I, of course, thought I had the recipe saved somewhere, but I was rudely awakened to the fact that I did not, when I went to their website the day before to make it. The site that has been closed down after 25 years. Suddenly, just days before I needed the recipe again.

Now, I have truly made this pie dozens of times. I sell them every Thanksgiving and sometimes in between, but did I have the recipe written down, printed, saved, other than the link? No I did not. Cue panic.

After hours of attempting multiple ways to get it (or remember it perfectly, which to be honest I was too frightened to do, what if I got the number of eggs wrong or something?!), I finally came across a tutorial of someone making it on YouTube here, so I watched it and thankfully she not only showed it step by step - all the measurements were shown on screen. I won the recipe lottery today! The Chowhound Perfect Pumpkin Pie recipe will live to see another season, at my hand. To the people at Chowhound, thank you for giving me what truly is - The PERFECT Pumpkin Pie recipe. I will cherish it for always.

THE PERFECT PUMPKIN PIE 

Crust:

113g Butter

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1 1/3 Cups plain flour

Filling:

1 Can 425g pumpkin puree

1 Can 397g condensed milk

2 Eggs

1 Teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 Teaspoon salt

1/8 Teaspoon ground cloves

Crust:

1. Melt butter and cool slightly, before adding oil, sugar, then salt. 

2. Mix together until well combined, then add flour and stir until a soft dough is formed.

3. Scatter the dough into a deep pie dish (or I use a tart dish with a removable base) and press the  dough into the base and up the sides until neatly in place. 

4. Use the bottom of a measuring cup to press the dough flat and smooth. 

5. Cover and place in the fridge for 1/2 an hour, while making the filling, at this stage, preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius (fan forced).

Filling:

1. Whisk together all filling ingredients until smooth.

2. Pour into the cooled base and bake for 50-60mins. 

3. When the pie is cooked, it will puff up and be slightly brown on top. The base will be firm, with a little jiggle in the centre. 

Serve with fresh whipped, or canned spray cream if you want it the real American way hahaha.

Honestly I am so grateful to have found this recipe. Never letting it go! 

Thanks for the memories Chowhound! ❤

thanksgiving - it's pie time

thanksgiving is done and dusted for another year and as i have for the last two years, i put my pies up for sale in the lead up. it never ceases to amaze me that people want to buy them, but this year i managed to sell twelve pumpkin and five banoffee pies! including a mini banoffee for my friend hayley who is stuck in a house with no one else who likes banoffee... poor girl

and by request - a gluten free pumpkin pie! i must admit, it made me incredibly nervous as i didn't know how well it would come out, but although the base is a lot lighter than usual, it looks great and didn't crumble. i'd say that's a win. i can't wait to hear back on how it tasted.

well, the production line can be shelved until next year. i did it! maybe one day i can bake to make money more than once a year, but only time will tell. let's see how we go haha

it's pie time!

pie season is over for me for another year - busting last years number out of the park, with 13 pumpkin pies - then another 4 banoffee pies on top of that.

i loved making them and was sure to spread it over a few days to be sure it was going to stress me out - it was perfect, with 4 being the most i did in one day.

i also was super lucky, with friends who tipped me off that costco had the double sized cans of pumpkin cheap, so i have already stocked up for next year!

pies were yet again a success and i am so glad for the push i was given last year to actually bake to sell them, as it's been amazing for me! who would have though people would pay for my cooking?!

the banoffees were a hit too, even as a last minute addition, i only advertised pumpkin like i had last year, then had people message asking if they could buy banoffee, so i decided to do those as well. winning!

they are definitely my favourite! they look and taste incredible, just like something you'd get from a fancy bakery.

seriously! looks so nice...

and i'm more than just a little bit proud of my creations. thank you to everyone that bought my pies! doug will love you come christmas now that i can afford to buy him something wonderful. 

pumpkin pies for sale!

we had a relief society activity in august, with a harry potter theme and i was asked to make some pumpkin pies so we could have one on each house table. i got so many compliments on the evening and had a lot of people ask me after that if i had plans to make them again, so in the end i thought i would see how it would go if i tried selling them!

i took a deep breath, wrote up a little spiel and posted it on facebook... only to sell the entire lot that evening. all twelve of them. i was so, so stoked! i actually couldn't believe it, yet here we are!

i posted them to be available on thanksgiving, to be delivered the day before or the day of, thankfully people wanted them at different times (including some for sunday, to be delivered before church) so i only had to bake them four at a time. with super cool pizza boxes and pumpkin stickers from ebay, they looked pretty pro - and i have had some wonderful feedback. i am so happy! i really enjoyed doing them and feel certain another round next year could be a go.

the one and only piece i had - it was delicious, but i really wasn't hungry for pumpkin pie after making 13 of them! (one for our family thanksgiving!)

here's what i hope will be another successful year next year! 

vegan pumpkin pie

a recipe as promised, for grace's birthday dinner a few weeks ago, i made vegan pumpkin pie. my oldest niece is a vegan (and has been for the last few years... very impressive!) and when she kindly brought me back some canned pumpkin from the u.s., i decided it was only fair to ensure she had the change to enjoy pie with me!

the first issue i ran into was the fact that pumpkin pie requires condensed milk... which is, of course, milk. so i did some googling and discovered that there is a way to make condensed milk, without dairy. enter coconut condensed milk! i found the recipe here and made the honey version... perfect!

then a slightly modified version of my favourite pumpkin pie recipe from chowhound, replacing the butter with nuttelex and the egg with an egg substitute. the only issue was, that i had to cook it for a whole lot longer, i think it ended up being another half an hour from memory!

so. the verdict. it was not terrible. it was perfectly edible and my niece thought it was amazing and ate a huggggge piece. i also liked it fine, but i must admit, the crust wasn't as good as it is with butter and i missed the creaminess that comes from the milk in the filling. but it was good! and i would definitely make it again if she asked. so. if you're a vegan but not so into raw options, give it a go!