Easy Peasy Pumpkin Pie

Harvest is beginning in our neck of the woods, and even though temperatures are 25+ degrees, fall IS coming, so I thought I would share this harvest favourite of ours. While our 2013 pumpkins are not yet ready,  I did have some frozen pumpkin 'guts' left over from last year's garden which worked great for this recipe. If you dont process your own pumpkins, canned pumpkin works too.

This recipe is SUPER easy and the prep takes almost no time at all, but the results are phenomenal!

Recipe

Filling:
3 large eggs
15 ounces pure pumpkin puree (this worked out to 2 cups of my home-grown pumpkin)
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tb cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Optional:
Whipped Cream (who am I kidding, this isn't optional!)

Pie Shell:
I confess, I cheat on my pie shells. I purchase pre-made, frozen pie shells (Tenderflake Deep-Dish are great), which makes whipping up a pie wayyyy too easy! That's why I love this recipe so much- tastey homemade pie that only takes a few minutes of prep work.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together ingredients in a large bowl and pour into your pie shell. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until you can poke the center with a toothpick and it comes out clean. Enjoy!

This recipe will fill one deep dish pie shell to the top, or two regular pie shells 3/4 of the way.

Hint: If you are using your own processed pumpkin, I recommend you puree it before using. The first time I preserved pumpkin I just boiled large pumpkin meat chunks and then mashed them with a potato masher. This was ok for muffins, but it resulted in a stringy texture in my pies that I wasn't so fond of. Before using my pumpkin this year I put it through a food processor and the texture was smooth and much more to my liking!