Halloween means Pumpkin Pie!

My Pumpkin carving skills went down well on the other side of the pond last week and left us with the usual abundance of pumpkin flesh.

I looked up a pumpkin recipe in the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook that I'd sent my sister on her arrival to Boston this summer thinking, rather stereotypically, that she might find herself in need of a whole book

dedicated to cupcakes and 'pies'.

She is sadly been too busy with visiters and with settling my nephews into new school.

We baked the pumpkin flesh in the oven on a fairly low heat for about an hour (kind of steaming it) then mashed it into a puree (or magi-mix it)

We had 500g of pureed pumpkin and to that we added

a small tin of condensed milk 375ml

300 grams of light brown sugar

1 egg and one yolk

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

pinch of salt

Mix up in one bowl and fill your pastry cases (this should make two large flan tins lined with crumb or shortcrust pastry)

We cheated(?!) and bought a couple of pre made crumb pie casings but if you use shoert crust be sure to blind bake thoroughly as there is little worse than a pumpkin pie with soggy pastry.

We had ours in a fan assisted oven at 325c for 50 minutes. Shake the tray, if its still wobbling in the middle then they need longer in the oven.

Pumpkin Pie is rather sweet and I serve with creme fraiche to balance out sweetness.