Honey Pumpkin Pie ♥

Yum! Homemade pumpkin pie, sweetened with honey. Soft and smooth and dreamy good. Make this with either canned pumpkin or roasted fresh pumpkin.

~recipe & photo updated 2010~

2007: "If I were a guy, I'd only eat pie.
Oh my, oh sigh, please feed me pie." Okay, so it's awful poetry, but the pie? It's completely dreamy.

I made this pie twice, once with fresh pumpkin (and burned the crust so no photo) and then again with canned pumpkin. Which is better? Well, you'll have to decide because it depends.

FRESH PUMPKIN The fresh pumpkin made a pie sweetly pale in color and subtly delicate in flavor. It's the 'foodie' choice for people who are curious about food and welcome adaptation -- and it's my personal pick, forever and ever. (Plus, I getting requests from the taste tasters, "So when are you going to make another pumpkin pie?")

CANNED PUMPKIN But pie made with canned pumpkin looked and tasted exactly like we've been trained to know as pumpkin pie. It's the 'safe' choice for people who are saddled with tradition and only eat what they know.

The honey is wonderful as the sweetener, too, adding an edgy complexity to the pumpkin custard. I'll be making this pie again on Thanksgiving, it's just lovely.

2010: I just love it when recipes stand up to the test of time! This is a lovely pumpkin pie, sweetened so gently with honey. I used canned pumpkin again, gosh it's convenient. But I'm off to buy a pie pumpkin, this deserves another life with roasted pumpkin!

HONEY PUMPKIN PIE

Hands-on time: 20 minutes (not including pastry)
Time to table: 4 hours
Serves 8

Unbaked pie shell (see TIPS)

FILLING MIXTURE
2 cups fresh roasted (or otherwise cooked) pumpkin, puréed until very smooth in a food processor
~ or ~
2 cups (1 15 ounce can or 425g) pumpkin puree

4 large eggs (see TIPS)
1/2 cup (152g) honey (the inspiring recipe called for 1 cup but I think 1/2 is perfect)
1/2 cup (115g) whole milk
1/2 cup (119g) heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 375F.

[If you've puréed the roasted pumpkin in the food processor, you can continue to use it for mixing. Just throw all the remaining ingredients in and whizz a few times.]

Otherwise -- in a large bowl, beat the eggs until just mixed with an electric mixer (a good whisk works just fine, too). Add all the remaining ingredients and beat til smooth.

Pour carefully into the unbaked pastry and then carefully lift into the oven. (The filling is sloshy so can run up the sides which doesn't hurt much but doesn't look as pretty after baking.) Bake for 45 minutes or until the center is just set. It will firm up while cooling.

TO PREP AHEAD
SEVERAL DAYS AHEAD Roast the pumpkin (here's how to roast a whole pumpkin) if you choose fresh pumpkin
DAY BEFORE or MORNING OF Mix the pastry and refrigerate the pie crust dough.
MORNING OF Mix the filling, roll the pastry and bake the pie. I especially like the custard chilled so once the pie has cooled, refrigerate it if you can. I know people make their pies the day before but I think the pastry suffers and if it's good pastry, you don't want to mar it.

LEFTOVER REPORT The custard is dreamy, even a few days later.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
For the crust, use your favorite crust recipe or try mine, which gets rave reviews from both new pastry makers and experience pie bakers, see all the tips for how to make a Flaky Tender Pie Crust. I also have great luck with a few improvements to refrigerated pie crusts.
Be sure to buy a pie pumpkin (good ones can be sugar pie pumpkins, kabocha, hubbards and one I keep hearing about but haven't found yet, a cheese pumpkin), not one for jack o'lanterns or decoration.
After roasting the pumpkin, drain the roasted flesh in a strainer. If it's full of water that drains out, taste it. Is it any good? If it's bland and watery, I'd use canned pumpkin instead.
If you can't find a pie pumpkin, use a roasted butternut squash.
If you go for the canned version, be sure to buy pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling which has already been spiced and etc.
I've given the weights for all the ingredients, even the liquid ones. This is because it's so easy to mix up the filling mixture using a kitchen scale without need for measuring cups. Just put the mixing bowl on the scale, hit the tare button to revert to zero, add the first ingredient, hit the tare button to revert to zero, and so on. Easy!
This recipe is for a deep-dish pie pan, one that holds a full six cups of filling. If yours is shallower, adjust accordingly -- or better yet, put extra custard into custard cups and put into a hot water bath in the oven while the pie bakes. (My recipe for pumpkin pudding shows how to cook with a hot water bath.)
How many eggs? The first time I made this pie, I had only three eggs, that worked fine. The most recent time I made the pie, I had only two eggs and while it will do in a pinch, the custard was especially soft, more pudding-like than pie consistency. How I've been short on eggs -- which never happens around here -- twice for this one pie is a puzzle.
2010: Watch the timing on this pie, you don't want to underbake it. In fact, the next time I make this pie, I'm going to pre-bake the crust for a few minutes before adding the pumpkin filling -- or better yet, put the pie on the bottom shelf for baking, this puts relatively more heat on the bottom crust, leaves the top edge with relatively less.

INSPIRATION
The recipe comes from Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook which was published in 1965 and is out of print. Used copies are available and so popular that some editions are priced $40 - $60! This is the one cookbook I carry when I visit my dad and am expected -- based on tradition -- to make a pie every day so he can invite friends for pie and coffee in the evening. More than one guest has been known to put in an 'order' for a favorite pie months in advance. FUNNY STORY: Flipping through the pages, every once in awhile I'll find a note penciled in my dad's handwriting, "Make this." It makes me laugh, knowing he also flips through the pages, thinking, "Please feed me pie".

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Filling only, Per Serving: 164 Cal (33% from Fat, 12% from Protein, 55% from Carb); 5 g Protein; 6 g Tot Fat; 3 g Sat Fat; 2 g Mono Fat; 24 g Carb; 2 g Fiber; NetCarb22; 20 g Sugar; 57 mg Calcium; 2 mg Iron; 348 mg Sodium; 134 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 3 points

With a crust made with 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon table salt, 2 ounces Plugra, 2 ounces Crisco, Per Serving: 340 Cal (49% from Fat, 8% from Protein, 43% from Carb); 7 g Protein; 19 g Tot Fat; 8 g Sat Fat; 5 g Mono Fat; 37 g Carb; 2 g Fiber; NetCarb35; 22 g Sugar; 59 mg Calcium; 2 mg Iron; 349 mg Sodium; 150 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers 7 points

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MORE IDEAS for THANKSGIVING RECIPES using PUMPKIN

~ pumpkin muffins ~
~ pumpkin bars ~
~ pumpkin truffles ~
~ more pumpkin recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Pumpkin Pecan Pie ~
~ Apple-Butter Pumpkin Pie ~
~ Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars ~
~ more pumpkin recipes ~
~ more pie recipes ~
~ more Thanksgiving recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

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