Welcome Fall... with some pumpkin pie!

So last Thanksgiving my lovely co-worker Pat gave me some pumpkin puree that she made from her home-grown pumpkin. This year she didn't grow any pumpkins so I had to do it on my own. I figured that I would do a trial pie before thanksgiving so that I had the time to work out any kinks. I also thought it would be cool to take pictures of the process. So here they come. Hope you enjoy!

First you have to buy a pumpkin (I bought mine from Trader Joes) and cut it in half.


Next you have to get all the seeds out along with the stringy insides.


This is what it looks like when it is ready to go into the oven.


I had to cut the pumpkin into quarters to fit them into my pans...



Add 1 Cup of water to each pan and bake for 90 minutes at 350


Once the pumpkin was baking I made the dough. It was a really good sweet recipe that I found online. I totally reccomend it. My parents said it tasted like gingersnaps.


Then I let the dough cool in the fridge...


This is what the pumpkin looks like when it is done baking


Then you have to take the pumpkin out of the pan and scrape out the soft insides. I used tongs to transport them onto my cutting board and I had the blender close to avoid spills. I used a big fork to hold the pumpkin while I scraped it. It comes off really easy.


So I set my blender on puree and it did it perfectly! It kind of looked like baby food. The one pumpkin made two blenders full of the puree. Now I will have enough to freeze for Thanksgiving!


So then I took the 1.5 cups of puree and heated it with .5 cups of brown sugar for about 20 minutes. Once it was thickened I took it off of the heat and added in the milks and spices.


So then once I wisked the filling and rolled out my dough I poured the filling into my pan. Then I got to use my cute cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma. They are super cute!


I decided to put the leaves around the entire pie. Next time I may just have to cover the entire top... It would look so pretty!


I had to be super careful.. a few little leaves fell into the filling and drowned.


Ready to go into the oven for about an hour...


It turned out so pretty! I am so proud.


I brought the pie over to my parents house (Bonus: The car smelled awesome on the way to Anaheim Hills!)and everyone loved it! This was my piece. I enjoyed every bite! It was so tastey! It was a really yummy dinner too. We had tri-tip, roasted potatoes and veggies. My mom had the house all decorated for fall and it looked beautiful. The table was all decked out and she even lit candles! It was a beautiful dinner and a success because everyone enjoyed it all!

I can't wait for thanksgiving! I always get together with my sisters and my mom to bake pies the night before thanksgiving. It will be super fun this year now that I know how to bake well and I have found some cool new recipes and tricks!