Delicious Pumpkin Pie Recipes

An integral part of the Halloween and a symbol of the harvest festival, pumpkins are a rich source of fibre and vitamins. A pumpkin pie dessert is a traditional North American sweet dish that is prepared during thanksgiving and Christmas in almost every American household.

If your preparations for the forthcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas have begun, you must also be pondering over choosing the best pumpkin pie dessert to make your holiday season truly special.

Here you would find an assortment of the best pumpkin pie recipes, fresh pumpkin pie recipes, pumpkin pie dessert recipes and homemade pumpkin pie recipes.

To begin with, you may try the following pumpkin pie recipe; a standard and simple recipe for all occasions.

• Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 30 minutes standing
• Total cooking time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Serves 8
• Ingredients: 1 1/4th cups of plain flour
• 100g butter
• 2 teaspoons caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons chilled water
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten, mixed with 1 tablespoon milk for glazing

Filling

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• ¾ cup soft brown sugar
• 500g pumpkin cooked, mashed and cooled
• 1/3 cup cream
• 1 tablespoon sweet sherry
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

How to make the pie?

• Sift the flour into a large bowl and add chopped butter. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour for 2 minutes or until the mixture is fine and crumbly. Stir in the caster sugar. Add almost all the liquid and mix to a firm dough, adding more liquid if necessary.
• Roll out the pastry, on a sheet of baking paper, until it is large enough to cover the base and side of a 23 cm diameter pie dish. Line the dish with pastry, trim away excess and crimp the edges. Roll out the pastry trimmings to a thickness of 2mm. Using sharp knife, cut out the leaf shapes of different sizes. Score vein markings onto the leaves. Refrigerate the  pastry lined dish and the leaf shapes for about 20 minutes
• Cut a sheet of greaseproof paper to cover the pastry lined dish. Spread a layer of dried beans or rice over the paper. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and discard paper and beans or rice. Return the pastry to oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown. In the meantime, place the leaves on an oven tray lined with baking paper, brush with egg glaze and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool.
• To make the filling, pre heat the oven to moderate 180C . Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Add the cooled pumpkin, cream, sweet sherry and spices and stir to combine thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the pastry shell, smooth the surface with the back of a spoon and bake for 40 minutes or until set. If the pastry edge begins to brown too much during cooking, cover the edge with foil.

Allow the pie to cool to room temperature and place the leaves on top of the filling. Serve with cream or ice cream, if desired.