Pumpkin Pie

It's not truly fall until I've made a pumpkin pie. This year I used my basic dough recipe (below) for the crust and for the filling I used the recipe that was on the canned pumpkin. I figured that if they canned the pumpkin, they probably had a good way to cook the pumpkin too. I used a Libby's can and posted the recipe below.

Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients:

Ingredients
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) Evaporated Milk
1 recipe pie dough
Whipped cream (optional)

Directions:

1. Make Pie dough and allow to rest in the fridge while you prepare the filling. Recipe below.

2. Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

3. Butter a pie pan and set aside. Flour a work board and roll out the pie dough until it is about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. You want to make the crust as even as possible. Poke holes with a fork all over the bottom of the crust once its in the pie pan. To make the pie look extra fancy you can crimp the edges of the pie with the fork.

4. Pour pumpkin mixture into pie shell.

5. Bake in a preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.


Basic Pie Dough:
Tips: make sure butter is ice cold and don't be afraid to leave it in largish chunks. This will make the crust extra tender. Don't over mix it. When the dough is just coming together, ball it up and refridgerate it.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon fine salt
7 tablespoons cold butter, diced
3-8 TBS, cold water

Directions:

1. To Make the dough by hand. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Using your fingers, work the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles yellow corn meal mixed with bean sized bits of butter. (If the flour/butter mixture gets warm, refrigerate it for 10 minutes before proceeding.)

2. Sprinkle up to 8 tablespoons of cold water over the mixture. Add water 1 tbs at a time to mixture until you can squeeze dough and it stays formed. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour until dough has had time to hydrate and rest.