Carving pumpkin into pie

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As a kid, I didn’t understand where pumpkin pie came from. My best guess was that it was somehow made from the goopy insides we scooped out while getting ready to carve jack-o’-lanterns. I thought of the outside as kind of a hard shell and was surprised to learn that (minus the peel) is actually the edible part. It seemed like magic, and I knew I had to try it one day.

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Fast forward to November a couple years ago when I finally gave it a try.

I started with the wrong kind of pumpkin. At least that’s what people kept telling me. This giant orange carving pumpkin came with our CSA box. Even though I knew it wasn’t a pie pumpkin, that’s what I had, and I wanted to make it work. A little internet research made me think it could be done, so I gave it a shot.

I scooped seeds, cut the squash into pieces, and baked it. Phillip helped me remove the peel.

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One of the downsides of a carving/non-pie pumpkin is they tend to be more watery. The fix is letting the baked pumpkin set for awhile and then pouring off the excess water. Easy enough. I did this a couple times, then immersion blended it into a puree.

pumpkin-pie-5 The taste seemed a little bland (another one of the potential side effects of carving pumpkins) until I added my homemade spice blend. All of the sudden it tasted like pumpkin pie.

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I had decided not to do the crust from scratch – another project for another time. I made 3 pies and later pumpkin bread. I froze the extra pumpkin puree in large freezer bags.

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The pies got rave reviews.

The process took way longer than I expected. Still, I enjoyed the magic of transforming a pumpkin into a pie. And watching the naysayers eat their words.

 

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8 Replies to “Carving pumpkin into pie”

  1. That looks great! Going from a vegetable to a delicious pie is always a neat transformation. I’ve never done this myself, but I may have to experiment now.

  2. I made a pumpkin pie for the first time a few weeks ago. I was very skeptical during the process since it seemed bland and didn’t exactly look like the “pumpkin” from the can. But it turned out pretty good. I managed to eat about half the pie myself over a few days.

    1. Yes, I was skeptical as well! I’m guessing you used an actual pie pumpkin, and it’d be interesting to know if those are easier to deal with.

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