The BEST Pumpkin Pie EVER

Pumpkin pies of the standard variety have been made for years on the Farm. A can of thick, orange puree is purchased and the recipe on said can consulted and followed. That was until two years ago when the Farm had a sudden and severe shortage of half and half due to an unusually large volume of coffee consumption. The Farmer’s Wife did not have enough half and half to make her pie—because as you know, that’s the dairy product of choice for any and all custardy things produced on the Farm.

Now, some would just forgo the pie. Say it was not meant to be or some other gibberish. But not the Farmer’s Wife. She took a sip from the mug in hand and inspiration hit. Coffee! That was liquid, right? And you can get all sorts of coffee-pumpkin, pumpkin-coffee drinks, right? Soooo…they must taste good together.

She was determined to find out. She set aside her premade pie shell (for the recipe see:https://thefarmerandhiswife.org/2020/10/23/great-grandma-waites-custard-pie/ ), and stirred together two cups pumpkin puree with a cup of half and half and a half cup of good, cold coffee, the stronger the better. Two eggs are mixed in as well as three quarters cup brown sugar. Now, for the spices: Add a half teaspoon each of cinnamon, ginger (freshly grated if you’ve got it), nutmeg (again, freshly grated is better), salt and black pepper. This all gets stirred together until smooth and poured into the pie shell. Now, the Farmer’s Wife has some difficulties with coordination. Some may call her clumsy, but she animatedly denies that claim. She’s challenged, that’s all. And with certain challenges, CREATIVITY needs to be applied. And in this instance, its application is that the Farmer’s Wife always puts her unbaked pie shell into the oven before pouring in the filling. Don’t ask why. You don’t want to hear about it, trust me. Something in the way of spilled filling, a house full of smoke, an alarm going off… Let’s just say a lesson had been learned and because of that the Farmer’s Wife always does it this way. And if you’re of the “creative” sort, you may want to do the same. The oven should be of the preheated sort of four hundred degrees. The pie gets baked for about forty minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Set your pie aside to cool and, like the Farmer’s Wife discovered that wonderful day two years ago, find yourself enjoying the most pumpkin-ee-est pie you’ve ever had. Seriously. Those coffee people knew what they were doing.

Now, a side note about pumpkin. This was a good pumpkin year on the Farm, so they had some of their own already made and frozen, but you can use the canned variety just as well. To make your own, cut your pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and roast uncovered in a roasting pan at 400 degrees until soft—the length of time depends on the size of your pumpkin. Their small sugar took about an hour. When the pumpkin is cool, scoop out the softened flesh and push through a food mill. If you don’t have a food mill, use a food processor and push through a strainer. If you don’t have either of those, then either live with chunky pumpkin or go buy yourself a can. The Farmer’s Wife measured out two cups per bag and set them to freeze. You can do the same; plan on getting about three to four cups of puree per small sugar pumpkin.