Pumpkin Pie Part 1: Pumpkin Puree.

Hehe that title has so many P's!

As I mentioned in my chocolate cupcake recipe post last week, my Grandma did indeed arrive at our house with an enormous pumpkin this week. I felt a little bit like Cinderella!

For size comparison purposes
(my hand is about 6 inches from hell to middle finger-tip)
- that is one huge pumpkin!

Despite my sisters complaints that she didn't like pumpkin pie- I knew that that was exactly what I wanted to make first , especially as I'd just discovered a lovely looking pumpkin pie recipe in the hummingbird recipe book.

If I were to do each section in one post (the pumpkin puree preparation, the pastry and the pie itself) the post would be insanely long, so I've split it into parts- this post will show you how I made my pumpkin puree :) Part 2 is the shortcrust pastry recipe, and Part 3 is the pumpkin pie recipe.


1) Take a suitably huge and sharp knife (and possibly a really strong helper- I had to rope in my Dad!) slice the pumpkin in half, then scoop out the stringy/seedy bits with a spoon.

2) Chop up the halves into smaller, more manageable slices- then remove the skin and any remaining stringy bits.

3) Cut the flesh into small chunks- preferably evenly sized (so that it cooks evenly)

4) Place the chunks into a (very large!) saucepan, and fill with water until the pumpkin is just about covered.

At this stage I wanted to know if Nibbles would like pumpkin- guess what, she did! (she'll eat anything)

5) Boil the pumpkin for around 15/20 minutes- until the pumpkin is cooked through and is nice and soft.

6) My pumpkin practically disintegrated itself (the benefit of being a homegrown pumpkin and not a shop-bought one I think) but you may need to either mash it or blend it to get a puree- think baby food texture!

Leave this to cool completely before using it in the pie recipe. I made mine about 2 days before I got around the actual pie making, so I kept it in the fridge. I know I'll have too much puree to use up before it goes bad, so I'll also freeze some in small portions for later use- pumpkin pie all year round!

Of course if you can get your hands on canned pumpkin (which sounded so weird to me when I first heard of it) you can completely skip this step, and go straight to making the shortcrust pastry.


                                                                                                  xGretalRabbitx