carriebrighton: Pumpkin Pie

You might have picked up by now that I've got a bit of a thing for pumpkins. As sad as it is to admit, I spend a large portion of my year thinking about that magical month where I can drink nothing but Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Lattes and eat nothing but Pumpkin Pie. Its a very american dish, so you might not have ever eaten it before. Someone actually pointed out to me recently that its much more of a tart than a pie due to lack of top crust, but whatever it is, it's pretty darn tasty. So much so, I ate the whole thing by myself in a weekend. Since it's made of pumpkin however, I am counting this as a good thing, and assuming it helped with my five a day, so therefore eating the entire thing was a good idea. As you can see in the pictures, I used tinned pumpkin. Some may say this is the easy option, which it is, but it is also much tastier in my opinion, it can be rather tricky to get a good eating pumpkin in this country, and chances are you won't be able to get it anywhere near as smooth as the tinned version. I picked my tin up in Waitrose, and I believe you can get them in Tesco too, though if there isn't one near you, you can find them on Amazon.

First things first, you need to make the pastry. I used the very simple method of:

110g stork baking block(check this as some have dairy in!)

1)Rub them together until you have a fine mix with all the fat incorporated into the flour.

2)Using a knife, stir in 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time until it forms a dough. Pop it in the fridge for 15 mins.

While your pastry is chilling, make your pumpkin mix.(I have adapted this from Libby's original recipe to make a dairy free version)

1 tin Libby's Pumpkin

1 carton Oatly Oat Cream

1)Preheat the oven to 200oC

2) Gently beat the eggs.

3) Add all the ingredients together and mix until smooth. Yes it really is that simple! It makes the most gloriously orange goop you've ever seen!

4) Roll out your chilled pastry and pop it in your dish/pan. I used a pyrex dish as I do not own a pie tin.

5) Pop your pie (without the filling) into the oven for 5 mins.

6) Take out the pie, and pour in the filling. Turn the oven down to 150oC, then pop the pie back in. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

7) Using any leftover pastry, make pretty leaves and other autumnal things. I thought it might be rather nice to make a pumpkin face if you had used a round pie tin.

8) As soon as the top of your pie begins to firm up, you can put your decoration on and it shouldn't sink in!

9) Your pie will be ready when you can insert a knife/skewer and it comes out clean. The top of the pie should be golden brown without any dark brown burnt patches, unlike mine! (Don't worry, it still tasted fine!)

Are you a pumpkin fan? What is your favourite pumpkin recipe?