Ingredients:
a pie pumpkin - I use one 6 inch pumpkin or two 3 inch... you should end up with about 3 cups of pumpkin insides...
1 cup sugar (or 1 cup splenda, or 3/4 cup honey - honey makes a heavier pie.)
1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional, I don't use any)
4 large eggs
All of the Sieved cooked pumpkin (should be about 3 cups)
1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk for best results.
If you can't get canned evaporated milk, make your own from nonfat dried milk and make it twice as concentrated as the directions on the box call for!
If you can't get nonfat dried milk, just use milk.
Note: if you do not have cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger, you can substitute 3 teaspoons of "pumpkin pie spice". It's not exactly the same, but it will do.
Prepare pumpkin for cooking:
Wash the exterior of the pumpkin in cool or warm water, no soap.
Cut the pumpkin in half. A serrated knife and a sawing motion works best.
Scoop out the seeds.
Cook the Pumpkins:
Steam the pumpkin in a steamer or double boiler for 15 minutes. (or until cooked)
You can also cook in the microwave, just put some water in the bottom of the bowl and cover it. It still takes about 15 min.
Scoop out the pumpkin, the skin almost always just falls off when its cooked all the way. Puree or mash the pumpkin. It should be smooth with little or no chunks. A blender or handblender works fine for this.
If the pumpkin is watery after you puree it let it sit for 30 min and pour off any free water.
Mix all of the ingredients together with the blender (or whatever you used to mash the pumpkin. For best results use the seperate spices rather than pumpkin pie spice.)
Pour the filling into the crust. If you feel that your filling is too runny, ITS NOT!
Bake at 425 F for 15 min then at 350 F for another 45-60 minutes, until when you stick a knife in the center it comes out clean.
