Ingredients
- For pumpkin puree:
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 6 ounces graham crackers, broken, or more as needed
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted, or more as needed
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- Pinch salt
- 1 1/2 cups fresh (or canned) pumpkin puree (unsweetened and unspiced)
- 1 1/4 cups half-and-half, cream or milk
- 1 medium sugar pumpkin
Preparation
Step 1
1. To make crust, heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar and graham cracker pieces in bowl of food processor and process until they're finely ground. You should have about 1 1/2 cups; add or remove some if not. Slowly add butter and pulse few times until they're all moistened by butter (if crumbs aren't all moistened, add little bit more melted butter). Press crumbs evenly into bottom and sides of pie plate.
2. Bake crust for 8 to 10 minutes, just until it begins to brown. Set pie plate on rack; crust will crisp as it cools. Turn oven up to 375.
3. While crust is baking, use electric mixer or whisk to beat eggs with sugar, then add cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Add pumpkin puree, mix, then add half and half.
4. Put pie plate with crust on rimmed baking sheet. Pour pumpkin mixture into crust all way to top (you might have some left over). Transfer whole baking sheet to oven (in case of spillover) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until mixture shakes like Jell-O but is still quite moist in center. Cool on rack until it no longer giggles, then slice into wedges and serve, or refrigerate for day or two.
+Fresh pumpkin puree:+
1. Cut circle around stem of pumpkin, then pull off on stem and discard it. Use cavity as handle and peel pumpkin with vegetable peeler. Using sharp and sturdy knife, cut pumpkin in half and scrape out seeds with ice cream scoop or heavy spoon. Cut or scrape off any excess string and cut pumpkin into 1-inch cubes.
2. Bring large pot of water to boil and add pumpkin; boil until soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain pumpkin and puree until smooth in blender or food processor.