Canaan came home from school yesterday with a pumpkin he had picked from his field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was REALLY small. I asked why he picked such a small pumpkin and he said "so we can make a pumpkin pie!" He had remembered that pie pumpkins are much smaller than regular pumpkins (smart kid) so he just picked a small pumpkin for pumpkin pie. I have read that field pumpkins are not ideal for pumpkin recipes but he was so excited with his idea, how could I resist?
He did most of the work...because....well he is really quite competent in the kitchen. Except for slicing the pumpkin in half and putting them in the oven, Canaan was baker extraordinaire!
He wanted to make mini tart pumpkin pies and thankfully I had some leftover tart shell dough in the freezer (look at last weeks post on tart shells for the recipe).
We cut the pumpkin in 2 and baked it for about 20 minutes to get it soft. We pulsed the pulp in the food processor and mixed it (I had to adapt a bit b/c the amount of pumpkin pulp was smaller than any recipe I had.) with an egg, molasses, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves and milk. Baked it for about 20 minutes and voila---pumpkin pies!
Really good pumpkin pies! I think the addition of molasses and the removal of white sugar (just brown sugar) gave it a great depth of flavor.
Today and tomorrow Canaan is on fall break. It is rainy and chilly out this morning. I think we'll huddle down for a crafty day indoors. I hope to make some salt dough fall leaf ornaments with the boys....
