DIY Homemade Fresh Pumpkin Pie

A 'Small Sugar' pumpkin growing on the vine

Pumpkin pie tastes better with fresh mash made the old-fashioned way. The effort is small and the results worth it. Even better, the texture and flavor of your pie will be different depending on the pie-pumpkin variety you choose. For example, the famous 'Winter Luxury' pumpkin yields a mild, smooth, sweet mash for sensational pies. The popular 'Baby Pam' and 'Small Sugar' are easy-to-find, smooth, sweet, small, pumpkins that have a rich, classic pumpkin taste. The heirloom 'New England Pie' is a medium to small classic pumpkin with very sweet, flavorful flesh, and 'Long Pie' pumpkin is an unusual, elongated pumpkin that keeps forever and is very sweet.

The super sweet pie pumpkin 'Winter Luxury' is a poor keeper but makes amazing pie. It's is a beautiful medium to small pumpkin with thin, netted skin and dense, sweet, orange flesh

There are two recommended methods for preparing pumpkin mash for pie, roasting or steaming. Both yield very different pies. Roasted mash has less water and is stronger in flavor while steamed mash makes more tender, delicate pies. I prefer the steaming method. Some recommend boiling pumpkin, but this leaches out vitamins and antioxidants, which is a waste.

Steaming is very easy. Begin by cutting the pumpkins evenly in half and cleaning out the seeds. (Be sure to put the seeds aside for roasting!) Place the halves in a large steaming pan face down. The pan should be filled with two to three inches of water. Cover the halves, bring to a rolling boil and then take the heat down to a low boil and allow them to steam for 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft. Allow the halves to cool.

The method for roasting is similar, but in this case the pumpkin halves are placed upside down onto parchment paper or a lightly oiled sheet pan. Place the halves in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and roast for around 30 minutes or until fork-tender. The inverted pumpkins will steam and stay moist in the oven. 

This 'Winter Luxury' pumpkin half needs to be cleaned and the seeds saved for roasting.

These inverted pumpkin halves are ready to roast or steam.

After cooking and cooling, scoop the pumpkin shells out and put the flesh in a blender or food processor and process it until smooth. This should take a minute or two. Now the mash is pie-ready.

The pumpkin should be completely soft and easily scooped when fully cooked.

A blender or food processor is the best way to make doubly sure your mash is perfectly smooth.

Pumpkin pie filling is lightest if blended in a food processor or blender, so be sure to keep yours on hand for making this pie.

Rich Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

3/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 large eggs (room temperature)

2 cups smooth pumpkin mash

1 cup evaporated milk, half-and-half or heavy cream

1 prebaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell (Makes one pie)

 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Throw all the spices and wet ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth and well-mixed. Pour into a prebaked pie shell and bake for around 45 to 50 minutes or until the pie's custard center is no longer jiggly; you should be able to insert a toothpick in the center and have it come out clean. Once you can smell the pie, it's time to check it. Once the pie is cool, cut a slice and hit it with a mountain of fresh whipped cream.

Bake the pies until firm and fragrant.

The completed pumpkin pie among other Thanksgiving desserts.

Growing Kohlrabi

The pretty purple bulbs of kohlrabi 'Kohlibri' are easy to grow, delicious, and worth the 45-day wait.

Spring and fall are the best times to grow sweet, cabbagy kohlrabi, which thrives and tastes better in cool weather. Like so many brassicas, this odd looking vegetable is of the species Brassica oleracea with the group name "Gongylodes", a name that translates to "round" or "swollen" in Latin. This refers to its round, edible, bulbous stem that looks much like an above-ground turnip. In fact, another common name for this veggie is "turnip cabbage."

There are quite a few appealing kohlrabi varieties available to gardeners. The giant green 'Kossak' is my favorite because its bulbs stay crisp and are slow to get fibrous and woody (a problem with many kohlrabi variants). Some also stand by the massive, green 'Gigante', but in my experience the bulbs get fibrous fast. The smaller, flavorful varieties 'Winner' and 'Grand Duke' are also super sweet and stay crisp, but both are plain green. That's where the vivid purple 'Kolibri' reigns supreme. No kohlrabi is prettier at market, and the crisp fiberless flesh has a wonderful balanced sweetness. It grows quickly, too. (To learn more about kohlrabi varieties, check out Cornell's Kohlrabi Trials.)

Here are the basics for knowing and growing this fine cool-season veggie:

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Common Name: Kolibri Kohlrabi

Botanical Name: Brassica oleracea (Gongylodes Group) ‘Kohlibri'

Days to Harvest: 45

Light: Full sun

Soil: Rich, friable loam

Common Problems: Cabbage loopers, damping off caused by Pythium and Phytophthora fungi, heat (causes woodiness and bolting), slugs, snails.

Planting Time: Late February for spring crops and late August for fall crops. Southerners can plant in October for winter crops.

Days to Harvest Timeline

Starting Seeds: Start plantlets indoors for best results. Sow seeds in cells filled with seedling mix and lightly sprinkle a bit on top to cover. Gently moisten the cells with water and place right under the warmth of grow lights. In 5 to 10 days your kohlrabi seeds should germinate. Germination is best in cool temperatures (50° and 60° Fahrenheit (10-15° Celcius)). (For more details visit my Black Gold seed starting post.)

Tending Seedlings: Kohlibri kohlrabi seedlings have purplish seed leaves with two lobes. True leaves start to appear in 2 to 3 days. Continue to keep plants lightly moist and lightly feed with diluted all-purpose fertilizer once the seed leaves have appeared. To avoid leaf burn, lift grow lights up as seed leaves get closer to the bulbs. (*Grower's warning: wet soil can encourage fungal disease and cause seedlings to rot or "damp off.")

This 2.5 inch seedling will be ready for outdoor planting in another 5 to 7 days.

Moving Small Plants: Small plants have purplish leaves and stems and should be around 3 to 5 inches tall and garden ready after 14 days. Before planting, amend and turn the soil with rich compost and organic granular fertilizer formulated for vegetables. Plant between 8 and 12 inches apart. Keep plants moist, not wet. After another 8 to 10 days they should begin to bulb up at the base. (*Grower's warning: this is the time when plants are most vulnerable to pests. Protect from cabbage loopers with BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), which is approved for organic gardening.)
 powder.)

Harvesting Mature Plants: In 45 days the tender bright purple 'Kolibri' bulbs should be ready to cut from the base and harvest. Ready bulbs should be between 2.5 to 4 inches across. With a harvest knife, neatly cut plants at the root, take off top leaves, bag and store in the
 refrigerator. These 2.5 to 3 inch bulbs are very tender and just ready to harvest.

Preparing Kohlrabi: All bulbs should be lightly peeled before cooking or eating unless their skins are exceedingly tender. My German husband likes to chop kohlrabi into cubes and cream it with a spicy nutmeg cream sauce (roux, whole milk or cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper and hot sauce). This is delicious.

The bulbs can also be eaten raw. My good gardening friend, Ann Mattingly, grew up eating kohlrabi bulbs like apples and advocates chopping the bulbs into raw sticks and dipping them into hummus. Another tasty raw option is to julienne the bulbs on a mandolin and add them to salads as you would shredded cabbage.

Excessive rain caused this ready-to-harvest bulb to crack, but it was still crisp and tasty.