Pumpkin Pie - Made from a pumpkin not a can!

I have been wanting to make my own pumpkin pie since I made my last apple pie(last year around this time). I remember telling the hubby I wanted to make one from scratch with an actual pumpkin not a can or store bought mix or a frozen one. I remember his face scrunching up at the thought of all the work. Funny thing is HE doesn't do the work and HE gets to eat it, so I don't know why he makes the face in the first place... he doesn't even have to clean up my mess when I do my experiments with food (most of the time :P).

Since I wanted to make one and I remembered what I had said the year before, I grabbed a few small pie pumpkins when I went to the store. The first one I made something with was a mac and cheese. The next I'm using in my pumpkin pie! The others I still have to come up with what to use them for.

As for the pie. I was going to use the rest of the pie crust from my Portuguese bean tarts but I either didn't store it properly or it just doesn't freeze well, so I had to improvise by using puff pastry instead. I lightly dusted both sides with whole wheat flour and rolled it out so it was thinner and placed it in my pie tin. As with a pie crust I used a fork to mark around the edges to give it that pretty crimped look, then put it in the freezer to keep it cold before filling.
As for the filling. I cut the pumpkin open scooping out the stringy stuff and the seeds (seeds I saved for later to roast because they are great as a snack) and then proceeded to cut chunks of the pumpkin up until they were in more manageable pieces. Put them in the oven at 375F for about 30 - 45 minutes or until you can smell the pumpkin and when you take a fork to them it slides in easily without very much force. Take them out and let them cool before using your fork to scrape the flesh off the skin of the pumpkin.

Put the flesh in a big bowl and puree it, or do what I did and add in 1/3 cup of whipping cream( I had it from another recipe or I would suggest 1% milk) 1/3 cup brown sugar ( I used a brown sugar substitute), 1 tablespoon powdered cinnamon, 1 tablespoon powdered ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, and 3 eggs. Puree/Mix this together, but I do suggest an immersion blender or a regular blender to make this smooth. Pour it into the puff pastry pie crust and cook at 350F for about 1 hour.

The filling will turn the orange/brown color it does when cooked (though not as orange as store bought which tells me they add coloring to store pumpkin pies) and will slightly rise (very subtle but you'll notice a difference from what it was before going in the oven). The crust will be brown and not as puffy as a puff pastry but only slightly more than a regular pie crust. I also suggest if your oven doesn't cook evenly (as mine doesn't) turn your pie about half way through cooking. Let cool before eating... also I read from the many pie recipes I looked at that the pie needs to set. I haven't a clue if this one needed to or not because we didn't eat it till the next day.

Whip up some whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or eat it just as it is. The hubby and I ate ours plain and both thought either a little more sugar in the pie filling it's self or a nice whipped cream would make it perfect!