Addicted to pumpkins

Fall is  very much around us. Sky is gray, air is crisp,fogs became usual. Just another cold season ahead of us.Perfect  good excuse for staying inside your home, watch some movies and eat good food. When it comes around food fall is becoming my favorite season of the year just because one special little thing- PUMPKINS. 

I go home from work and stop in a store to pick up some groceries. Nothing really excited about that, right? Or so I thought. I come to the vegetable isle and there they are, just gloriously standing there and provoking me. At that point, so many recipes came across my head and all I could think about is pick up a pumpkin and go home to cook it. And I obviously did. So  I picked up my pumpkin, some flour, butter and cream and headed home to cook some delicious pumpkin pie.

I cook a lot and I really wanted to give you a recipe but I had one little tiny problem..I never use recipes to be exact. I use it only to make cake batters and creams, I rarely use it for anything else. But I came up with some cca quantities to make it feel a bit more pro ;)

I make my pumpkin pie from scratch. That means I make my own crust. I have this really easy recipe and anyone can make it without mixer.

So shall we began?

          Ingredients:

             dough

• 300 g flour
• 200 g butter
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg yolk 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp sour cream

             filling

• 1 whole butternut squash (medium size)
• 1 egg
• 2 dl cream (regular or sweetened)
• 50 g sugar (more if it's regular cream)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1. First of all, you need to bake your pumpkin. I usually use butternut squash but you can use any kind you have.You cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, which you can save for later, and put it in the oven to bake. You can take the skin off now or when it is done, it is all up to you. I leave the skin on and take it off when it is baked. Bake it for around 45 min at 220 degree C.
2. Now you make a pie crust. First cut the butter into your flour. It's very important that butter is very very cold and hard so you can mix it with the flour easier. You take your mixture and rub it gently with your hands, part by part. It's kind of a boring process but crucial. At the end you should end up with  mixture with breadcrumbs texture. Now add the sugar, egg, salt and sour cream. Mix it all together and neat the dough.If it's too dry just add a bit more sour cream. When you're done, take the dough and put it away in the fridge to chill a bit. Cover it in plastic wrap. It'll be easier to work with it later.
3. When you pumpkin is baked, take the skin of, mash it with a fork and mix it well with a blender. You should have lovely, velvety pure. Add cinnamon to taste.
4. In one bowl mix your pure, one egg, 2 dl cream, sugar and a little bit of nutmeg. That's going to be filling for your pie.
5. Take pie crust out of the fridge and roll it out thinly, around 5 mm thick. Take the pan you're going to bake it in and lightly flour it so dough doesn't stick to it. Transfer the dough into the pan so it covers the bottom and the sides. Put some non stick paper ON the dough, get some beans or another pan that is smaller and put it on the paper. Bake it for some 20 min on 220. When you "prebake" your crust it will prevent it for being uncooked when you pour in the filling. Beans in the other hand will make the crust flat as oppose to rising in the middle if you bake it without any pressure on.  After 20 min, take the beans and paper off the crust and pour the filling. Bake for another 20-25 mins.
6. When it's done,you can sprinkle it with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

And there you have it. It takes some time to get the ending result but it's definitely worth it. Of course you can make it with store bought dough and pumpkin pure but it wouldn't be the same. There's that wonderful feeling of success that you get every time you make something on your own. And after all you'll enjoy eating it a lot more ;)