Pie Pumpkins

[38thparallel]

Does anyone have experience making pumpkin pie with a pie pumpkin? I keep seeing piles of pie pumpkins at the produce market and am tempted to give it a try. Good idea/bad idea?

Comments

[melannen]

We generally make pumpkin pie using that year's Halloween pumpkins (which are just whatever kind we happened to buy, although pie pumpkins tend to give you the most pie for your money.)

The hardest part is preparing the pumpkin meat, but you can find directions for that in many places, and it's not tricky, just a bit of work. Once you have cooked pumpkin puree to work with (we usually freeze a bunch of it, because a pumpkin has more than enough for one pie), you can use it in pie & other baking pretty much like the canned stuff.

[weaverbird]

Seconded!

[delladea]

Thirded, it's not hard at all, just a bit time-consuming.

[38thparallel]

Thanks (to melannen and everyone who commented)! I'm glad you've all had success using pie pumpkins. I think I'll give it a try after the the whirlwind that is Thanksgiving. I'm also pretty stoked that one pumpkin will provide enough puree to experiment with numerous pumpkin-inspired baking experiments!

[melannen]

You say that, but then it will be the middle of August and you're eating your second batch of pumpkin cookies that month and still have three cups in the freezer, and you'll be sorry. :D (Start with a...smallish pumpkin.)

[38thparallel]

Ha! Good advice. I don't know many people who will let me pawn off pumpkin baked goods at the height of summer!