I love pumpkin pie. This is my tweaked version of the Libby's famous recipe, which I expect most of you have used before. It's a good recipe. But I prefer mine richer and with more spices. This recipe makes two pies.
Crusting: Grease two pie pans. Place the dry ingredients in a large bowl (flour, baking powder, sugar, and spices according to your taste). Give it a bit of a stir. Melt the butter, pour it in, and mix it just a bit with either your fingers or a fork. Add the cold milk. Mix it just enough to bring it all together. Messing with pie dough too much makes it tough. Handle it as little as possible. Split into two balls. Roll out one ball to the proper size for your pie pan. Gently fold into quarters, lift into the pie pan, unfold, and make it pretty. Do the same with the second ball of dough, and sit them aside.
Filling: Dump it all in a mixer bowl. Mix it on medium high with the beater attachment till combined well. (The ease of this filling makes it an ideal recipe to let the children help and make some memories.)
Baking: Preheat oven to 450. Pour into the two pie shells. You are hoping for it to be mostly filled, but no where near overflowing. Carefully place the pies in the oven. Bake for fifteen minutes, then turn the oven down to 350. Bake for about twenty-four more minutes. You are watching for it to puff up and look "dry" and have a little cracking around the edges. I like my pies to still be a little wobbly in the middle, perhaps a wobble about the size of a soda cup lid. Use your judgment and own taste.
Eating: Preferably with some good cream. Chocolate whipped cream makes this an especially decadent dessert. (11\2 cups cream, 1/3 cup powdered, 1/8 cup coco powder.)
Noting: You can go with the more traditional two cans of evaporated milk if you prefer. Or, you can go the other way and use three cups of cream and no evaporated milk. I've tried both, and I do like the cream version, it is delicious. My favorite method is, of course, the one in this recipe.
A Few Select Favorite Quotes
"To be a good ruler one must be the best of servants." – Aaron Gruben, King
"Nearly all the best and most precious things in the universe you can get for a halfpenny. I make an exception, of course, of the sun, the moon, the earth, people, stars, thunderstorms, and such trifles. You can get them for nothing." - G.K. Chesterton
"'Sometimes in the middle of the night, the sun can seem like it was only ever dream. We need something to remind us that it still exists, even if we can't see it. We need something beautiful hanging in the dark sky to remind us there is such a thing as daylight. Sometimes, Queen Sara’ - Armulyn strummed his whistle harp – ‘music is the moon.''" -Andrew Peterson, The Warden and the Wolf King
"The heart is as insatiable as the grave till Jesus enters it, and then it is a cup full to overflowing." – Spurgeon
"Bah! If a Frenchman can get on his knees, two Americans ought to be able to get on their feet." - Michel Ardan from Jules Vern's Round the Moon