Homemade Pumpkin Pie with Real Pumpkin

 So, I had recently gone on a class field trip to an organic farm with my son. Each of the students was able to pick their very own free organic pumpkin. Fortunately, the pumpkin happened to be a pie pumpkin, the kind you can cook with! I decided to give making pumpkin pie from scratch a try and watched Youtube videos to learn to make my own pumpkin puree. Fortunately, Trader Joe's had a recipe that seemed easy enough to give a go! I wanted to share this with you in case you decide to grow your own pumpkin or grab an affordable pie pumpkin from the store. This recipe does not use canned pureed pumpkin, although I will definitely post one with a graham cracker crust before the holidays. I decided to use a whole wheat crust from Whole Foods which was a bit pricier but I didn't feel like making the pie crust from scratch when I spent most of my time cooking an actual pumpkin. And, whole wheat packs a bit more fiber than the non-whole wheat version. I found that when I made pumpkin pie from scratch, I realized how healthy this pie is. Although we add sugar, whipping cream, and butter, it has all the health benefits of pumpkin! So, here goes, the Trader Joe's version:

Ingredients:

1 pie pumpkin
1 whole-wheat 9-inch pie crust
1/2 to 1 cup whipping cream
1 stick butter (melted)
2 eggs whipped
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 to 1 cup brown sugar
pinch salt

Directions:

First, you want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Wash your pumpkin, remove the stem, and cut it in half. Place cut sides down on parchment paper-lined baking sheet and cover with foil. Bake for 90 minutes. When cool, scoop the flesh out of the pumpkin and put in the mixer. Add whipping cream, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg brown sugar, and salt to pumpkin and whip together in a mixer. Taste for spice. Then fold in the eggs. Pour into two pie crusts and bake for about an hour or until firm. Enjoy!