Pumpkin Pie is the Best Thanksgiving Dessert!

I have a friend.....right Debi.....who begins to enjoy pumpkin pie at Halloween and still enjoys it at Thanksgiving....and Christmas. Whoa! Wait a minute. Am I the only hold out? I wait, and resist, and wait and with eager anticipation enjoy every morsel of the pumpkin pie on my plate at Thanksgiving. Yum! It is always worth the wait.

Making a pumpkin pie is not difficult. I have talked with may people who dread even thinking about making a pie. I have had great success with making pumpkin pies for our family and really sort of look forward to it.

We did have a set back one year however. I had made the pumpkin pie while the girls were at a band practice. The pie was done in plenty of time and I set it out to cool while I went to pick them up at the high school. When we returned and walked into the kitchen there was our cat happily licking the center of the pie. Ha, ha we were surprised. And the cat was happy. So a word of advice is that a cover of some sort is good if you leave an unattended pie to cool!

I do make my pie crust from scratch. I have been using the same recipe for years, and years, and years. Here is the pie crust recipe that I was given in junior high school home economics class:

Pie Crust

2 cups flour

½ cup milk

¼ cup liquid shortening

Dash of salt

Place the flour and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl. Form a depression in the center of the flour with the back of a spoon. Measure the milk into a glass measuring cup and add the shortening. Stir the milk and shortening together with a fork. Pour the milk/shortening mixture into the flour and mix with the fork until the pie dough is well formed. ( I usually end up using my hands after a few stirs and knead the dough to a smooth consistency.) Allow the dough to rest a few minutes. Divide the dough into two small balls. Each ball when rolled out between sheets of waxed paper will fit a nine inch pie pan. Fill two single crusts or use to make one double crust pie. Bake as directed for pie.

I use canned pumpkin to make my pie filling using the recipe on the back of the can. I add my own eggs, evaporated milk, and spices. I enjoy being able to use the spice blend I prefer. You can certainly use canned pumpkin pie filling too. This Good Housekeeping site has listed the results of their test for prepared pie crusts. The Libby recipes at this Nestle site has recipes for pumpkin pie as well as pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake roll and so many other delicious pumpkin desserts.

Whether you decide to make a pumpkin pie from scratch, just make the crust from scratch or decide to purchase a prepared pumpkin pie from the bakery you may agree that pumpkin pie is worth the wait and just has to be the best Thanksgiving dessert of all.