It's Thanksgiving week, so we thought we'd share our favorite pumpkin pie recipe, which calls for delicious bourbon whipped cream. Oh yeah, it's awesome.

Don't settle for some pre-made pie from the store. Your friends and family will thank you for making this one yourself.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Prep: 45 mins ∙ Cook: 1 hr ∙ Makes: 2 Pies

Ingredients

  • 1 pie pumpkin (to make 3 cups pumpkin purée; see notes at bottom)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon (we recommend this cinnamon)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
  • 4 large eggs
  • 18 ounces evaporated milk

Directions

Prepare the pumpkin by washing the exterior and then cutting the pumpkin in half, removing the stem, and scooping out all the seeds and the stringy bits.

Cook the pumpkin in order to soften the "meat" so you can easily scoop it out from the skin and blend it to make your pumpkin purée. You can cook the raw pumpkin by steaming it on the stovetop or in the microwave.

  • To cook in a microwave: place the halves into a microwave-safe bowl with a few inches of water on the bottom, cover everything with another microwave-safe bowl or plate, and then cook until the pumpkin meat is soft. Usually takes 20-30 minutes.

  • To cook on the stovetop: place the pumpkin halves into a double pot steamer, or using a steamer basket. Steam for about 20-30 minutes.

Once the pumpkin meat is soft enough to easily scoop/remove from the skin then remove the skin and place the pumpkin meat into a bowl or a blender.

Mix/blend the pumpkin meat until it is puréed.

There should not be too much water as part of the purée. If so, let the purée sit for about half an hour so the water all rises to the top and then you can skim it off.

When done, you should have about 3 cups of pumpkin purée.

Mix/blend all the ingredients together. It will probably be very runny, and that's okay.

Pour the mixture into a pie crust (preferably you've home-made the pie crust, too). It will fill one deep-dish pie, or two shallow pies.

Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes.

Turn the oven temperature down to 350°F and bake for another 45 - 60 minutes (until a clean knife/fork inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean).

Serve with bourbon whipped cream.

Bourbon Whipped Cream Recipe

This recipe is simple:

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons bourbon
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • Whip together until soft peaks form.

It may taste a little strong if you sample it by itself, but it goes perfectly with the pumpkin pie.

Notes

  • Make sure to get pie pumpkins — the smaller ones. I always get 2 or 3 just to make sure I'm able to get enough pumpkin purée for the recipe. Some pie pumpkins are meatier than others.

  • You can also use butternut squash, if you can't find a good pie pumpkin.

  • And this recipe works fine with the canned pumpkin purée you can buy at the store, but it's not quite as tasty.