Tasty Tuesday---Recipes for The Welcoming House's Famous (and Fabulous) Pumpkin Pie, as well as our Harvest Comfort Pie....

You walk in the door, and the smell hits you. 

Cinnamon.

Brown Sugar.

Apples and Pumkin.

Rich and hanging in the air, 

you can immediately hear the growl of your stomach.

That is what it has smelled like for three days around my house.

At the real Welcoming House, when we pull a pie out of the oven, it is hard to even get it to the counter for all the people crowding around just to clamor for a piece. That is one reason why when I started this blog, and wrote the little poem above, I talked about possibly having pie around if you ever dropped by. Not many other things in life say welcoming like a piece of pie and a cup of coffee offered when a friend walks in the door, right?

If you have been following our posts for very long here on The Welcoming House, you know that we were involved in a contest over at the Grain Mill Wagon for a grand prize of wheat grinders and cash.

One of the most popular recipes we created was my Harvest Comfort Pie, 

a blend of tart and sweet apples, 

combined with golden raisins and cranberries in a cinnamon-laced crust.

Other than my Pumpkin Whoopie Pies,

my recipe for that pie got a the most amount of hits anywhere, 

and everywhere I looked it was being pinned, and shared, etc.

It was originally created for our holiday celebrations, and so is perfect to link here for you to try. This pie is rich, and creamy, and the explosion of flavors is a bright reminder of fall and how beautiful it can be to the senses. Please follow the link below to click over there and check it out!

Harvest Comfort Pie Link

With all my pies, I am thrilled to use my Wondermill wheat grinder, graciously given to me by the Grain Mill Wagon, to grind fresh wheat for the pie crusts. I love this product, and am looking forward to next week when I will be posting a review and comparison between the Nutrimill, which is the grinder I had and used before, and now the Wondermill, which is the one I use for everything now. Be sure to check back next week for that one.

Now for my "Famous Pumpkin Pie". This is the Recipe I have used to make pumpkin pies for family and friends for many years, and came about actually by accident. Go ahead and laugh, but sometimes, mistakes in the kitchen can lead to great surprises!

I was in the process of making a large batch of pumpkin pie filling from a fresh pumpkin we had cooked down and pureed, and accidentally grabbed the maple flavor extract instead of the vanilla extract I THOUGHT I was grabbing. Seconds later, as I am staring at the dark puddle in the humongous batch of filling, ready to cry (because come on, if you have ever used both vanilla and maple flavoring, believe me, you can tell the difference!), I knew we had to go ahead and use it and be done with the pies that were supposed to be delivered in a few hours.

Needless to say, this was one of the best pies we had ever had, and in surprise that evening, as we say around the table, everyone's eyebrows went up, because the pies really had a fantastic flavor, 

SO MUCH BETTER than normal.

I hope you enjoy it too.

This recipe is adaptable, depending on the taste of your family. If you like the spicier taste of pumpkin pies, then add the maximum amount of pie spices. If you dont, add the minimum amount listed.

Also, like the Harvest Comfort Pie listed above, you can lace the crust with cinnamon, or nutmeg, to add a little different flavor.

My Famous (and may I say FABULOUS) Pumpkin Pie

Crust:

1 cup all purpose flour

2 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour (I use my Wondermill)

1/4 cup lard, coconut oil, or shortening 

(each will create a different kind of crust)

1 tsp salt

up to 1 cup icy cold water

Mix dry ingredients, then cut in the lard, oil or shortening.

Using the paddle attachment of your mixer, or your hands,

add a small amount of water at a time until the crust forms a ball, and holds together easily. 

Lard and coconut will make a flaky crust. 

Shortening will make a chewier crust that holds together easily.

 Split it into two to three parts, depending on your mad rolling pin skills, 

and form into flattened discs.

 I often make these ahead of time and freeze just like this until needed for the next project.

Roll each into a flat round that is thin. Lay your pie tin upside down on the pie crust and cut about 1" around on the outside of the tin. This will give you enough to fill up the sides of the pie tin, and some to crimp for the edge. I always lay it in the pie tin then stretch gently to give me a little more room, and keep the pie crust nice and thin. Starting on the edge, roll under towards the middle of the pie plate, and pressing to seal until you have a roll around the entire edge of the pie plate. This is where I just pinch the dough around the top all around, or push one finger between two others to make the crust edging (as shown on the pie above). If you are very stretched for time you can also just press the edge down with a fork, just beware this method can burn in the oven if not watched carefully.

Once you have the crust in place, you combine the following ingredients in a bowl:

3 cups pumpkin

1 can evaporated milk

3 eggs

2-4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1-2 tsp maple flavoring extract

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup of dark brown sugar, or a combination of honey and molasses.

Blend really well, and pour into the pie crusts up to where the rolled edge ends (that you pressed and sealed. This recipe puffs a little, so be sure to not overfill the pie crusts. 

Bake the first 15 minutes at 425* and then lower the temp on your oven to 350* and bake for an hour. When  you can slide a butter knife into the middle of the pie and there is nothing on the knife when you pull it back out, the pie is done. Let sit and it will develop a beautiful glaze on top, and have a deep pumpkin color on the inside, with specks of the spices on top.

Not only a beautiful pie, but a tasty one as well!

Tomorrow we will be featuring the Handy Hubby's Not-So-Secret Recipe for a great Thanksgiving Bird, and the recipe for our Sausage Cranberry stuffing, as well as a list of the foods we will be having at our table this holiday with links as needed. I decided to save the Tater Twist bread recipe for my two days of figuring out what to do with the leftovers, because you can use leftover yams for it, and seriously, once you taste it, you will make it as often as you can....

I wish you a beautiful day chock full of many blessings,

To you and yours,

Heather

By the way, two posts I would like to suggest that sort of go with this?

How to process regular pumpkins for pumpkin puree:

The Pumpkin Invasion--Day One

The healing benefits contained in a simple pumpkin pie:

Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Cloves--not just for Pumpkin Pie