Recipe: Pumpkin Pie

I really love this time of year. The cosy knitwear and constant festivities, all to the backdrop of nature putting on show (much more eloquently described by a friend of mine here). Love. It.

The real pièce de résistance of the season, for me, though is the food. So much of what we eat over the Autumn and Winter months is looked forward to all year. Roast turkey, christmas pudding and pumpkin pie. 

So, to celebrate, I thought I'd share with you my family's recipe for pumpkin pie - and it's a real crowdpleaser too.

You will need:

1 packet of shortcrust pastry

700g of pumpkin - puréed
(you can use canned or make your own by whizzing up fresh pumpkin in a processor then sieving out the excess water)

125g sugar (brown or white - brown will give it a more 'baked' colouring)

300ml single cream

3 eggs - lightly beaten

2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

0.5 teaspoon of ground cloves or mixed spice

pinch salt

1. Preheat the oven to 190˚C.

2. In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin, cream, eggs, sugar and spices with an electric mixer. I'd recommend giving the raw mix a taste at this stage and adding more spice if you prefer a stronger taste.

3. Roll out your pastry and line a greased, ridged pie tin with it. Using a loose bottomed tin will make the pie much easier to remove from the tin once it's baked. Place on a baking tray.

4. Pour the mix into the raw pastry casing. It should fill it up until almost level with the top of the tin. (As you can see from the picture, I had a little extra so I decided to make some mini pies as well!)

5. Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown on top. Cool on a wire rack and then enjoy with whipped or pouring cream at room temperature. 

Why not add a pumpkin pie to your end of year festivities!

Penguin Threads Part 2

Regular readers will remember I posted about the 'Penguin Threads' series a little while ago. At the time, only three titles were released, with no word on whether the series would ever be continued. Well, happily, it seems the masses have spoken and the good people have expanded the range with three brand new titles to their classics range. This time they have commissioned a new artist, Rachell Sumpter.

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Personally, Little Women is the cover that most floats my boat. The sampler style cover fits the era of the story perfectly and the imagery within really sums up the liveliness of the eponymous women. Definitely another 3 books to add to my Christmas list!

If you want to take a closer look, the covers have been published on the artist's Flickr account.