Pumpkin Pie

While I was back in the States visiting in February my grandma bought me a Mennonite cookbook which I thought would be really helpful for new ideas in the bakery. My prejudice led me to believe that the cookbook would have recipes that had only basic ingredients, i.e. nothing special that had to be bought in the grocery store like Cool Whip or pudding. Big mistake. Those Mennonites love their processed ingredients but it wasn't all for not. There are a few basic recipes as well. At the beginning of this week the women were asking me for different pie recipes since our venture into apple pie turned out so well. Pumpkin was among the list and they jumped on it. Pumpkin is super cheap which was a huge plus. The recipe from the cookbook was nothing like Libby's but I decided to give it a go, also having never cooked pumpkin and always relied on the canned version, I was full of trepidation. From beginning to end I thought that there was no way that it was going to turn out well. I think the sign of a good chef is knowing when something is going to be awful...and it was. Okay, maybe not awful, people said they liked it but it was really liquidy and the flavor was all off. It was sweet so that is probably why people liked it. Here are my theories about what went wrong. First and foremost, I cooked the pumpkin and then mashed it and put it straight into the bowl. Turns out that pumpkin holds a lot of water so next I'm going to cook, mash, and then cook again to evaporate as much water as I can. Second, the recipe called for cinnamon and nutmeg, where as Libby's says cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Third, the recipe called for only three tablespoons of pumpkin where as I'm pretty sure that there is at least a cup if not more in a can of pumpkin. All signs point to a much more successful second attempt.