Thanksgiving is the best holiday when it comes to food. There is stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes with gravy…Yum! I look forward to Thanksgiving more than I do Christmas, and that, my friends, is because of pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie.
No Thanksgiving is complete without pumpkin pie. The smell of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves fill the kitchen and the seasonal warmth slips from the oven to everyone in your home. It is the most divine dish on Thanksgiving, if you ask me.
This year, I wanted to give a little background information the pumpkin and the pumpkin pie. I have eaten pumpkin pie since I can remember, but never have I given any thought to where the pumpkin or pie came from so I did some research.
Pumpkin Fun Facts:
Pumpkins are thought to have originated in Mexico dating back 7000
years ago. They were soon exported to France and made their way to
Medieval England. Historians are unsure whether the pumpkin pie was
actually made for the first Thanksgiving dinner, but it was the
Pilgrims that brought the English style of cooking pumpkin pie with
them.
Back then, the kitchen and cookware we use today did not exist. They
made pumpkin pie by hollowing out the pumpkin, filling it with milk,
honey, apples and spices, sometimes wrapping it in pastry, and baking
it whole in hot ashes.
In the late 1800s, there were songs and poems that mentioned the
pumpkin pie. In 1850, John Greenleaf Whittier wrote the poem “The
Pumpkin.” The poem is about Thanksgiving Day and the loving, warm
moments brought on by the festive day. The final line of the poem
reads, “What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?”
In 1889, Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and George Frederick Cameron wrote
“Farewell O Fragrant Pumpkin Pie” for the opera Leo, the Royal Cadet.
The character of Leo sings the hymn to his girlfriend when it is
decided he is to go to war soon.
The hymn begins by singing praise to the pumpkin pie saying it will
“fill a noble niche on memory’s chambers” as he sleeps in his tent
while at war. Leo then turns his attention to Nellie, his love. Saying
goodbye to her is hard for him to do, and he loves more than words can
express. But, he ends saying, “I love thee more than
anything-but-pie!”
The world’s largest pumpkin pie was made in New Bremen, Ohio, at the
New Bremen Pumpkinfest on Sept. 25, 2010. Consisting of 1,212 pounds
of canned pumpkin, 109 gallons of evaporated milk, 2,796 eggs, 7
pounds of salt, 14.5 pounds of cinnamon and 525 pounds of sugar. The
final pie weighed 3,699 pounds and measured 20 feet in diameter!
PUMPKIN PIE WITH GRAHAM CRUST
Active Time: 20 to 30 minutes.
Servings: About 8.
Ingredients:
Filling:
1 12 ounce can of evaporated milk
1 cup of pumpkin purée (homemade or can)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Crust: (You can buy a pre-made one if you prefer).
2/3 cup of wheat flour
1/3 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, softened
Directions:
Crust:
1. Spritz a pie pan with cooking spray.
2. Combine flours, wheat germ and salt in a food processor.
3. Add sugar and butter and mix until well combined.
4. Using your hands and a spoon, form the crust to fit the pie pan properly.
5. Place in refrigerator until done with the filling.
Filling:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Either by hand or
by electric mixer, add evaporated milk, pumpkin purée and eggs.
3. Pour into the crust and cook for 60 minutes.
4. Let cool and serve.