It's not Thanksgiving without Pumpkin Pie!

Tara at Feels Like Home shared her favorite pumpkin pie recipe with me a few years ago. I made it the first time and haven't used any other recipe since. 

Gourmet Pumpkin Pie

• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell (see recipe below)  

• 3 2/3 cups pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground cloves

topping

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Blend the egg, pumpkin and condensed milk. Add sugar and spices to pumpkin. Pour mixture into the unbaked pie shell.
3. (topping) Combine the brown sugar, flour, chopped pecans, butter and cinnamon with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle crumb mixture on top of pumpkin mixture.
4. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 50 to 55 minutes or until a knife inserted in near the center comes out clean. Let pie cool before serving. 

A couple comments on the recipe:

I typically skip the topping, although it is to die for. I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to pumpkin pie. I also find I need to bake it longer than 50 to 55 minutes.

I also use quality spices, which I think makes a big difference. I typically get mine from Penzeys. 

And if one of your kids sticks their fingers in the finished pie and you don't realize it until after it has arrived at your nephews house for dinner and his wife unwraps it? Well, just consider it extra yummy.

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Now, I've tried a number of pie crust recipes over the year. At one point I gave up and just used Pillsbury's refrigerated pie crust. But then, I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and it changed my pie baking life.

Butter Flaky Pie Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, frozen
• 1/4 cup ice water

A good pie crust is all about technique. 

1. Combine the flour and salt. Then grate the butter into the flour with a cheese grater. 

Freezing, then grating the butter, is the key. The little bits of frozen butter are what makes the crust so flaky. After grating in the butter work quickly, because you don't want the butter to get soft.

2. Add the ice water a tablespoonful at a time and mix in until the mixture forms a ball. 

3. If you've worked fast enough and the butter is still frozen you can roll out the crust now. If not, refrigerate it for a couple hours. I've heard refrigerating it helps prevent shrinkage, but I can't say that has always been true for me. 

Try not to overwork the dough when you roll it out. I roll mine out on parchment paper so it's easy to move it to the pie pan. 

The magic ingredient in my pie crust is my great-grandmothers rolling pin. And since I'm not giving that up, I can't exactly guarantee your crust will turn out as awesome as mine. I still bet it will be pretty darn good though!