A Post-Halloween Pumpkin Treat

As children are stuffing their faces with candy and goodies, we can now acknowledge this year’s ghostly tradition has passed. Over are the trips to the doorsteps of neighbors for handfuls of candy. Done with are the costumes that frighten us, and so, some say, is the usefulness of our festive pumpkins.

Halloween may be over, but the usefulness of our pumpkins is just beginning! While pumpkins have served us well in acting as canvases for our carving delight, I refuse to believe we should simply toss them into our yard wastes! Like yard waste, this would be a waste.

Each year, we make a visit to the pumpkin patch and purchase these orange fruits to decorate our porch. They are plants that perfectly fit our spooky fall season, but by no means are they useless carcasses just because the month has changed. So if you have a pumpkin sitting on your porch, why not use it for a post-Halloween feast? Give this Pumpkream Pie recipe a taste.

Baking.

Arrange your peeled pieces cut side down in some sort of baking pan. Bake about an hour at 400˚F. Then scoop out the part that stayed soft and mashable. Another system is in Ruth’s Vegan Squash Pie recipe a bit later on. Of that one, Lane Morgan says, “That’s how I always prepare my pumpkins for pies, except I scrape out the seeds before I bake because I don’t know how good they’d be for roasting after being cooked in all that moisture. You don’t have to peel or chunk the pumpkin, and I hate peeling pumpkin. Don’t use a rimless baking surface because the pumpkins will ‘weep’ as they cook. I save that liquid to get the puree going in the blender.”

Pumpkream Pie

Mix together 1 c. granulated sugar, a pinch of salt, 1 t. cinnamon, 1⁄4 t. cloves, and 1⁄4 t. nutmeg. Beat in 2 eggs. Then add 1 c. wellcooked–down (cooked-dry) pumpkin. Add 1 c. thick cream or whipping cream. Bake in an 8-inch pie pan, which will be full, for 20 minutes at 425˚F. Then reduce to 375˚F and bake until it rises and then makes small cracks around the edge.