Pumpkin Pie with Vanilla Whipped Cream

I just love the holidays! Especially this year I feel like I have so much to be thankful for!

I made this pumpkin pie for my grad school class' friendsgiving and it was a HUGE hit! I had never made pumpkin pie before so I was really nervous but everyone loved it. I also made some vanilla whipped cream.


Pumpkin Pie Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
6 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of (ice cold) water

Filling:
1 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree (I used Libby's)
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of evaporated milk
1 cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3 eggs

Pumpkin Spice Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ginger
1/2 teaspoon of allspice
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of cloves

** Note: I mix all of the pumpkin spice ingredients together and then took the 2 teaspoons from the combined mixture.

Vanilla Whipped Cream:
1 cup of chilled heavy cream
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

To make the crust: 
To start, make sure you are using ice cold water.

I also melted my butter.

Combine these ingredients together and it will become a doughy consistency.

Then roll out the dough on a cutting board. Make sure to add flour to the cutting board and rolling pin. You want the dough to be rolled to about a centimeter thick. If it is too thick then it won't cook all the way through.

I like to use the 9" pyrex glass pie pans. Apply pam to the pie pan and then add the dough to the pan.

To make the filling: 
I started by separating the eggs yolks from the egg whites. I like to whip the egg whites separately. I use a whisk or a mixer to whip the egg whites until the egg whites appear to be foamy or peaky.



Next, I add the pumpkin puree, sugar, heavy cream, evaporated milk, pumpkin spice, egg yolks, and salt into a bowl together. When it comes to adding the pumpkin spice - I sort of just eye balled how much I thought was enough so I think I ended up adding more than the recipe called for.




After mixing in all of the ingredients together, I slowly fold in the egg whites. You want to make sure NOT to overmix them.

Once all of the ingredients are mixed together, pour them into the dough.























Cooking: 
Set oven to 400 degrees

I cooked the pie for about 30 minutes. It is important to keep an eye on the pie.

The pie should be firm and the fork should come out clean when placing a fork in it.

If it is overcooked then the pie will crack.






To make the vanilla whipped cream:
To start, I put my mixing bowl in the freezer. This helps create stiff peaks.

I put all of the ingredients (heavy cream, vanilla, and sugar) in the mixing bowl and ran the mixer on low speed for 30 seconds before bumping the mixer up to high speed. I only need to run the mixer for about 1 minute. You do not want to over mix it.
It doesn't hurt to stop and check the consistency of the whipped cream and then whip it some more if necessary.
When looking for consistency, you want to make sure the whipped cream can stand on its own. So when you stick your spoon in it, the whipped cream holds its shape.



Any comments or questions - please feel free to post them below!