classic pumpkin pie

Now it's been over a month since us Canadians have celebrated Thanksgiving, but that doesn't mean that we can't still eat pumpkin pie...right?

If you're new around here, you'll know that I'm not the biggest fan of pie (I know, I know!  I'm a weirdo...haha), but I do love making it for people.  I had never tried making a pumpkin pie from scratch, because let's get real, when you can get a huge one from Costco for cheaper than buying the ingredients, why bother making one homemade? ha!  Anyway, I decided to try my hand at a classic pumpkin pie, and here it is!

Also, it's time for some real talk.  After meticulously slicing and removing the first piece of pie in order to be plated for the final photos....I dropped it.  Pumpkin pie all over the floor.  It's not the first time I've dropped food all over the floor, and my family wasn't surprised...although they were entertained.  Thankfully the second piece I cut fared much better! 

So here it is!  A classic pumpkin pie. 

---

Classic Pumpkin Pie

recipe slightly adapted from: Eagle Brand - allrecipes
yields: one 9-inch pie (about 8 servings)

Directions:

1)  First you'll want to bake and puree your pumpkin if you're making your own.  You'll also want to make your pie crust if you're making your own as well.  Bonus points if you do!

2) Optional:  If you'd like to make some leaf decorations for your cake, roll out some extra pastry dough about 1/4 inch thick and cut out leaves.  Bake at 350 degrees until the tops get slightly brown.  Remove and set aside.

3)  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

4)  Mix together the pureed pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices, and salt in a medium bowl until nice and smooth.

5)  Pour the pumpkin mixture into your pie crust.

6)  Bake your pie at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  After the initial 15 minutes, turn your oven down to 350 degrees and bake for another 35-40 minutes.  Your pie will be done when a knife inserted a few inches from the crust comes out clean.  *If you're not sure, just keep cooking it.  It's better to slightly overcook a pumpkin pie than to have it be gooey!

**Tip: Place some tinfoil or a pie crust shield around the edges of our pie so that the crust doesn't burn!  I did that about halfway through the baking time.

7)  Chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours for the pie to properly set.  Or even make it the night before you'd like to serve it.  We found ours even better the day after it was made!

Ingredients:

1  9-inch pie crust (pre-made, or make your own!)

2 cups pureed pumpkin (or one 15oz can)

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk (14oz)

2 large eggs

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

---

Happy Baking!

-Kels

tasty tuesday: pumpkin scones with caramel drizzle

Oh scones.  You are so beautiful....to me!

Seriously, they are so good.  Jordyn found a super solid scone recipe years ago, and has slowly tweaked it into perfection.  It's always her base whenever she experiments with new flavors, and this time was no different.  Her and I discussed ingredients and chemistry....and finally decided that we were just going to substitute pumpkin for sour cream, and cross our fingers that it would work.

Let' just say....it worked.  Magnificently.

Of course we added in a bit of cinnamon too, because cinnamon and pumpkin kind of belong together.  They're basically soul mates.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we then drizzled caramel all over them?  Because we totally did that.  Are you really surprised that there was caramel involved?  Nope, didn't think so.

Pumpkin Scones

by: Jordyn & Kelsey

Ingredients:

Scones

1 cup pumpkin

1 tsp baking soda

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter, chilled (and cubed)

1 egg

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 350 F.

2)  In a medium sized bowl mix together pumpkin, baking soda and the egg.   Let this mixture sit while you combine dry ingredients separately.

3)  In a large bowl mix together the flour, white sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt.

4)  With a pastry blender cut in the chilled butter.  If you do not have a pastry blender, cut it into pieces with a knife before you add it, and then blend it with a fork.

5)  Now stir in the wet ingredients, careful not to over mix.  I usually end up with a mixture that resembles large crumbs and is a bit floury - rather than dough.

6)  Don't worry if it is a bit of a mess, dump it onto a lightly floured surface, and gently press it together until it sticks together.  (think biscuits or pie dough - you are NOT kneading bread!)

7)  Once it sticks together in a decent ball, cut it into 4 sections.

8)  Gently flatten out each section into a circle, and cut into 6 triangles.

9)  Transfer these triangles onto a baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until golden brown on the bottom.

While the scones are baking, make your caramel (we stuck ours in the fridge to help it cool down a bit quicker.

Remove the scones from the pan while they're still hot, and spoon the glaze over top (see below for recipe).  It should run nicely down the sides, and then harden a bit.

We chose to make our own caramel, and then added a bit of icing sugar to make it a glaze.

Homemade Caramel

1/2 cup Sugar

3 TBSP Butter (we used salted butter!)

1/4 cup Whipping Cream

1)  The most important thing to do first is to assemble all of your ingredients!  Once your sugar mixture has reached the right colour, you'll need to move fairly quickly, and don't want to be fussing around with measuring out the other ingredients.

2)  Place your sugar in a medium saucepan, and melt at a medium heat.  Once it begins to melt, you'll want to start whisking it. (You can also add a tad of water if you don't feel comfortable melting dry sugar!).

3)  Once the sugar starts to boil, you can stop whisking, and wait for it to turn a light amber colour.

4)  When it's light amber, then add your butter, and stir like crazy!

5)  As soon as the butter has completely melted, remove from heat and add the whipping cream.  Again, stir like crazy! (Be cautious when adding the cream as it will foam a lot!)

6)  Let the caramel cool for a bit, and then you can move it to a heat proof container and pop it in the fridge to help hurry up the cooling process.

7)  To make it into a glaze, slowly add a bit of icing sugar until the caramel is a bit thicker.  How much icing sugar you add depends on how thick you want your glaze! 

Now dig in!

These scones make the perfect addition to all of the wonderfully foggy Fall mornings we've been having out here on the West Coast!  Well, let's be real here.  They make the perfect addition to basically any morning, anywhere.

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey & jordyn

diy: TARDIS painted pumpkin

I really really love Doctor Who.

If you didn't know that before, I'm sure it's blatantly obvious now.

(Remember the

TARDIS shoe diy

?  More proof.)

This pumpkin actually has a funny story behind it.  I found it while we were harvesting pumpkins about 6 weeks ago, and I thought to myself: "What a strange looking pumpkin.  It's almost shaped like a rectangle!".  I instantly knew that it had to be mine, and that I was going to paint it like a TARDIS.  So here we are!  I painted it like a TARDIS, and am quite pleased with it.

Materials:

-blue paint

-black paint

-white paint

-paintbrushes (one large, one small)

-white paint pen

-a lot of patience

Directions:

First I washed and dried my pumpkin to ensure no dirt remained.  Then I painted 2 coats of blue paint over the whole thing, letting each coat completely dry before applying the next.  Next, I used a small paintbrush to paint fine black lines along the "corner edges" of the TARDIS, and let it dry.  I used a pencil to then outline the black rectangle at the top of each side (where "Police Public Call Box" will go), as well as the 8 panels on each side. I painted the black boxes in, as well as mixed a dark blue colour to outline each panel.  After everything was dry, I wrote out Police Public Call Box using pencil first, and then used a white paint pen to write over top of it.  I printed out the little sign for the front door, and stuck it on with double sided tape!  

{*Update: I fixed the missing windows :P  so now it looks much better}

Let it dry, and you're good to go!

Happy pumpkin painting!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey

diy: dip-dye glitter pumpkins

Oh man, am I ever in love with my latest project!  Dip-dye glitter pumpkins!

I've had this idea in my head for a while, and was so happy that it came out exactly like I wanted.  Kind of rustic/farm-y mixed with glam.

I think these would make such fun and versatile decorations, from adding a bit of sparkle to your home, or they could even be used as part of a center piece for Thanksgiving or a Fall wedding.

Materials:

-pumpkin(s)

-glitter

-modgepodge

-tape

-paintbrush

Instructions:

1)  First make sure your pumpkins are clean and dry.

2)  I chose to only glitter half of my pumpkins, so I used masking tape to tape about halfway down my pumpkin.  Or you could freehand it if you really wanted to.

3)  Paint on modgepodge wherever you want glitter, then sprinkle glitter generously over the modgepodge.

4)  Shake off extra glitter, and touch up any spots you missed.

5)  Once your pumpkins have completely dried, it's a good idea to gently paint on another coat of modge podge!  This will dry clear (I promise...mine did!), and will help keep the glitter from getting on absolutely everything.

I hope you all have a fun and tasty Thanksgiving weekend!  Our farm is going to be absolutely bonkers busy, but I'm thankful that I get to spend it with my family!

p.s.

 ♥ kelsey