This is it!! It’s the biggest eating season of the year! After we finish off all the Halloween candy in the house, it’s pretty much a gorge-fest until Valentine’s Day. And if you are going to eat four times your weight in food this holiday season, why not make it really good food? So I am re-running this fantastic pumpkin pie from the master of horror, Vincent Price. We made this pie last year on Halloween for the Vincent Price Cookalong, and it was seriously a pumpkin pie revelation. This is the pie I am making for this Thanksgiving, and you should make it, too. It is really a great pie and very simple to make!
Well, since tomorrow is Halloween we thought we would do things up right around here and make a recipe from Vincent Price! And yes, it is because the Vincent Price Cookalong is going to be this Monday, November 4th. We are pretty excited around here, and so we decided to celebrate with pie.
Vincent Price’s pumpkin pie, to be exact.
AuthorRetroRuth
From Come Into The Kitchen Cook Book, Mary and Vincent Price, 1969
Tested Recipe!
[cooked-sharing]
If making your own pie shell, make the pie shell with a high scalloped edge (*Ruth's Note: Or use a deep-dish pie plate), refrigerate for several hours.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a large bowl (with a pouring lip if you have one) combine the pumpkin with the eggs, then the cream, sugar, salt and spices. Blend well and pour into the chilled pie shell.
Bake for 15 mins, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 50-65 minutes more, or until knife inserted in center of the pie comes out with only a few flecks clinging to it.
Chill before serving.
Yield: Makes about 8 servings.
Ingredients
Directions
If making your own pie shell, make the pie shell with a high scalloped edge (*Ruth's Note: Or use a deep-dish pie plate), refrigerate for several hours.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a large bowl (with a pouring lip if you have one) combine the pumpkin with the eggs, then the cream, sugar, salt and spices. Blend well and pour into the chilled pie shell.
Bake for 15 mins, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 50-65 minutes more, or until knife inserted in center of the pie comes out with only a few flecks clinging to it.
Chill before serving.
Yield: Makes about 8 servings.
Notes
Now, I have to admit there isn’t actually anything creepy or spooky about this pumpkin pie. Unless you don’t like mace. Then it’s pretty terrifying.
Actually, for me it was pretty scary. It turns out I need to improve my reading skills, because I had NO IDEA this recipe called for mace instead of cinnamon. None. Until I was making the recipe. Measuring the spices, actually.
“Oh, son of a…”
“What? Did you cut yourself?”
“No, I’m just an idiot. This pie doesn’t have any cinnamon in it. It has mace instead.”
“Wait..what?”
“I need mace for the pie.”
“You’re going to…mace…the pie?”
“No. I need mace the spice for the pie. Instead of cinnamon.”
“What the heck is that?”
“It’s like this weird little covering from around nutmeg, all ground up.”
“Oh, thank God. I thought you had finally lost it and you were going to mace the pie.”
So it was a late night trip to the store for me, where I purchased a $10 container of ground mace. Yippee.
On the positive side, this is the first time I’ve ever made a pumpkin pie without cinnamon. Also, this is the first time I’ve made a pumpkin pie without evaporated milk. Up until this point I had just been cranking out the recipe on the back of the Libby can every year at Thanksgiving.
Interestingly, this pie was much, much more orange than my normal pie. Probably because mace is considerably lighter in color than cinnamon!
“So, what’s this going to taste like?”
“I have no clue. You’d better get tasting!”
“Put the mace in my face.”
“This is pretty good.”
The Verdict: Yum!
The flavor of mace was strong and spicy, but not too strong. We didn’t even actually miss the cinnamon, as the mace has the same sort of spicy taste as cinnamon. The pie had a great, silky texture, much lighter than pies made with evaporated milk. Overall a good pie, and not scary at all. Unless, of course, you are a pumpkin.
Yummy. Not too far off from my mom’s “Tawny Pumpkin Pie” from an old, OLD edition of Betty Crocker’s Cook Book (if it’s not still in there, it should be). it’s the only pumpkin pie recipe I would ever consider. (I would also like to express my opinion, here and now, that the only pie made with evaporated milk should be key lime pie. And maybe not even that. You can never go wrong with good heavy cream.)
I made this for Thanksgiving this year. Hands down, the BEST pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. Time to kiss Libbys goodbye. Thank you for Sharing!
Ok don’t judge! I hate pie crust and traditional pumpkin pie. Would this recipe be ok for a Graham cracker crust? Would like to make a pumpkin pie that I may like for Thanksgiving. We usually make pecan pie, but some of us now have diabetes! So corn syrup is out!
No judgement here, trust me! 🙂 A graham cracker crust probably won’t work for this pie. The baking time is long, and the graham crackers would probably get too brown. My dad is diabetic, and I’ve made this for him before with no crust and sugar substitute. It turned out delicious, and you can still slice it and serve it as the pumpkin custard filling clings pretty well together without a crust, especially if you refrigerate it first.
You can also add a cheesecake layer under the pumpkin to give it some oomph (though you won’t be able to go crustless). You can make the cheesecake layer from the Mystery Pecan Pie http://www.midcenturymenu.com/2014/11/mystery-pecan-pie-1964-a-vintage-thanksgiving-recipe-re-run/ and add it under the pumpkin (but you will end up with lots of extra pumpkin filling – for more pies!). If you want to be really non-traditional, you can go no crust and portion the cheesecake out in ramekins, then top with some pumpkin pie mixture and have your guests dig into them with spoons. Hope this helps!