Mabinogi Pumpkin Pie

Makes 16 servings (serving a crowd?)

2 ½ cups cooked pumpkin (see note)
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinammon
½ teaspoon ground clove
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/3 cups evaporated milk
½ cup molasses
2 unbaked 9-inch-wide deep dish pie shells

Method

Preheat oven to 375°. With a mixer, whip together the eggs and pumpkin. Then add the sugar, salt, and spices. Lastly, add the milk and molasses. Pour into the pie shells and bake 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Notes

Back in the good ols days when er were feeding fewer and could take the time to make these from scratch, we'd precook a medium pumpkin, halved, face down in a moderate oven for about an hour, then scoup out and pureé the pulp in a blender or food processor to yield about 2½ cups of cooked pumpkin.

Pumpkin is of course a New World vegetable, but has so long been associated with our Samhain celebrations that we need not justiy its inclusion in our menu. Ayto argues that the reason pumpkin isn't common in British cooking is because it grows so poorly in the cold clime and, by contrast, is popular in France where it grows well.

Beware! The measurement of the spices here is a conservative approximation; our staff cooks by taste, not measure. The original recipe is based upon Lady Brangwain's, and her inclusion of molasses, which some consider a secret ingredient, is really quite traditional: Herbst relates the tale of one early colony postponing its Thanksgiving celebration because the molasses for the pumpkin pie wasn't available.

Suggestions

Some gourmands demand a whipped cream topping. Not us, but we are often tempted to decorate with shaved semisweet chocolate to give it a pre-Columbian tang.

First served: unknown
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Last modified: © November 2001