Jan’s Five-fold Ginger Pumpkin Pie

Adapted from a recipe on the Kitchn.

Jan usually makes the deserts for our Sunday meals.  She made this to go with my Shepard’s Pie and it is defiantly a keeper.  Her motto is “Never Too Much Ginger!”

Jan’s Five-fold Ginger Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

Crust

2 cup Trader Joe’s Triple Ginger Snaps, crushed
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling

1                Pumpkin pie pumpkin
1 cup       Evaporated milk
3                Eggs
2 Tbs.      Fresh ginger, grated
2/3 cup   Brown sugar
1 tsp.         Cinnamon
1 tsp.         Powered ginger
½ tsp.      Nutmeg
1/8 tsp.   White pepper
1/8 tsp.    Salt
5                 Ginger snaps, crushed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Crush the ginger snaps and mix with the melted butter.  Press the mix into a pie tin to form the crust.

3.  Use a pie crust shield or tinfoil to protect the upper edge of the crust and bake for 10 minutes.  Cool completely.

4. Cut pumpkin in quarters.  Remove seeds and strings (reserve seeds to brine and toast).

5. Place pumpkin quarters in a steamer and cook for 20-34  minutes, until a knife slides in easily.

6. Let pumpkin cool and scrape the flesh from the skin (or using a paring knife to cut the peel away).

7. If necessary chop up the pumpkin and, in 1 cup batches, put pumpkin bits into a potato ricer. Start squeezing the ricer over a small bowl.  Excess fluid will come out before the flesh starts to come through the holes, discard this fluid. Rice the pumpkin into a medium bowl and lay a few sheets of paper towel onto to absorb more excess fluid. Set the puree aside.

8. Place the milk, eggs, and ginger into a large bowl and use a mixer to blend them.

9. Add the pumpkin puree, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper and salt and continue blending.

10 Preheat the oven to 400°.

11. Stir in the 5 crushed ginger snaps and let the mix rest for 5 minutes.

12.  Pour the filling into the pie crust (do not over fill). Any remaining mix may be poured into custard cups and baked for 30-40 minutes in the same over as the pie.

13. Replace the pie crust shield (or tin foil) and bake for 50 minutes (until a tooth pick comes out clean).