Pumpkin Pie Baked in a Pumpkin

It works! You really can make a pie in a pumpkin. The trick is knowing whether your pumpkin is ripe, because one of mine was a lot riper than the other. However, I have no idea how you judge this without cutting open the pumpkin. The ripe one was a lot easier to cut into, so I suppose it must have felt a little softer from the outside? It was darker too. I found them at Wal-Mart in the fruit section...make sure you don't try this with a carving pumpkin. They're too big and too watery.

Here's what I did:

Cut open two pie pumpkins and scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff. You won't be able to get all of the stringy stuff - at least I couldn't - but get as much as you can. I roasted the seeds with salt and pepper, but that requires a lot of washing and picking off slimy pumpkin guts, so if you're going for speed, just toss the seeds.

Next, put some butter (a tablespoon or so) in each of the pumpkins and stick them in the oven at 350 (without the tops). Put them on a cookie sheet, because stuff will ooze out the bottom. Bake them for about an hour.

Take one of the pumpkins and peel off the skin. This should be easy to do; if not, stick it back in and cook it longer. Cut the pumpkin flesh into chunks, then put it in a bowl and beat it with a mixer. I strained mine, but that took forever and I'm not sure that it really did anything. Add two eggs, a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, 1/4 cup honey, and 1/4 cup brown sugar (substitute maple syrup if you're going for an authentic pilgrim experience, because they didn't have sugar when they first arrived). Beat until combined.

Pour the mixture into the other pumpkin until it's about 80% of the way full. You can use the extra to make a traditional pumpkin pie, or pour it into small glass or ceramic dishes and bake them like custards. Put the top on the pumpkin, slightly askew, and stick it back in the oven. Bake at 400 until the filling is set (pudding vs. soupy consistency), which took about an hour for mine.

Peel the skin from the pumpkin and slice it into wedges. Serve with whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon. If you don't like squash, you won't like the pumpkin flesh, but I thought it was great. It tastes just like acorn squash except maybe a little bit sweeter.