mMmmm I am eating my pumpkin pie - delicious!

yes steamed it risks being watery and tasteless

stew it as Riponite suggests? you're not adding anything that will upset the diet sheet, just cooking it differently

hmm, no I'm in a dilemma. I picked that one up for 99p but if its so watery it might not have enough calories in for dd.
She is on a special diet and is allowed 45 g pumpkin (steamed) in a meal as all her carbs are calculated (she's allowed 8g a day)
So too watery might mean not enough cals and carbs?
argh.
It was pretty stringy too.

riven you can eat the carving ones but they just won;'t be as tasty. Like Riponite says they are more watery as they're bred for size and carvability not flavour

I noticd the flesh of the carving ones was very very pale while the ones sold as 'sugar pumpkins' was bright orange. Does this mean we cant eat the carving ones?

Going to make pumpkin pie today...

Thanks Riponite, I made the pie tonight, except it turned into two pies as the pie shell was quite shallow. I wish I'd read your advice prior to starting!

I boiled up the pumpkin with an inch of water as recommended by the recipe I was following. I probably didn't quite do it for long enough, about 20 min. Then I drained it through a sieve til it was like pulp, and mashed it. It was still too fibrous to go through a sieve so decided to just finish it off as it was.

The texture isn't sticky like a treacle tart, and it's not very sweet despite using condensed milk, but it was still nice. Needed to use a much deeper pie case really. And probably a smaller pumpkin/squash, because I've heard carving pumpkins aren't actually that good for cooking with.

If you cut all the flesh out of your carving pumpkins and stew it down in a pan, no water added, it will produce a huge amount of water, if you keep it cooking it will reduce to about a quarter of the volume and actually taste of something, as well as make a better consistency pudding. You don't need to do this with little eating pumpkins so much, but the big ones are very watery.

Thanks paisleyleaf, that recipe looks good!

Pumpkin Pie

* 175g/6oz plain flour
* 75g/3oz butter
* 100g caster sugar
* 2 tbsp cold water
* pinch salt
* 450 g (1 lb) prepared weight pumpkin flesh, cut into 2.5 cm (1 in) chunks
* 2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
* ½ tsp ground allspice
* ½ tsp ground cloves
* ½ tsp ground ginger
* 275 ml (10 fl.oz) double cream

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 2 tablespoons of cold water to mix it into a firm dough, then wrap it in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make the filling, steam the pumpkin, then put it in a sieve and press lightly to extract any excess water. Then lightly whisk the eggs and the extra yolk together in a large bowl. Place the sugar, spices and cream in a pan, bring them to simmering point, stirring with a whisk regularly. Then pour this mixture over the eggs and whisk it again briefly.

Now add the pumpkin pureé, still whisking everything until it is thoroughly combined. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, then use it to line a 20cm flan dish. Prick the entire surface with a fork and bake blind at 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5 for 15 minutes until just firm to the touch.

Then pour the filling into your pastry case and bake for 35-40 minutes, by which time it will puff up round the edges but still feel slightly wobbly in the centre. Then remove it from the oven and place the tin on a wire cooling rack. Serve chilled (stored loosely covered in foil in the fridge) with some equally chilled créme fraïche, but warm or at room temperature would be fine.

LOL just got back and read this, god I'm an idiot, don't even know where that came from!

Ahem, yes, FOOD processor, everyone...