Week 23 3/4 - Atonement

I missed a week! I admit it. It happened. It's over. Let's move on. Last week just proved really busy and I've been doing most of my meals on Friday night since it tends to be a quiet night for us but then we went out of town on Friday night and I was all thrown off.

So I'm trying my best to make up for it this week with 2 recipes. As unbelievable as it seems, I never made a pumpkin pie before and we were having a fundraising bake sale at work so there's one opportunity handed to me.

This is a VERY good pumpkin pie and I appreciated not being pressured into making my own crust. The cream cheese gives it a nice smooth texture and the spice is just right - not too much to drown out the pumpkin but enough to have a nice festive flavor. I ended up having enough some leftover filling so probably could've done a couple pie-muffin type things had I been thinking ahead. But I didn't. But you could.

PUMPKIN PIE

Source: foodnetwork.com

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened - 2 C. canned pumpkin - 1 C. sugar - 1/4 tsp. salt - 1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten - 1 C. half-and-half - 1/4 C. (1/2 stick) melted butter - 1 tsp. vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon - 1/4 tsp. ground ginger (optional) - 1 piece pre-made pie dough - Whipped cream, for topping

1. Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough don into a 9-inch pie pan and press down along the bottom and all the sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Put the pie shell back into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. After removing pie crust from freezer, fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color.

3. For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half and melted butter and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon and ginger and beat until incorporated.

4. Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.