Little House on the Prairie Cookbook Pumpkin Pie
Learn how to make the Little House on the Prairie Cookbook Pumpkin Pie just like Ma Ingalls made it! (Recipe adapted from the Little House Cookbook by Barbara M. Walker.)
Servings: 8 servings
Equipment
- Pie plate
- Medium mixing bowl
- Pastry cutter, optional
Ingredients
Pie Dough
- 1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour Have extra flour on hand for dusting the dough before rolling it out.
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/3 cup Lard, preferably cold
- 1/2 tsp Butter, preferably cold You will need additional butter to grease the pie plate. Alternatively, you could also use lard.
- 1-2 tbsp Cold water
Pumpkin Pie Custard Filling
- 2 cups Pumpkin purée You can make your pumpkin purée homemade by stewing raw pumpkin until cooked, or you can use canned pumpkin. A 15 ounce can of pumpkin purée equals 1 3/4 cups, so you will need an additional 1/4 cup of purée from a second can.
- 2 large Eggs
- 2/3 cup Maple sugar You can substitute 2/3 cup of light brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of maple flavoring.
- 1 1/4 cups Milk, whole (full-fat) The original recipe calls for "Rich milk." It is believed to be equivalent to whole milk or full-fat milk. Or you can substitute half and half or evaporated milk. Any of these will work. Regardless of what you use, the amount is the same.
- 1 pinch Salt
- 1 tsp Pumpkin pie spice The original recipe calls for cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, or "a pinch of whatever you have."
Instructions
Instructions for Making the Pie Crust
- Place the flour and the salt into a medium mixing bowl and whisk to incorporate the salt.
- Add the lard and the butter to the flour mixture and blend in the fat using a pastry cutter, two knives, or two forks. The mixture should look like coarse sand with pebbles in it.
- Add the cold water starting with only one tablespoon. If the dough begins to come together do not add any more water. You can test this by pinching some of the dough between your fingers. If it stays together, it does not need any more water. If it is still too dry to stay together, add more water one teaspoon at a time.
- Dump the mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap. Using your hands, bring the plastic wrap up and around the dough and shape it into a disk. (See video.)
- Use the plastic to wrap the dough and then refrigerate it for at least 20 minutes. You can refrigerate the dough for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 6 months.
- While the dough is chilling, prepare the pumpkin pie custard filling and set it aside. (You can refrigerate this mixture while you roll out your dough, but I did not.)
- Grease the pie plate well with butter or lard and set it aside. (If you want, you can refrigerate your greased pie plate while you roll out your dough. This is what I did.)
- Once the dough has chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and unwrap it from the plastic wrap. Place the dough on a floured surface and dust the top of the dough with flour.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is 2 inches larger than the diameter of the pie plate. (See video.)
- As you roll the dough, start from the center and roll out to the edge of the dough and after two or three rolls, rotate the dough to prevent it from sticking to the floured surface. If it is sticking, add additional flour for dusting.
- Once the dough is rolled out, transfer it to the pie plate using the rolling pin and place the dough into the pie plate.
- Using your fingers, gently press the pie dough into the pie plate and trim off any extra overhang, leaving only one inch of dough hanging over the edge of the pie plate. (See video.)
- Tuck in the one-inch dough overhang around the rim of the pie plate.
- If desired, crimp the rim of the dough using the index finger or knuckle of one hand and the thumb and index finger of the other hand. (See video.)
Instructions for Making the Pumpkin Pie Custard Filling
- Place the eggs into a large mixing bowl and beat well using a whisk or a fork.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the eggs and mix them together well.
Instructions for How to Make the Pumpkin Pie
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Pour the pumpkin pie custard filling into the prepared pie crust and place the pie into the preheated oven. (I placed my pie on the rack in the lower third of my oven to ensure the crust would bake sufficiently since we did not pre-bake the crust. However, this specific placement was not mentioned in the original recipe, so you can place your pie on the middle rack of your oven if you want.)
- After 10 minutes, lower the oven temperature from 425°F to 350°F and continue to bake the pie for an additional 30-40 minutes until the crust is a golden brown and a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean.
- When fully baked, remove the pie from the oven and place it on a cooling rack. Allow to cool to room temperature and serve. (The original recipe says to not chill the pie before serving. However, I did chill the leftovers, and the crust held up quite well the next day, so you could possibly make this pie a day in advance.)
Video
Notes
Find this recipe and video at https://marysnest.com/how-to-make-the-little-house-on-the-prairie-cookbook-pumpkin-pie/
Learn how to make homemade lard at https://marysnest.com/how-to-make-lard-the-right-way/
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