With all the ranting and raving over 'Winter Luxury' pie pumpkins , I just had to try them and see if their pies really stood up to the challenge. So this year I took the extra time to process these pumpkins the old-fashioned way for pie. At the end of the day making pumpkin mash is not that difficult, and the results are worth the effort. The pumpkin yielded was super smooth and sweet, and my Thanksgiving company affirmed the pies were sensational. (So much so I'm planning on making fresh pies for Christmas too.)


'Winter Luxury' is a beautiful medium to small pumpkin with thin, netted skin and dense, sweet orange flesh.


The relatively thin walls of this pumpkin hold very dense flesh. The seeds are also thin-coated and great for roasting.

Roasting is my favorite method for making pumpkin mash because it enhances the sweetness of the fruit. For roasting, cut your pumpkins in half and clean out the seeds. Be sure to also put the seeds aside for roasting. The clean pumpkin halves can then be turned upside down onto a lightly oiled pan and placed in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for around 30 minutes or until fork-tender. The inverted pumpkins steam and stay moist in the oven. The skins of 'Winter Luxury' are very thin and can be pierced from the outside, but thicker-skinned pumpkins will need to be turned around and pierced from the interior for the fork test.


Inverted pumpkins ready for roasting



After roasting, scoop the pumpkin shells out.

Let the roasted pumpkin shells cool and then scoop them out and put the flesh in a food mill to mill out any strings. I like to make double sure my pumpkin is super smooth, so I take the milled pumpkin and put it in a blender or food processor after milling.


The first milled pumpkin mash can be placed in a blender to puree a second time with the additional pumpkin pie ingredients.

Before the mash goes into the blender, I measure two cups in accordance to my favorite pumpkin pie recipe:

Rich Pumpkin Pie

3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large eggs
2 cups pumpkin mash
1 cup half-and-half or heavy cream
1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell
(Makes one pie)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Throw all the spices and wet ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth and well-mixed. Pour into a chilled prepared pie shell and bake for around 45 to 50 minutes or until the pie's center is no longer jiggly and a toothpick can be inserted in the center and come out clean. Once the pie is cool, cut a slice and hit it with a mountain of fresh whipped cream.


Bake the pies until firm and fragrant.