Ingredients

• 3 cups (1.25 lbs.) of raw, peeled carrots
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

Instructions

1. Peel the carrots. Cut into small pieces.
2. Put the carrots in a pan of water (enough to cover the carrots and provide a little room for them to swim around). Bring the water to a boil. Reduce heat and cook on a low boil/simmer for 20 minutes. Alternatively, you can steam the carrots to preserve more of the nutrients
3. Puree the cooked carrots. A blender on a high setting works well (see my comment below). Apparently a food processor works well too. You could try hand crushing with a potato masher, or hand mixer, but I’m not sure you would be able to achieve the silky smooth texture you are looking for. TIP: I wasn’t able to really puree the carrots alone, so I added the can of evaporated milk to the carrots, while still in the blender.
4. Make the pie crust. For obvious reasons, the hand made pie crust is greatly preferred (see my comment below).
5. Mix the rest of the pie contents thoroughly, using a hand mixer or a spatula/spoon with a lot of effort.
6. Pour the mixture into a pie pan. You will have plenty to fill it to the brim, and probably some left over. Feel free to use the leftover mixture in a second, smaller, pie or “crustless” pie.
7. Bake at 400 F for the first 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F, and bake for another 45 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The center of the pie may puff up quite a bit during baking. It should settle back down as the pie cools.
8. Serve warm, or refrigerate until you are ready to eat.

Culinary Tradition
USA (traditional)
My Rating (out of 5 stars)
★★★★★

COMMENTS:

• I prefer to use the “old school” methods and equipment, when possible. However, a food processor or blender seems necessary to achieve the silky smooth texture we are looking for. Crushing the carrots by hand probably will not yield the same results.
• If you are going to the trouble of making this recipe, rather than using the pumpkin pie filling from a can or (gasp) buying a frozen pie, then you owe it to yourself and your family to make the pie crust. It’s not that difficult.
• Some people might compare this recipe to the Sweet Potato Pie (another one of my favorites), found at http://k-line.org/9/2010/03/16/sweet-potato-pie/. While the look is similar, most people won’t confuse the taste of Sweet Potato Pie with Carrot Pie or Pumpkin Pie.

Edgar Guest[1. SOURCE: Poets.org] (1881 – 1959)

(Some people[1. e.g. Tom Truex] consider raisin pie to be the high water mark in the American culinary arts. There is tasty recipe for old fashioned Raisin Pie on this blOg.)

Raisin Pie by Edgar Guest

THERE’S a heap of pent-up goodness in the yellow bantam corn,
And I sort o’ like to linger round a berry patch at morn;
Oh, the Lord has set our table with a stock o’ things to eat
An’ there’s just enough o’ bitter in the blend to cut the sweet,
But I run the whole list over, an’ it seems somehow that I
Find the keenest sort o’ pleasure in a chunk o’ raisin pie.

There are pies that start the water circulatin’ in the mouth;
There are pies that wear the flavor of the warm an’ sunny south;
Some with oriental spices spur the drowsy appetite
An’ just fill a fellow’s being with a thrill o’ real delight;
But for downright solid goodness that comes drippin’ from the sky
There is nothing quite the equal of a chunk o’ raisin pie.

I’m admittin’ tastes are diff’runt, I’m not settin’ up myself
As the judge an’ final critic of the good things on the shelf.
I’m sort o’ payin’ tribute to a simple joy on earth,
Sort o’ feebly testifyin’ to its lasting charm an’ worth,
An’ I’ll hold to this conclusion till it comes my time to die,
That there’s no dessert that’s finer than a chunk o’ raisin pie.

Guest broadcast a weekly program on NBC radio from 1931 to 1942. In 1951, he began “A Guest in Your Home” on NBC TV. Guest published more than twenty volumes of poetry. It is estimated that he wrote over 11,000 poems. Guest has been called “the poet of the people.” His poems usually portrayed a sentimental view of everyday life. He considered himself “a newspaper man who wrote verses.” Edgar Guest died on August 5, 1959.

FOOTNOTES: