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Carrot Pie (fake pumpkin pie)

Most people will not guess this is carrot pie–it passes as a pretty good pumpkin pie. The recipe is for a 8 or 9 inch pie pan, but you will have MORE than enough.

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

Carrot Pie
Carrot Pie

  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.

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WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE PUNKIN

Today is the first day of Autumn

WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE PUNKIN

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bare-headed, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;
But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

Then your apples all is getherd, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too!…
I don’t know how to tell it—but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on ME—
I’d want to ‘commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

James Witcomb Riley, 1849-1916
WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE PUNKIN is one of the most famous poems of the great Hoosier Poet, James Whitcomb Riley


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