Easy Pie #1 - Pumpkin

This pie is called Easy Pumpkin Pie with Press-In Shortbread Crust. I found the recipe in the 2009 fall issue of Martha Stewart Living. It really was easy, and didn't take much time at all to prep. It did however, take a lot of oven time. Which was okay with me since it gave me plenty of time to keep reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Have any of you read this? I am about three-quarters finished and I cannot put it down! I stayed up until 12:30a reading it last night.

Recipe is as follows:

Press-In Shortbread
4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3 tbsp sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 C flour
1 tsp coarse salt

Stir together butter and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir in yolk. Add flour and salt, and stir until mixture is dry and crumbly. Press dough into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake, roating half-way through, just until crust turns golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack.

Pumpkin Pie filling
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
1 C heavy cream
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon*
1/2 tsp ground ginger*
1/4 tsp ground allspice*
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

*I used about a tbsp of pumpkin pie spice instead.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk all ingredients but eggs in a large bowl. Lightly beat eggs in a separate bowl and add to pumpkin mixture.

Pour filling into prepared piecrust. Bake for 65-70 minutes, rotating halfway through, until filling is just set but still a bit wobbly and slightly puffed.
Cool on wire rack completely. It's the perfect pie to make the night before as it takes at least 6 hours to chill.

This pie is DELICIOUS. So good. I think this is my new go-to-pumpkin-pie recipe. The shortbread crust is nice and soft, not crispy like I thought it would be. I think it will be fun to try this with a graham cracker or cream cheese pie crust.

One pie down, three to go!