Easy Pumpkin Pie

I've been AWOL for the last 2 weeks, as it's been half-term and before that work was VERY busy! I have barely done any cooking or baking during this time because we have been out and about and staying with family. The only exception was making a fruit crumble with my niece, who became fixated with the idea of blackberry crumble after seeing it in a children's tv programme. A bit awkward when blackberries are going oput of season, but the freezer section saved the day!

Once we got back, I had itchy fingers to make something, anything food-related! My husband requested pumpkin pie- very seasonal with Halloween around the corner and Thanksgiving on the way. Luckily, I had some tins of pumpkin puree handy as my mum had brought some back from America thanks to our family friends from Texas.

I am a big fan of pumpkin pie myself. The first time I ate it was in Norway, where we were living at the time, were at a Thanksgiving party throw by some American neighbours. I vividly remember eating it and wanting some more. It was the texture and the spices that made it so delicious I think.

The tricky part about making pumpkin pie in the UK is that you would normally have to use fresh pumpkin, chop it up, boil it down, cool it, puree it and so on. However, the tinned pumpkin puree that the Americans take for granted is becoming more available here. It's usually freely available at Waitrose and Ocado, although quite pricey at around �2 a tin. You can also buy it on Amazon but it tends to be even more expensive there. If you can get hold of some, then you can save yourself a lot of time!

For this easy pumpkin pie recipe, I used shop-bought shortcrust pastry to cut the time down even more, but if you would like to make it from scratch, go ahead. I prefer to use an unsweetened pastry because I think there is enough sweetness in the pumpkin filling already, but if you have a sweet tooth, you could use a dessert pastry.

This recipe makes a massive amount of pie, just to warn you! It's mainly so that you can use up a full tin of the pumpkin puree, rather than having half leftover. You could make two full pies, or, as I did today, one full pie and around 20 mini pies or even 40 mini pies. They freeze well, so you don't need to eat them all in one go!

Pumpkin pie is often served with whipped cream, but I went with ice cream today. Both are delicious!