I don’t think so. My recipe uses brown sugar so it often has little dark bits on the top.

Looks good!

Fantastic, even more so for someone who's never baked before, or attempted a crust... two thumbs up!

Congratulations! Your grandpie is lovely!

How did I miss this? Great job, especially for a first try. It looks scrumptious.

Colleen, that looks better than "pretty good", it looks darned good! Good for your DD.

I'm surprised that pumpkin pie isn't common there in Oz, but I don't know why I'm surprised. Do pumpkins not grow well there?

Annie

Pumpkins do grow well here, but I guess as traditional food here is mostly British style, it’s mostly used for savoury dishes rather than sweet, though scones are an exception. Roasted chunks of pumpkin alongside a roasted meat would be the most common presentation.

Funnily enough, I’ve never had an Australian person I’ve served pumpkin pie to say they didn’t like it. Even DH, who doesn’t care for roasted pumpkin at all, likes pumpkin pie.

Wow. That is lovely and no way it looks like a first effort.

Do you have Halloween and pumpkin carving in Australia?

Halloween has been gradually catching on here over the past say, ten years or so, mainly as a product of TV and the internet. It’s still very uncommon to see trick or treaters, though this past year DH felt motivated to rush out and buy some treats just in case any came to our door (they didn’t). The larger supermarkets have started selling orange pumpkins (our traditional large pumpkins are sort of verdigris coloured) at Halloween in the past maybe three years but they’re a shocking price, about $15 or so iirc. No way would I buy one.

Colleen, I’d love to see your recipe. The one I’ve been using is ok, but I’d like to amp it up a bit.

Louise, here is the recipe as I sent it. I included lots of stuff about technique which I would have showed her had I been there in person but couldn't as she is on the other side of the country :-) If you decide to make your own mashed pumpkin, what we call Kent pumpkin (or sometimes Jap pumpkin) is called Kabocha squash in the US.

1 1/2 cups mashed pumpkin *
1 cup evaporated milk (Carnation brand type, not condensed milk)
2 large eggs
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 x 20cm pie shell, uncooked **

Preheat the oven to 425FC.
Mix filling ingredients together in a blender and whizz until smooth.
Let it stand about 5 minutes for the bubbles to settle. Pour about half
the mixture into the pie shell and place on oven rack. Pour the rest
of the mixture in (this helps avoid slopping it over the side as you put
a full dish onto the oven rack, because if it burns onto the hot oven
it won’t be pleasant ), and shut the oven door to let it bake for 15
minutes. After the 15 minutes, leave the pie alone but turn the oven
down to 350F and bake a further 50 minutes.
To test if it is done, a table knife stuck into the filling should come
out clean, or if you don’t want to put a hole in it, if you grip the
side of the pie and give it a firm shake back and forth, the filling
should only have a slight wobble.
(This works for quiche too .)
Cool and refrigerate.
Enjoy!

* To make mashed pumpkin, peel and cut into dice sized cubes either Kent
or butternut pumpkin and put into a microwave bowl without adding any
water. Cover and zap until done, maybe 10-15 minutes - check every so
often. Tip into a sieve if you have one or otherwise pour off as much
of the liquid as you can. Extra mashed pumpkin can be frozen and used
another day for pumpkin scones (I could send a recipe) or soup.

DD says she took some into work and her co-workers enjoyed it too :-D

Colleen, I think we tend to like sweeter things than some of the rest of the world, the manufacturers even put sugar in canned vegetables, which is something I find odd.

I did make a pie out of some mashed butternut and Hoikkado squash, as they were going bad in storage and I needed to use them up. I just hit the puree with the hand blender to make it smooth and went with my usual recipe and no one even knew the difference.

I'm going to try your recipe, though, I like the thought of the brown sugar, mine just uses white sugar, plus it uses two eggs. Mine only requires one, but I have LOTS of eggs, LOL.

I still need to make the pumpkin scones too, I'm thinking of trying a gluten free version this weekend when Amanda is here.

Annie

I've used my recipe forever, and it really is _my_ recipe. Years ago for some reason I sort of cobbled together aspects of different recipes I liked and liked the result. :-)

I know what you mean about the sweet tooth. When I have maple syrup and bacon together occasionally, Australians are horrified :-D But I don't care for really really sweet. There's an English pie called treacle tart which is a lot like pecanless pie, which DH likes and which make my teeth hurt just thinking about. And when I make pecan pie, which isn't often, there's a little less sugar and a shot of Jack Daniels to calm down the sugar that is there. DH also likes caramel slice, which is a bar cookie made with a pastry bottom, a caramel made of condensed milk in the middle and a thin layer of chocolate on top. That's another thing I don't make more than once in ten or so years because it makes my teeth hurt.

When we travelled in Tasmania, we thought Tasmanians had a sweet tooth. A lot of savoury dishes we had in restaurants had a weird sweetness to them which we didn't really enjoy. It was a bit disappointing as Tasmania has a reputation for being a gourmet's paradise.

Would Ike abig slice of it right now!