Food Network's Pumpkin Pie Adventure

Hey Everyone! I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving (and got in a bunch of holiday shopping). I took Thanksgiving as an opportunity to break the diet and indulge, and have been having a bit of a difficult time getting back on the health food wagon. Leftovers!

The Man and I decided to have a quiet Thanksgiving with just the two of us, being that our families are on what seems to be the other side of the universe. And by the two of us, I mean us as a couple, and a medium-sized feast. As there were only the two of us present, I elected to make only one dessert. Pumpkin Pie.

You may be surprised, considering my love for all things sweet, but I had never made a pumpkin pie before. Mostly because pumpkin used to be classified, to me at least, as a vegetable. And before my health kick, vegetables were dinner foods and fruit (like apple pie) makes an awesome breakfast. You can see why this health kick was needed. To me, chocolate was the only item classified as a dessert. Before this health kick, I had spent my baking endeavors mastering all variations of chocolate pie, brownies, cookies (chocolate!) and frosting, I mean, cake. This grown-up me is all about tackling the pumpkin pie.

I decided to visit my friends at foodnetwork.com and see what sort of pumpkin pie deliciousness is available to me. I found this recipe, and I was sold. It seemed like the perfect traditional pumpkin pie. I followed the recipe, mostly. I didn't make the crust from scratch as recommended. It's not that the recipe for the crust seemed difficult, The Man just isn't all that particular, and I decided to take a shortcut. I purchased a pack of six mini pre-made pie crusts, because I figured that mini is cuter and mini means if I eat a whole pie, I won't need to cry about it later.

They don't look as good as they were. I haven't mastered pretty pie yet.

You can see on the right here the mini pumpkin pies in all their adorableness. Those were for The Man. The ones on the left, while not adorable by any means, are obviously mine. I really tried to be an adult about this, but apparently I have not completely reformed my old ways after five months of healthiness. I just felt like if this was going to be my only dessert until Christmas, it needed something. So I reached into my pantry and pulled out some semi-sweet chocolate chips (how did those get there?), melted them down in the microwave, and globbed the not-totally-melted chocolate onto my already delicious pumpkin pie. Side note: I know you are not supposed to melt chocolate in the microwave. Chocolate burns. I did put it in for 45 seconds, taking it out ever 8-10 to stir it up. If the pies weren't already cooling and I had this brilliant idea a minute and a half before I was about to eat said pie, I would have followed the rules. Probably.

So there are chocolate pumpkin pies out there. It's a thing. I'm not weird. And when covered with a "healthy" serving of whipped cream and eaten with Amy Grant's Christmas collection at a high volume, you have a dynamite dessert. Another Side Note: Amy Grant's Christmas music is my favorite ever. My family listened to it every year while decorating the tree, and now the nostalgia has ruined most other Christmas music. I like a healthy mix, but if I am going to listen to just one artist's Christmas collection, Amy wins.

Back to the pie. Because the pies were mini, the cooking time was dramatically reduced. I put the mini pies on a baking sheet and they were in the oven for 30 minutes. It was the simplest (and most delicious) pumpkin pie I've ever made. So what if it is the only one?

Except it wasn't. Because the amount pie filling that the food network recipe calls for makes a hefty pumpkin pie, and my mini pies barely made a dent in my big bowl of filling. And now I have no pre-made pie crust. And it's now the day after Thanksgiving, when dessert has again become taboo. What's a girl to do?

Well, I guess I felt like wasting all this refrigerated pie filling was like littering or something. There are starving children in Africa who don't even care about Thanksgiving. I must make another pie, and then eat said pie with The Man. (All of my food-related issues are coming out in this blog post, folks.)

I didn't have the patience to make the pie filling on the Food Network. Mostly because if I didn't make the pie this second, I might have doubts and not be willing to eat said pie when my firm resolve returns. But I had a box of Bisquick. And I found a Bisquick pie crust recipe quickly (it was the first entry on Google when searching for "Bisquick pie crust"). Instead of baking the crust before putting the filling in (because my filling needs baked too), I put the pie filling on the raw dough and baked them all at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. And it turned out great. The pie filling was a little shallow on the full pie, because it is missing six mini pies-worth. But don't worry, that was supplemented by a layer of melted semi-sweet morsels. I don't have a picture of this, unfortunately, because time was of the essence. It was a pie of shame. And no one Instagrams day-after Thanksgiving meals.

The Man liked the chocolate as a thin layer, but said that a thicker layer made the pie too sweet. I could have just had a pie with a chocolate bar filling, and would have wanted more. I'll lay on the couch about this little episode later. Did you try any good recipes for Thanksgiving? What's your favorite pie recipe?