BPA Free Pumpkin Pie

Yes folks, it is the moment you have been waiting for. Either the moment when you don't have to worry about eating plastic (BPA) pie, or when Maega goes over the deep end (that happened a while back......) to make pie making way harder than it usually is. Well- o.k. the trade off between the extra work for a chemically free pie is totally worth it. And, in my opinion, it does taste better.

The fly in the coffee for me wasn't the pumpkin in the can, it was the evaporated milk in the can. How does one go about evaporating milk? Hmmm. Then the "Pick Your Own" website saved the day. I was looking at their recipe for pumpkin pie and noticed that someone from Europe asked how they could make evaporated milk because it isn't sold there. DING DING DING DING!!! There was my answer. It turns out, adding dry milk to low fat milk = evaporated milk.

The new process:

Cook down pumpkin (a pie pumpkin)- you can buy these at the farmers market for like $1. I bought 2 just in case, but one medium sized pumpkin should suffice. I like to cut the pumpkin into like 4 - 8 pieces (after scraping the seeds/innards out and the stringy guys off the inside) and put them skin side up in a pot with a steamer basket. Watch the water level so you don't burn the pan. When done, the pumpkin should be soft. Get the meat out of the skin and you are ready to...

Mash pumpkin- this can happen in a blender, food processor, KA food grinder (my preferred tool). If the pumpkin has any standing liquid, you should strain it. Grab some cheese cloth or something similar and tie it up in your fridge over a bowl over night. I did this for most of the pumpkin, and I froze a ton of it (in glass- not plastic). It keeps up to a year. If there isn't any liquid you are good to go.

Make pie!

You can follow the same recipe just as you would with canned pumpkin. Don't forget to use equal parts low fat milk to dry milk (whisked together) to sub the evap. milk.

Viola! BPA free pie you can feel good about. Or you can say that you were sucked into Maega Enthusiasm's propaganda against the EVIL BPA makers.