Best Pumpkin Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

So, it's pumpkin pie time folks!  Pumpkin pie, muffins, bread, cake, soup, seeds, etc.  All yummy, delectable treats made especially for the chilly Fall season. 

For those of you who are baking challenged and want a fresh pumpkin pie of your own, you can hire this guy for a quick dessert:

If you'd rather bake your very own pie, check out this awesome pumpkin pie recipe below which makes a 9" pie.

Scrumptious Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 can (12 fl. oz.) Evaporated Milk
1 Graham Cracker Crust (Recipe Below)
Whipped cream (optional)

Directions

MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours***. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving. 

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Directions

1. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter or margarine, and cinnamon until well blended . Press mixture into an 8 or 9 inch pie plate.
2. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 7 minutes. Cool. If recipe calls for unbaked pie shell, just chill for about 1 hour.

***Awesome pie cooling tip- this pie is a pumpkin custard, so this means you need to cool it slowly to prevent the pie top from cracking.  Simple way- turn the oven off when *almost* finished (the edges are cooked but the middle is still shiny and slightly jiggly.)  Prop the oven door slightly open with a wooden spoon and let pie cool for an hour inside the oven which is off.  Then take the pie out and let cool the rest of the way on the counter.  Voila, no cracks!  The center will have cooked in the cooling process.
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I scream, you scream, we all scream for... (Updated)

...cake!  The Scream cake that is!

This weekend the DH and I went to a Scary Movie Party.  My task was to bring the cake in a spooky theme, and so I searched online for some caketastic ideas and found this cake design on the Wilton website.  It resembles the famous The Scream painting by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch:

There have been many great parodies of this chilling painting such as:

I figured if Homer can make this, then I can too, with cake!  The only question was, how was I going to make a tasty cake when it is going to have so much fondant on it?  I'm not a huge fan of Wilton's playdough tasting fondant so I researched and discovered marshmallow fondant.  

I decided to make my marshmallow fondant, which tastes a thousand times better than Wilton's fondant and costs a sixteenth of Wilton's $20 per 2lb tubs.  You can make marshmallow fondant (mmf) up to a month in advance, just store it in double wrapped cling wrap and then place inside a ziplock bag.  Do not refrigerate or it will break down due to the moisture in the fridge.

Here is the recipe for marshmallow fondant:

Ingredients

   16 oz of mini marshmallows
   2 to 4 Tablespoons of water

   2 LBS powdered sugar
   1/2 Cup of Crisco (for fingers and counter)


Instructions 

1.  Melt marshmallows and 2 Tablespoons of water in microwave until completely melted (approximately 1 minute 30 seconds).  

2.  Once melted, stir until completely smooth.  (Note: you can add food gel coloring at this point and stir to mix.  Much easier than kneading it in later.  This only works if you want one color for the whole batch.) Then add 2/3 of the powdered sugar. 

3.  Mix with a spoon unil you can't anymore, and then put Crisco on your hands and start kneading. 

4.  Once it's mixed well, put Crisco on your counter and knead until completely smooth.  

5.  It works better if you let it rest in an airtight container or zip lot bag and let it cool down for 24 hours, then use.  If it is necessary, it can be used immediately.

6.  If you find the fondant is tearing easily, it is too dry.  Add 1/2 Teaspoon at a time of water and knead it in until it is stretchy again.

The trick to making black fondant is to use the recipe above but add in some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips after melting the marshmallows and stir until melted and blended.  Then you can add your black gel food coloring and mix in until it reaches the blackest it can be.  This will be about 2 tsp per bag of marshmallows.  Here is the recipe from Cakecentral.com but note the recipe is calling for a 10.5 oz bag of marshmallows in the recipe instead of the above 16oz bag.  

Black Marshmallow Fondant

Ingredients

   6 oz. of semi sweet chocolate chips (about half of a bag)
   1 10.5 oz bag of mini marshmallows
   3 tbsp. of clear Karo syrup
   3 tbsp. water
   1 1lb. bag of powdered sugar
   gel black food coloring
   Crisco

Instructions

1.  Put your marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl, add the water, and microwave on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds. When marshmallows come out they will be HOT.

2.  Stir, scraping the sides with a scraper. Immediately add your chocolate chips, and stir until the chips are completely melted.

3.  Add your Karo syrup and stir again, this time with a butter knife, making sure that all of your syrup is incorporated.

4.  Add a good amount of black gel food coloring, and stir again with your knife, making sure that you scrape around the edges. 

5.  Once your mixture is the blackest black that you can get, (I added about 2 tsp. of the gel coloring) then add about half of your bag of powdered sugar, and stir until the mixture is thick, with your knife. 

6.  Grease your hands liberally with Crisco and add the rest of the powdered sugar to the bowl. Knead your fondant until all of the powdered sugar is gone. 

7.  Store for up to a month wrapped in plastic wrap, sealed in a gallon Ziploc, and stored in an airtight container.

I also made my own own apricot filling called Lekvar (Hungarian).  The apricot Lekvar was so easy and tasted great.  I am now inspired to make my own Hamentashen when Purim rolls around in March.

The following Lekvar recipe yields about 2.5 cups of Lekvar.  You can use either prunes or apricots.

Ingredients

  1 1/2 cups pitted prunes, lightly packed

  2/3 cup water

  1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

  3 tablespoons lemon juice

  1/3 cup brown sugar

Directions

1. Simmer all ingredients, except brown sugar, covered 25- 30 minutes until very soft and most of water is evaporated.
2. Uncover last few minutes if necessary.
3. Remove from heat and mash.
4. Stir in brown sugar.
5. You can keep Lekvar in the refrigerator for a long time.
6. Store in a canning jar.

Unfortunately I made the cake with a boxed chocolate cake mix and the containers of chocolate frosting that you can buy from Duncan Hines or the like.  This made the cake taste cheap and overly sweet, and completely overpowered the delicate flavor of the apricot.  Next time I will make my own cake batter and use a light buttercream to hold the fondant on.  I'm considering making an orange cake to go with the apricot filling next time.  What flavor cake do you think would taste best with an apricot filling?  Comment your thoughts below!

***UPDATE:  I have submitted this recipe as November's YBR submission.  For more information of what YBR is, click on the button below which will take you to Spicie Foodie's site:

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