Thanksgiving Note to Self: the right pumpkin filling

My mother-in-law used to always do Thanksgiving. She cooked everything and we would take care of the sides, but as she gets older, more and more of the Thanksgiving dishes have moved to us. This year has been a change year for her. She stopped driving and that has been the start of stopping other things until this Thanksgiving, the whole thing was given over to us. The pies, which were always her thing went to me without any recipe so I have to battle memory of taste as well as my procrastination that comes with not having a plan.

The verdict on my very first pumpkin pie (seriously, I have been married for 27 years and I have never made a pumpkin pie because my mother in law has ALWAYS made it):

Thumbs up on the filling - work on the crust. My mom took the leftover pie home.

Note to self for next year: if I don't want to use store bought pie crust, mix the crust ahead of time and put it in the refrigerator. Also, practice before the "show."

The filling was a keeper, so I just need to work on crust.

From: Suzanne's Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie (original recipe here)

Ingredients

• 2 cups canned pumpkin puree (the original recipe talks about making fresh sugar pumpkin pulp, but in my small town in the middle of the Pacific, it is not something locally available)
• 1 12oz. can evaporated milk (or 1 1/2 cup heavy cream)
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs plus one yolk
• 3 1/2 - 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I make my own)
• 1/2 tsp. lemon zest

You also need a good deep dish crust, which I don't have yet. But when I do, I will link it here.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. 
2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Mix in the sugars, salt, spices and lemon zest. Mix in the pumpkin puree. Stir in the cream and beat together until everything is mixed. (I like the dark color of the filling, probably from the brown sugar, but I really despise lemony orange colored pumpkin pies.)
3. Pour the filling into an uncooked pie shell.* Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. **After the 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 45 - 55 minutes more, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. 
4. Let the pie rest for about 2 hours and serve with whipped cream (traditional, but my family does not like whipped cream so I cannot rely on the whipped cream to hide any flaws)

Notes:

* I had much more filling than my one 9" deep dish pie crust would hold, but not enough to make another pie, so I put it in an oven ramekin and baked it alongside my pie so I could try a crustless pie. Next time, I am going to put it in smaller ramekins, put it in a water bath and see if I can make it more brulee custard ish.

** After 15 minutes (I think my oven is running hot), I had to already put foil on my crust because it was at the right color.