So, at this time of year I love to make a pumpkin pie. But I am not much of a pastry fan, so I sometimes make one with a sort of cheesecake base instead. On Friday evening I decided to get baking, and this was what I made:
For the base I crushed about 150g digestive biscuits and melted 75g butter- I added some cinnamon to give it some flavour, pressed it into pie dishes (and mini loaf pans) and baked for about 5 minutes.
Then for the filling. This is super easy. And to be honest if I was making it just for me I would just make the filling and bake it as it is so good, like a thick spiced baked custard.
Mix together 1 tin (425g) pumpkin puree (on offer on Ocado at the moment), 1 egg, a little tin of evaporated milk (200ml), 200g coconut sugar, 1 tbs plain flour, 1 tbs peanut butter, and a tsp of cinnamon, ginger, a little ground cloves, and lots of grated nutmeg. (I also added a little orange extract as I thought it would go well, but this is not essential). Pour this onto the bases and bake at 170C for around 30 minutes.
Then it will be dark and smelling amazing, plus it won’t have much wobble left.
As I made lots of little ones we gave them away at the weekend- one to my parents (dropped it off after Parkrun) and one to Andy’s parents.
On Sunday I went on a run in the morning, and then spent a lot of the day working. We went to the cinema late Sunday afternoon (to see Philomena, which was so good but also emotional) and then we came home to soup, sourdough bread, and then pumpkin pie slices. Delicious.
Now on to my woes. On Monday my leg was feeling a bit stiff, but I had planned a rest day anyway. I popped to town after work to do some shopping, and then to the supermarket, and I was fine walking around. However I woke up at 4am this morning in a lot of pain- my hip! It feels (yet again) like it has popped out slightly. I have been on google- possibly I have a groin strain? Or it might be something to do with the joint- I think this is more likely as it seems to come and go. Anyhow, I could not get back to sleep, or get comfy, and I was hobbling about in the morning barely able to put any weight on that leg. Luckily there is a sports clinic near me (the place I went to for my sports massages all those years ago) so I gave in and rang them up today, and I have a physio appointment for Friday. I was chatting to Andy about it, as it has happened on and off for a while now- in fact the first time I can remember was before the Olympics as we went to Derbyshire for the weekend and stopped to see the torch relay, but I was having trouble walking through the town to see it.
But it meant of course I didn’t get on my planned run today, and will be giving Sweatshop a miss tomorrow too. Although as the day has worn on I have felt better and can move about more, so I might manage a walk tomorrow if it feels better than today. Grrr.
On the plus side, yesterday I managed quite a bit of Christmas shopping, so I feel pretty pleased to have begun that, seeing as about 5 people told me it was only a month to go. I might even attempt some honeycomb as I have always wanted to try and make it, and the last Waitrose magazine I picked up had a pretty simple looking recipe in there.
Are you a pie / pastry fan? Anyone feeling Christmassy yet? December is fast approaching!
Oh goodness, hope you get your hip sorted and aren’t in pain for too long xx
Thanks- seems to come and go so hopefully will manage until friday x
:(( Sorry about your hip, that sucks. But hopefully it’ll be sorted soon. You’re so sensible to stop running straight away. I’m definitely learning how to be more sensible now!!
I’ve never had pumpkin pie, it sounds lovely. I’m not really a pie person I must say. I prefer crumbles. I like the oaty chewiness to pastry. But saying that, if you put a sweet pie in front of me I wouldn’t turn it down!!
But the thing is I can’t really walk so running is out of the question- if it was something else I would be tempted to carry on I know.
The pie filling is so good- well worth a try.
Ouch your hip sounds painful, hope you get to the bottom of it! I’ve not been into pumpkin anything this year, I don’t think I’ve bought one tin, perhaps overdosed last year haha! I need to start thinking about Christmas shopping soon.
Too much of a good thing maybe!
Oh no! Not you too! We all seem to be injured at the moment. 🙁 Fingers crossed the physio can fix things and you’re running again soon.
Someone told me how soon Christmas was and I got a bit of a panic on…there’s always so much to do in the build up to Christmas. Because our sets of families live four hours apart we end up rushing around visiting everyone over the two days and then can’t wait until the 27th to sit down at home!
That sounds tough. We are so lucky that our parents live so close to each other so we can be flexible with the day, plus we see them all a lot anyway.
Yeah what is the deal with all the injuries?? Like you say hopefully the physio will shed some light on it.
Oh dear I hope the appointment on Friday helps your hip! That pumpkin pie sounds amazing! I think I saw that honey comb in the Waitrose magazine, I’ve made it years ago and it is super duper easy, in fact I might try and join you, says she that is yet to make a Christmas cake 😉
It was pretty much a success 🙂 a bit sticky so less golden syrup next time I think.
Oh no! I hope your hip is ok. I’ve never actually tried pumpkin pie before. I imagine that it tastes amazing.
You need to change that and make some! It is delish!
Noooooooooooo!!!!!!! Not hip problems!!!! Massive positive vibes coming your way on that one!
As for the pumpkin pie – I don’t know that I could be trusted not to eat the lot if I made that :p
Thanks- it is feeling better today so hopefully she can still work out what the issue is.