Pumpkin pie at risk? There's a shortage of canned filling

If you were planning on practicing your pumpkin pie making skills ahead of Thanksgiving, you might be foiled. There's a national shortage of canned pumpkin and pie filling, a result of poor weather that reduced last year's crop.

Shoppers report finding bare shelves, and the supermarkets say that they have been put on an "allocation," or quota, system by Libby's, a division of food giant Nestle that controls more than 80% of the canned pumpkin market.

Libby's typically uses surpluses from the previous year to stock store shelves during September and October, when the annual pumpkin harvest gets underway. Wet conditions during last year's growing season left canners without a surplus this year, said Roz O'Hearn, a Libby's spokeswoman.

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Comments

[Monica]

Even though there is a shortage on canned pumpkin... why not everyone try and find some from your local farm markets. My family business is a small farm market in PA and we have plenty of neck pumpkins for people to make their pumpkin pie. Just a suggestion. Support your farmers!

[sharon]

that was very delicious

http://www.craigspr.org

[R Chavez]

Best Pumpkin Pie from Scratch Recipe-
Prepare Your Pumpkin

At farmers market or grocery store, find a "Pie Pumpkin", which are small deep-orange pumpkins especially grown to be used for pies. If you want to use a garden-grown pumpkin, be sure to use a dark orange pumpkin.

Prepare pumpkin for pie:

1. Cut your pumpkin in half.

2. Take out the seeds (keep aside for roasting)

3. Cut up the pumpkin into thick slices, pare the outside and cut again down into small pieces.

4. Put it into a large pot or saucepan with a vary little water; let it cook slowly until mushy.

5. When soft, set the pot on the back of the stove on very-low so it will not burn, and cook slowly, stirring often until the moisture is dried out and the pumpkin looks dark and red. It requires cooking a long time, at least half a day, to have it dry and rich.

6. When cool enough, press through a potato masher or sieve.

7. Preheat over to 350 degrees F.

Pumpkin Pie Filling Ingredients:

3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp packed brown sugar
1 T cornstarch
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional)
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
16 oz of solid homemade stewed pumpkin, pureed-or more of the pie pumpkin
3/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sour cream
3 large eggs, beaten.
1 T Apricot Preserves to spread over bottom crust

For Filling:

Mix first 6 ingredients in bowl quickly, mixing mixture has no lumps.
Blend in stewed and pureed pumpkin, whipping cream, sour cream and eggs.Spread preserves over crust; pour in filling.
Bake until filling puffs at edges and center is nearly completely set, about 55-60 minutes. Cool. Cover with tinfoil; chill until cold. (Can be made 1 day ahead.)

Crust-HOMEADE

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour or wheat flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
dash of kosher salt
1 stick of cold butter, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1 cup of ice water

Blend first 3 ingredients in food processor. You want to give it a quick mix so that they are all equally dispersed.
Add the butter and process until pea-sized lumps form.
Add cream and process again until moist clumps form that resemble biscuit dough.
Gather dough into ball, flatten into disk.
Wrap in plastic wrap ; chill at least a half hour.

Pie Assembly

Roll out dough onto a floured surface to 14-inches around.
Transfer dough to 9-inch pie dish.
Cut around the pie, trimming any overhang to an inch.
Crimp or fold overhang under.
Freeze 15 minutes.
Line crust with foil, pressing firmly and wither blind bake with beans or blind bake by poking tons of tiny holes with a fork throughout the crust.
Bake until sides are set up. This takes about 10-15 minutes.
Remove foil and beans.
Bake crust until light golden brown, about 10 minutes more.
Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
Spread preserves over crust; pour in filling.
Bake until filling puffs at edges and center is almost set, about 55 minutes.
Cool, cover and chill.

enjoy!

[Mike]

Dudes, it's not hard to make pumpkin pie from actual pumpkins.

[Merlin]

is there a recipe to go with the picture? thanks