Originally posted on October 20, 2008

I love pecan pie, Dear Reader. I mean, I adore it. I wish I could live on pecan pie, but I don’t know if my teeth and hips could stand such a diet.

Pumpkin pie, not so much. I like it enough, but I don’t love it.

That’s not true. I do love it when it’s mounded with 2 cups of Cool Whip, but then it sort of ceases to be pumpkin pie and is really just pumpkin-y whipped topping, so I don’t think that counts.

Anyway, when I started having my family’s Thanksgiving celebration feast at my house, I set out to find a great pumpkin pie recipe.

I didn’t find one at first, so I combined several. The result is amazing, truly.

This recipe is so good that you don’t need to do a trial run ahead of time, but you can if you want to experience the decadence twice. Enjoy!

Gourmet Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Topping

Ingredients:

• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell – your favorite recipe or a commercially pre-made one
• 3 2/3 cups pumpkin puree – fresh or canned will be fine
• 1 egg
• 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tsp Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus Spice Blend or pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Press the pie crust into a deep dish pie plate. This recipe makes a lot of filling, so a very large, deep pie plate is best.
3. Blend the egg, pumpkin and condensed milk in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine spices and add to pumpkin. Pour mixture into the unbaked pie shell.
4. Combine the brown sugar, flour, chopped pecans, butter and cinnamon with a fork until crumbly. Carefully sprinkle crumb mixture on top of pumpkin.
5. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a knife inserted in near the center comes out clean.
6. Cool before serving. Serve with whipped topping.

Happily submitted to Shoot the Breeze Saturday