Most people will not guess this is carrot pie–it passes as a pretty good pumpkin pie. The recipe is for a 8 or 9 inch pie pan, but you will have MORE than enough.
Ingredients
- 3 cups (1.25 lbs.) of raw, peeled carrots
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
Instructions
- Peel the carrots. Cut into small pieces.
- Put the carrots in a pan of water (enough to cover the carrots and provide a little room for them to swim around). Bring the water to a boil. Reduce heat and cook on a low boil/simmer for 20 minutes. Alternatively, you can steam the carrots to preserve more of the nutrients
- Puree the cooked carrots. A blender on a high setting works well (see my comment below). Apparently a food processor works well too. You could try hand crushing with a potato masher, or hand mixer, but I’m not sure you would be able to achieve the silky smooth texture you are looking for. TIP: I wasn’t able to really puree the carrots alone, so I added the can of evaporated milk to the carrots, while still in the blender.
- Make the pie crust. For obvious reasons, the hand made pie crust is greatly preferred (see my comment below).
- Mix the rest of the pie contents thoroughly, using a hand mixer or a spatula/spoon with a lot of effort.
- Pour the mixture into a pie pan. You will have plenty to fill it to the brim, and probably some left over. Feel free to use the leftover mixture in a second, smaller, pie or “crustless” pie.
- Bake at 400 F for the first 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F, and bake for another 45 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The center of the pie may puff up quite a bit during baking. It should settle back down as the pie cools.
- Serve warm, or refrigerate until you are ready to eat.
Culinary Tradition
USA (traditional)
My Rating (out of 5 stars)
COMMENTS:
- I prefer to use the “old school” methods and equipment, when possible. However, a food processor or blender seems necessary to achieve the silky smooth texture we are looking for. Crushing the carrots by hand probably will not yield the same results.
- If you are going to the trouble of making this recipe, rather than using the pumpkin pie filling from a can or (gasp) buying a frozen pie, then you owe it to yourself and your family to make the pie crust. It’s not that difficult.
- Some people might compare this recipe to the Sweet Potato Pie (another one of my favorites), found at http://k-line.org/9/2010/03/16/sweet-potato-pie/. While the look is similar, most people won’t confuse the taste of Sweet Potato Pie with Carrot Pie or Pumpkin Pie.
