Pumpkin Pie
                (from America's Test Kitchen)

I’ve baked a few pies in my time including pumpkin and there’s little point to looking further for a better recipe than this one. Note: timing of the partially baked crust and hot custard is important.

Ingredients

Crust
  1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp shortening cut into ½" die and chilled
4 tbsp unsalted butter cut into ¼" die and chilled
4-6 tbsp ice-cold water
 

Process flour, sugar and salt in food processor until combined. Scatter shortening over top and continue until mixture becomes coarse sand. Add in butter and pulse shortly 10 times or until coarse crumbs appear.

Sprinkle 4 tbsp water over mixture, stir and press the whole together using more water if it doesn’t stick together. Form into 4" disk, wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling into a 12" circle, fitting it into a pie pan. Trim, fold and crimp the edges and freeze the crust until firm, about 30 minutes, before filling or baking.

Blind-bake the crust with pie-crust weights at 375° for 25-30 minutes and remove from oven.

 
Custard
15 oz. pumpkin (canned)
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup whole milk
4 large eggs
 

Make custard while crust is in oven. When crust comes out, boost temperature to 400°. The crust must be hot when the custard is poured into it.

Process the pumkin puree, sugar, spices and salt in a mixer or food processor until combined. Transfer to a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook the pumpkin, stirring constantly, until thick and shiny or about 5 minutes. Wisk in the cream and milk (or substitue an equal amount of evaporated milk), return briefly to a simmer before removing from heat.

Process the eggs in the (still dirty) mixer or food processor until uniform. Continuing to process, add in slowly about ½ the hot custard through the feed tube. Stop machine, add remaing custard and process about 30 seconds more.

Pour the custard immediately into the hot, partially baked pie crust. If custard remains, add it on top after the pie has baked for 5 minutes (and had a chance to deflate). Bake until filling is puffed and lightly cracked around the edges and the center wiggles slightly when jiggled, about 25 minutes. Cool prior to serving.

 
Top-layer ingredients
- whipped cream as desired
 
Garnish with whipped cream and serve.