This weekend, we continued our annual Friendsgiving tradition. Our first Friendsgiving was my senior year of college, when my (still) roommate and I hosted everyone at our apartment. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season. When we moved to Chicago, our friends started organizing a Friendsgiving at their apartment. The tradition has grown - we had over 30 people this year!
Friendsgiving for us is potluck-style. We have a sign up and everyone brings one of their favorite dishes. We had so much food this year: 2 turkeys, tons of mashed potatoes, salads, sweet potatoes, challah, cranberry sauce, stuffing, yams, brussels sprouts, and traditional polish sausage.... followed by cookies, cake, ice cream and at least 5 pies for dessert! The best part was that my friends are some of the best cooks I know. Everything was unbelievably delicious!
I brought challah, pecan pie, and this maple pumpkin pie. I love this recipe because... well obviously I'm obsessed with anything maple. But seriously, it's a great twist on a classic. It isn't a huge deviation - it still has that traditional pumpkin pie flavor - but with a little hint of maple. I have to confess, I used store-bought crust this year... but I feel so guilty about it and disliked the taste so I don't think it's ever going to happen again! Still, it made assembly super easy. I promise anyone can pull this off for Thanksgiving!
Maple Pumpkin Pie
from Real Simple
Ingredients
1 piecrust (store-bought or homemade)
2 large eggs
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree
1 c heavy (whipping) cream
1/2 c pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup)
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves
Instructions
1. Set the oven rack to the lowest position. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Place a pie tin on a baking sheet and place the pie crust in the tin. Crimp the edges, if desired.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, cream, maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, salt and cloves. (I added a little bit of pumpkin pie spice too because I had it on hand.)
4. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the pie crust. Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until the center is set and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving (I like pumpkin pie chilled so I keep in the fridge until I'm ready to serve it) and serve with whipped cream.
