Pumpkin Pie - easy recipe

Pumpkins are fun, let's face it.

Not only do people love playing with pumpkins come October, carving them into ever-intricate caricatures, but they also love the versatility of pumpkins, which can be used for sweet and savoury dishes.

Having posted a photograph of my no-baked pumpkin pie on Facebook last year, I was asked repeatedly to post the recipe - which I promised.

Now, three months later, here it is: No-Bake Pumpkin Pie.

No-bake pumpkin pie. Source @simoneysunday

You can either use condensed milk or, which I prefer, 300g (approximately 11oz) low-fat cream cheese, such as Philadelphia.

You will need: 
One can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk or 300g low-fat cream cheese
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg and some for sprinkling on top.
1 sachet Dr Oetker vegetarian gelatine (one sachet sets 1 pint of liquid)
1/4 cup water (approx 60ml)
16oz of soft pumpkin (453g)

Whipped cream for the topping (if you like)

Some pumpkin seeds for decoration

1 sheet of pre-cooked puff pastry*

How to: 
After chopping up the pumpkin (save a good hour or two for this - cutting and chopping a pumpkin, I have found, is a job for lumberjacks), reduce it in a pan with a LITTLE bit of water until soft. Not too much water - you will have too much liquid and you'll need to strain it.

Clean and save the pumpkin seeds.

When you've got 16oz of softened pumpkin, blend it gently until it is smooth.

Add gelatine to water in a medium-sized saucepan. I tend to use half a pint of water as the pumpkin is quite liquid (as is the condensed milk).  Leave it to stand for 1 minute, before cooking on a low heat for two to three minutes until all the gelatine is dissolved.

Meanwhile, whisk together the condensed milk (or cream cheese), cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until smooth. Add this to the gelatine/water mix in the pan, and stir constantly.

Cook for a further 5 mins or so until the mixture is slightly thickened. After removing from heat, stir in the pumpkin until blended.

Pour it into the pre-cooked pastry dish and leave to set in the fridge until firm.

When cooked and cooled, spoon the pumpkin mixture into the crust. Put in the fridge for 3-4 hours or until firm. Decorate with a sprinkle of nutmeg and pumpkin seeds.

Serve with whipped cream if desired.

*Cooking the pastry
I use ready-roll pastry as it's so much easier, but it will need to be cooked before using.

Put the pastry into a suitable pie case, press down the edges with a thumb or spoon to make a pattern, cover the bottom of the pastry with baking beans (to make sure the pastry base doesn't rise in the middle), and bake according to instructions.

Cheat Treat!

Blackberry Tart. On a Budget, innit! Credit: Simoney Sunday

I wouldn't normally advocate buying prefabricated pastry cases, but not everyone has the time or the energy to be a domestic goddess - not to mention the fact that getting the pastry case absolutely perfect is a beggar. And it's always good to get something in your store cupboard, just in case.

Many big supermarkets stock pastry cases of various sizes and, when I happened to find a batch in a 'sin bin' - with a 'Use By' date of that very day, I could not help but consider 4 small cases at 89p a bargain.

The thing is, these can be frozen. And frozen they were, until I needed to use them to try to impress the female parental unit with a posh-looking dessert that didn't take me any time to prepare.

This was very, very simple although it looks fantastic. Or would have, if I could take pictures properly

Ingredients
Ice-cream (home made is best - see the recipe here - but this occasion Sainsbury's helped out)
Whipping cream
Blackberries (I normally get these for free by harvesting and freezing but these were from my friend's garden)
Cocoa Powder (I have a feeling this might have been WeightWatchers!)

How To
Whip up the cream (some people put a little icing sugar into it to sweeten it but we don't like things too sweet in our house)
Spoon it into pastry cases
Decorate with some washed and dried blackberries

Waft some cocoa powder over the side of the plate and scoop a ball of icecream
Decorate with some home-grown mint leaves if you're feeling extra (which I was. You should see mum's garden when the mint took over. That was a three-year battle)

And whoop! A professionally presented dessert that takes all of say, 5 minutes (depending on how quickly you can whip that cream).

Champagne tastes, cola budget. What can I say?