Brittany's Kitchen Adventures- Pumpkin Pie

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought it was time for me to learn how to make pumpkin pie. I have visions of me pulling my homemade pumpkin pie out of the oven every year. I used this recipe for the pie crust, and the pumpkin pie filling.

Here's how it went:

First up, I needed to make the pie crust. This was definitely the most intimidating part for me. I figured making the filling would be a piece of cake. Or a piece if pie in the case. I've always heard people talk about what a hassle it is to make pie crust. So I just figured it was something I would never do. I was excited to face my fears, and try it as a part of my kitchen adventures!

First, I mixed the dry ingredientsEasy enough.

Then I slowly poured melted butter mixed with canola oil, into the dry ingredients, while mixing it with a fork. Then it said to mix in 3-4 tablespoons of ice water, until the dough was moist, and held together. Well, after 4 tablespoons, the dough was still pretty dry. This is what it looked like after the recommended amount of liquid:It could kinda hold together, but it would crumble easily: So, I added another 2 TBS of ice water.

Here's what the directions said after that: "Overlap 2 sheets of plastic wrap on a work surface, place the dough in the center and cover with 2 more overlapping sheets of plastic wrap. Roll the dough into a 12-inch circle. Remove the top sheets and invert the dough into a 9-inch pie pan." That part just seemed a confusing, and a little pointless. Although now it totally makes sense to me. I skipped the plastic wrap business, and just formed the dough into a ball, and started working it from there. That proved to be hard. The dough wasn't very easy to work with (mind you I have RA). So I thought I'd give myself a little help, and roll it out. Which now I see that that's what the directions were trying to tell me to do in the first place. Silly me. I was hoping it would roll out to a perfect circle, and would fit perfectly inside. That didn't really happen. At this point, I almost wanted to give up. It just didn't look like it was going to work.
But, I didn't.
And soon this became this. And I was pretty proud of myself.
Looking back on it, it wasn't that hard to do. Especially if I would have paid more attention to the directions.

Then I moved on to the filling. Making the filling was very simple. I just had to mix the pumpkin, evaporated milk, spices, and eggs in a bowl, and pour it into the crust. Although I wasn't sure if it was supposed be this runny?Into the oven it went.
When it came out of the oven, it was still a little liquidity. I wasn't sure if that was normal, or not? I figured it would continue setting while it cooled down for 2 hours. But that never happened. I'm pretty sure I under cooked it.
Aside from being a little runny, it wasn't the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. I did like the whole wheat crust, but the filling wasn't all that great to me. I don't know if it was me, or the recipe? My husband liked it, but you know how that whole thing goes. I don't know if he really liked it, or if he was just trying to prevent me from crying over my first pumpkin pie.

I will definitely be trying it again though.
Practice makes perfect!

Have you ever made pumpkin pie?
Any tips?