Mattie's Pumpkin Pie

This recipe is, in my completely biased opinion, the BEST pumpkin pie recipe on earth.  It's an old recipe, created by a family friend named Mattie.  It's her recipe from the 1950s, except it actually involved using real pumpkin, not canned.  I cheated and used canned, but added an extra step to make the canned pumpkin taste more like fresh pumpkin.  Sadly, Mattie passed away many years ago, but her amazing recipes live on in our house.  I wish I could have gotten a better picture to really illustrate how wonderful this pie is, but I had a pie crust mishap (as I often do...crusts aren't my thing).  Regardless of how it looks in photos, I promise you this is the creamiest pumpkin pie you will ever, ever eat.  

Mattie's Pumpkin Pie

INGREDIENTS

8 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, divided

1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1/2 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup White Sugar

1 Tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 tsp Salt

2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 Cups Half & Half

2 Eggs, beaten

1 Deep Dish Pie Crust

DIRECTIONS

1.  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 

2.  In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 1 Tbsp of butter.  Once the butter starts to turn a brown color, add in the pumpkin puree on top of the melted butter and don't stir for one minute.  Then stir, and fry it in butter for another 2 minutes.  Stir in the sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt, and fry for 1 more minute.  Remove from heat and stir in the flour.  

3.  Melt the remaining 7 tbsp of butter, and stir it into the pumpkin puree mixture.  Stir in the half and half and whisk until smooth.  Finally, add in the beaten eggs and stir until combined.  Pour into an empty pie crust shell.  

4.  Put the pie in the oven and reduce the oven's temperature to 350 degrees.  If while cooking the crust starts to get too brown, cover the crust with a pie crust shield (aluminum foil will work too).  Bake for 45-55 minutes (mine took 50 minutes), or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out relatively clean.  Let cool and then allow it to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.