“See here” was how grandmother CAROLINE BENEDICT (Nashville, Tennessee) would often preface an important statement. Caroline was the mother to four and grandmother to sixteen! She was in her seventies by the time her youngest grandchild, CLARA MAY BENEDICT (also of Nashville), came along. Clara May shares that as her grandmother aged, she was less active, with one of her older daughters doing the cooking. So Clara May actually learned most about her paternal grandmother’s cooking and baking from her own mother, who was very close to her mother-in-law and passed down Caroline’s recipes, many of which were from the late 1800s. This moist and delicious pumpkin pie was a Benedict family favorite at the holidays. Clara has adapted her grandmother’s recipe for the convenience of canned pumpkin and store-bought crusts.
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
3 large eggs
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted
1 (15 ounce) can pure pumpkin
1 cup whole milk
2 (9 inch) piecrusts, unbaked
1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2 In a large bowl mix the flour into the sugar. Add the salt, cinnamon, and allspice. In a small bowl beat the eggs and then add to the flour mixture.
3 Stir in the melted butter, pumpkin, and then the milk. Mix well and pour into two unbaked piecrusts.
4 Bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is no longer liquid. Be careful not to overbake. Cool completely on wire racks until serving or before refrigerating.
MAKES 2 PIES; 16 SERVINGS.