Pumpkin Pie

A British invention which the Yanks now claim as theirs

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   1. To make the pastry - Place the flour, butter and icing sugar in a food processor and mix until crumbly. Add chilled water (about 4-5 tablespoons) and help the mixture to combine into a smooth ball. Wrap the ball in plastic and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
   2. Cut up the pumpkin, discard seeds, peel and then cut into cubes
   3. Heat the oven to 200C.
   4. Now, wrap the pumpkin in aluminum foil and place it on a baking tray and put in the oven to bake for 40 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.
   5. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly
   6. Once cool, put the pumpkin pieces into the processor together with the spices, vanilla extract, rum and cream and mix on high speed to blend together all the ingredients.
   7. Beat together the eggs and sugar and stir into the pumpkin mixture.
   8. Roll out the pastry and place into a large pie dish .
   9. Trim off the edges of the pastry around the pie dish and keep the excess pastry for use later on.
   10. Now line (on top of the pastry base) with non-stick baking paper. Put a couple of pastry weights (you can also just use a couple of handfuls of rice if you don't have any weights handy).
   11. Now put this in the oven and bake for 10 mins.
   12. Take the pie dish out of the oven, remove the non-stick baking paper and pour in the pumpkin mixture.
   13. Roll out the excess pastry that you kept from before to make leaf shapes to decorate the pie on the top.
   14. Brush the leaves with milk to help the pastry turn a golden brown during cooking.
   15. Finally, reduce the oven temperature to around 170C and bake for an hour until the filling has become firm.
   16. Set aside to cool.
   17. Serve with a generous helping of cream.