Pumpkin Chess Pie With Praline Sauce

Who takes whipped cream on their pumpkin pie? Everyone in the whole world should be jumping up and down and shouting "I do! I do!" because thats just how pumpkin pie is made. Yup it is basically a scientific fact that every slice of pumpkin pie is naturally grown with whipped cream on top, and apparently pies grown closer local college towns carry a bit of a kick. Okay, so maybe that last part is simply on our "to do some day" list, just for fun =P. With whipped cream being such a staple of the good old American pumpkin pie, imagine everyones shock when we put away the can and poured on a sauce! There were horrified glances around the table, whimpers of fear and the occasional look of sheer terror from our guests that night. What was this strange sauce? How dare they not have any cans of whipped cream in the house! The table was on the verge of mutiny! Or we're exaggerating a little bit. Here's what actually happened: everyone just scarfed down the whole pie in about 2 minutes and asked for more. Eric is a stickler for having whipped cream on his pie, but sometimes the old switch-a-roo comes out better than the original. The praline sauce was a huge hit and changed the way we're looking at pie. Its like putting icing on a cake, if you've only ever had cake, you wouldn't know what your missing, but if you add the best icing ever, it becomes that much more amazing and you never want to have it any other way. As someone at the table mentioned, "Marie Calanders, eat your heart out".

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, with lots of food and family and hopefully too much food and family. We also hope that enough of you survived Back Friday that we still have readers!

Pumpkin Chess Pie 
What You Will Need

2 cups gingersnaps
15 ounces pumpkin puree
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup half and half
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Praline Sauce (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350*

In a food processor, break the gingersnaps down into crumbs. Mix 1/2 cup of the butter in with the crumbs and press crumb mixture into your pie plate, pushing up the sides to make your crust. Bake for about 10 minutes and then set aside.

Beat pumpkin, sugar, and remaining 1/2 cup of butter until smooth. Add eggs, half and half, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves and blend. Pour into pie crust and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes until almost set in center. Cool completely and then chill for about 8 hours (To be honest, we couldn't wait that long, so we cut into it only after about 2 hours of chilling in the fridge and it was oh so good!)  Top with praline sauce and serve!

Praline Sauce
What You Will Need

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350*

roast pecans for about 10 minutes or until toasted and fragrant. 

In a saucepot, combine sugar, half and half, and butter, bring to boil and cook stirring constantly for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in pecans and vanilla. Let cool for about 1 hour stirring occasionally.