Baked pumpkin custard

Tis the season for all things pumpkin – cookies, pies, muffins, soup, scones, loafs, ice cream.

One of my favourite is pumpkin pie – who can resist a piece of pumpkin pie? But what I noticed is that the hassle of making pastry isn’t worth the effort when all I ever want is the smooth and creamy pumpkin pie filling. So now when I have a hankering for pumpkin pie, I make pumpkin custard instead!

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup pumpkin puree (either homemade or canned)
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ cup evaporated skim milk (one can)
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• Dash cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, and eggs. In another bowl, mix together sugar, spices and cornstartch. Once combined, add to pumpkin mixture and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour mixture into ¾ cup custard cups and place the cups in a baking pan with water. The water needs to come halfway up the sides of the cup.
4. Bake for 50 minutes or until the custard is set.
5. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cool.