---

I had the idea for these little pies from Eva from adventures in cooking I love her blog and when I saw them I knew I had to make them, I love any thing that has a novelty factor so the fact the pies are baked inside the squashes them self’s made me what to make them. I am usually all about the crust when it comes to a pie or tart but actually it was nice to just have the filling for a change, her recipe makes 3 and I only wanted two so i baked the extra in a tin and made some cocoa pumpkin pie ravioli I will share the recipe for that soon.

I think pumpkin pies are quite a new or even kind of a foreign thing here in england and I don’t know many people that had tried it until recently (in the last 2 or 3 years) we had pumpkin lanterns at halloween as kids  (my parents had to make do with turnips) but I had never tried them until I started blogging. Now I really like them.

I think the spices are one of the main things I love in a pumpkin pie but I only had cinnamon in the house when i made these so i just used chai spice and some cinnamon together and it was really nice.

I added fresh cream sweetened with maple syrup and some hazelnuts

Recipe

• 3 small winter squash about 1 to 1-5 pounds each (I used two and 1/4 of a butternut squash to make up the difference)
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup cream
• 1 cup soft brown sugar
• 2 tbsp runny honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1tsp chai spice
• Pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 325f cut the tops off the squashes and scoop out the seeds and stringy material, (if just doing two like me then add 1/4 of a butternut squah in the oven at the same time) cover with foil and roast for about 30/35 minutes

Once cool enough to handle scoop out the flesh leaving about 1/4 – 1/2 inch of flesh still inside to keep the skin from breaking. (Because I only used two squash I added some flesh from a butternut squash too)

Add into a blender at high speed until it is completely smooth.

Raise the oven to 350f 180c

Add the remaining ingredients to the blender then pour evenly into the squashes. I poured the extra into a cake tin and baked it for half the time and then  cooped it into a bowl so that I had cooked pumpkin pie filling for other recipes

Bake the squash for about 40 to 55 minutes until filling is firm.

It may still have a little wiggle in the centre when you take it out. Let cool

Whip 150ml double cream with 2 tbsp maple syrup until think and serve with some chopped hazelnuts.