Carrot Pie?

Are you serious??? Carrot Pie??    Yes, Virginia there is such a thing as Carrot Pie and it is a dessert!  When I first read about this, I thought maybe it was some sort of quiche or vegetable dish.  But, lo and behold, it is supposedly very similar to pumpkin pie.  So I was intrigued. 

This recipe comes to us today from the website, www.raisingjane.org.  Not really sure how I ended up there - it was one of those where I followed one link which lead to another link which lead to another link, etc., etc., etc. and I ended up with Carrot Pie - it is just that kind of day I guess!

Back to Carrot Pie, you don't need any special ingredients besides the carrots.  I ran to the store and bought a pound of carrots which seems to do the trick.  Just plain ole carrots - nothing fancy. 

The first thing you need to do is clean the carrots by scraping them.  Then I cut them up into chunks and grated them in my food processor.

Isn't that a pretty color!!

Now you need to cook the carrots.  I know  . . . this seems like a lot of work for one silly pie!  I scraped all the carrots together and steamed them.  This is kind of a neat photo because you can see the steam rising from the pan as the carrots are "cooking" or "steaming" (I guess that is the better terminology!). After the carrots are done steaming and cooled, you need to squeeze any excess liquid or moisture out of them by pressing them with a large spoon against the bottom of the steamer.

Now for the recipe. 

I cheated and used a Pillsbury pie crust.  If you have a good pie crust recipe, use that (and share it with me, pretty please!!)   Bake the pie crust for 15 minutes at 400 degrees and let it cool.

FILLING:
1 cup finely grated and cooked carrots (see above)
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger
½ t salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups milk

To prepare filling, combine carrots, sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger, salt, eggs, and milk in a large bowl.  Don't be concerned, this is very liquidity.  I was concerned, but it does solidify during baking.

Pour the filling into the pre-baked pie crust and cover the edge of the pie crust with foil to prevent it from over-browning.

Bake at 400 for 45-50 minutes or until center of the pie has set.

Remove from the oven and let it cool at room temperature for 1 hour (if you can!!).  I bet this is good with whipped cream or ice cream - OH YUM!!

Fresh out of the oven!!  It certainly looks like a pumpkin pie, doesn't it.  Now the hard part . . . waiting for it to cool down.  Well, that will give me the chance to run to the store to get some Cool Whip (oh am I wicked or what!!).  It certainly smells good - love that cinnamon/ginger scent!! 

VERDICT:

Very good!  The appearance sort of throws you off - it looks like a pumpkin pie, so you are expecting it to taste like pumpkin pie when you take that first bite.  So when you taste the small chunks of carrots, it seems odd, but you quickly forget that because it tastes really good - very unique sweet taste - not sickening sweet.  AND excellent with whipped cream!!!  My husband thought it would be good either way - with or without the whipped cream.

So the final verdict - we have a winner!  This is definitely a keeper recipe.




.