Growing up, I always looked forward to my grandma’s squash pie during the holidays. My grandma makes really good pie, and her squash pie was always my favorite. I thought of it as “pumpkin” pie, even though it wasn’t made with pumpkins, it was made with squash.

This year I decided to make some of my grandma’s squash pie with winter squash from the garden. I dug through my recipes until I found the recipe card, in her dear handwriting. I wanted to share the recipe with you here.

Squash Pie
Recipe from: Grandma Jensen

Serves: 3 pies

4 cups squash (baked and put through food mill)
3 cups milk (she uses evaporated skim)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. cloves

Mix sugars and spices- then beat all ingredients until smooth. Pour into three 9″ or two deep dish 10″ prepared pie crusts. Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees or 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees. *Done when knife inserted in center comes out clean.

…..

I had my squash all ready to go, and got started on pies one evening. I had one pie pan, and another type of pan close in size to a regular pie pan, so I made two crusts.

I substituted a few ingredients for what I had on hand- coconut milk, and coconut sugar. I didn’t have any clove powder, but had everything else.

I decided to just go ahead and put the filling for three pies in the two pie crusts, figuring it would just take a little bit longer to bake. Well, it ended up taking a whole lot longer to bake.

I kept checking the pies, and then putting them back in the oven to bake longer. I stayed up past my bedtime waiting for the pies to finish baking.

By the time the pie centers were done baking, the crusts were overdone. As you can tell in the picture above, they were not the world’s most beautiful squash pies…

But… they tasted good!

That very first bite I tasted, when it was still warm from the oven, brought tears to my eyes. I was instantly transported to my grandparent’s house, and I was a little girl again.

It is truly amazing the way a scent, a flavor… can completely transport us in time and flood us with feelings and memories.

While I have a lot of practice to do before my pies are anywhere near as tasty as my grandmother’s, my version of her pie brought the memory back.

I could close my eyes and still taste hers, feeling the warmth of her love through pie.

My grandma will be delighted when I tell her I made her squash pie recipe, and glad that I’ve shared it here for more to enjoy.

P.S. The next time I make my grandma’s squash pie, I plan on making three pies like it says in the recipe. 🙂