Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin Pie

Baking is one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon, especially if there are bowls and spoons around covered in delicious cake mix. At this time of year, pumpkins and squashes are a common ingredient in both sweet and savoury recipes, but I realised recently that I have never made - nor eaten - a pumpkin pie, that all-American traditional dessert that seems to be so popular over there, but not really a thing over here? Determined to give anything edible a chance, I thought I’d experiment with my own version of a pumpkin pie. Firstly, I tried to reduce the sugar content as much as possible because I always find American recipes a little too sweet. I’ve also swapped pumpkins for any kind of squash, because they all taste lovely and have a similar enough texture to make the recipe work. Plus there’s always an abandoned butternut squash lying in the bottom of the vegetable drawer at this time of year, needing a bit of purpose…