Baking With Bwog: Jack Skellington Pumpkin Pie

Creppy. Spoopy.

Halloweekend is upon us and in full swing. To celebrate, Deputies Lila Etter and Mia Lindheimer decided to do a gruesome Baking With Bwog. Hopefully their baking is not the most frightening thing about it.

We were feeling spooky this Friday. Maybe it was the beginning of Halloweekend. Or maybe it was the fact that Halloweekend had already begun on Thursday night, and we’d already gone out the night before, and our horrifying hangovers were really starting to get to us. Regardless, we felt the need to turn this eerie energy into something productive, and what’s more productive than pie? Pumpkin pie, to be exact. We decided to take a page from Delish, and follow this recipe for Jack Skellington Pumpkin Caramel Pie. Remember Jack Skellington, from The Nightmare Before Christmas? After all, what’s more terrifying than an egomaniacal king who gets all up in his feelings on Halloween? Nothing? That’s what we thought.

Ingredients

1 15-oz. can pumpkin purée
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
((If you’re lazy like us, you can substitute equal parts Pumpkin Spice for the above three ingredients, because it’s the same damn thing.))
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs
1 double pie crust (store-bought or homemade) ((Store-bought. Who do you think we are? The Pillsbury Dough Boy?))
1/2 c. thick caramel sauce ((*thicc))

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 425°F.
In a medium-sized saucepan over medium-low heat, combine pumpkin purée, salt, spices, and sweetened condensed milk, whisking until combined. In order to ensure that you don’t make scrambled eggs, turn off heat, let cool for a minute and then whisk in eggs. Set aside. Or, if you want to make scrambled egg, just dump the eggs in while the heat is on! No one’s stopping you! Halloween is all about experimenting with the more crazy, wild, messed-up side of yourself, right?
Unroll one pie crust into the bottom of an 8″ pie plate. Pour pumpkin filling on top. Spoon caramel sauce on top, using the spoon or a butter knife to gently swirl the flavors together, without combining them entirely. (The top should look marbled. If it doesn’t, you probably suck. That, or else you just don’t have magical witch powers that counteract the force of gravity that has inevitably made your caramel sauce sink to the bottom because it’s far denser than your pumpkin pie filling. You know, not like we’re bitter or anything.)
Cover pie with remaining pie crust, using a knife to trim excess crust from around the edges. Use a toothpick to sketch Jack Skellington’s face, then trace with a sharp knife to cut out the design. If you don’t have a toothpick, do what we did and bend a plastic fork! The college kid trick! (Tip: Cut the stitches before cutting the line of the mouth. It tends to be easier to slice that way.) ((Or, if you don’t read instructions, just go for it. Just freaking go for it and slice and dice how you like. It’ll turn out relatively freaky regardless.))
Crimp the edges of the pie. Or don’t. It’s spookier that way.
Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and cover the top with aluminum foil, so Jack’s face stays skeleton-pale (paler than the Butler campers) and the edges don’t burn (like us on Spring Break… how are we already thinking about Spring Break? Is this what it’s come to? Just get us to Fall Break, please).
Bake for another 38 to 40 minutes. Let cool before serving. Or don’t. Serve immediately and trick your guests.
Enjoy! Or be like Jack Skellington and don’t enjoy anything. Eat pie amidst your existential crisis. What was the point of that movie again?