The Best Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain pumpkin purée (16 ounces), canned or fresh
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2/3 cup milk
• 4 large eggs

Directions

Crust:

Prepare crust and put into pie plate. Using table fork, prick bottom and sides, at 1/2-inch intervals. Flatten a 12-inch square of aluminum foil inside shell, pressing it flush against corners, sides, and over rim. Prick foil bottom in about a dozen places with a fork. Chill shell for at least 30 minutes (preferably an hour or more), to allow dough to relax.

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 degrees. (Start preparing filling when you put shell into oven.) Bake 15 minutes, pressing down on foil with mitt-protected hands to flatten any puffs. Remove foil and bake shell for 8 to 10 minutes longer, or until interior just begins to color.

Filling:

Mix pumpkin, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt thoroughly. Transfer pumpkin mixture to a 3-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring it to a sputtering simmer over medium-high heat. Cook pumpkin, stirring constantly, until thick and shiny, about 5 minutes. As soon as pie shell comes out of oven, whisk heavy cream and milk into pumpkin and bring to a bare simmer. With hand-held blender, beat eggs until whites and yolks are mixed, about 5 seconds. With motor running, slowly pour in about half of hot pumpkin mixture. Stop motor and scrape in remaining pumpkin. Process 30 seconds longer.

Immediately pour warm filling into hot pie shell. (Ladle any excess filling into pie after it has baked for 5 minutes or so — by this time filling will have settled.) Bake until filling is puffed, dry-looking, and lightly cracked around edges, and center wiggles like gelatin when pie is gently shaken, about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour.