1. Preheat oven to 450F.

Cut honeynut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds. Cross hatch their uppers diagonally with a knife taking care not to pierce through the outside skin. Spray / rub olive oil over the tops of each of them. No salt.

2. Roast the honeynut squash.

Pop in the oven for about 45 minutes, but start checking on them after about 30 minutes. As they bake and approach readiness, they will become very tender if pierced with a fork. They will also develop little pools of liquid in their bellies. You want to wait until after these little pools have mostly evaporated before taking them out. The goal is for them to be a bit burned on the bottoms, but just a little dark on top.

Once finished, take the honeynut squash out and let them cool for at least 10 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 400F.

3. Blind bake the pie crust.

Get your pie crust into a pie dish. Prick the bottom with a fork. Line the pie crust with parchment paper cut into a round (keep the round large enough so it folds over the crust top and protects it from burning while baking. Fill with ceramic beads (my choice) or apparently some people use beans.

Then chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to ensure the crust is cold when it goes into the oven. This chilling step is actually important because it reduces the risk your pie crust will slide down the edges of the pie dish while blind baking.

Bake for 20 minutes  with the parchment paper and bea(d/n)s. After 20 minutes at 400F, reduce the heat to 350F and cook for 5 more minutes.

Then take out the parchment paper and bea(d/n)s and bake another 10 minutes at 350F.

4. Prepare Filling.

While the pie crust is baking, take a spoon and scoop out the honeynut squash guts from the skins. You are aiming for about 2 cups of squash. Put the 2 cups of squash guts into a food processor or blender.

Add your 1 1/4 cup of cream, and blend until smooth. Then, if you have space (if not, just move to a mixing bowl) add:

• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Finally, add 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks. I recommend using a mixing bowl for this step, but you could use your blender provided you use short pulses and are careful to not over mix the eggs.

5. Bake the pie.

After removing the pie crust from the oven, reduce the oven temp to 325F.

Pour the filling directly into the hot pie crust and bake for about 45 minutes at 325F. It is finished when it jiggles in the middle (the outside of the pie up to about 2/3 of the way into the middle should be set, the rest should jiggle).

6. Allow to cool completely.

The texture changes as it cools, and the pie will also need to set. Budget at least 3 hours of cooling time.

7. Enjoy!