Humble Pie

For my November baking adventure, I chose Emily Luchetti's pumpkin pie and Elton Brown's crust. Instead of dashing off to the grocery store in search of missing ingredients, I substituted. I used maple syrup and bourbon instead of light corn syrup and rum in the pie filling. My crust had shortening instead of lard. I liked the pumpkin pie because it was nice and straightforward - not too sweet. I was more than pleasantly surprised by the crust. I have a crust recipe that I'm partial too and I wasn't expecting a "wow factor". The crust was very flaky. I will use this crust recipe again and again. Other notes, I made the crust first and then put it in the fridge while I made the filling. I also pre-baked it. I'm curious to try it with the lard...