A little while ago, Hallmark Editorial Director Stephanie Y. showed us how to sweeten Mother’s Day. Today she’s back with a recipe for Ginger Pumpkin Pie that will make the whole family smile. Dig in and enjoy!

Thanksgiving is the time of year when cooks everywhere feel a sudden urge to kick it up a notch. It’s a season of Google searches for new twists on mashed potatoes, how to brine turkeys, and what it takes to bake the best pumpkin pie ever. Yes, Turkey Day is a true foodie holiday, daring us to push our spatulas to their limits stirring up new and unexpected delights for family and friends to enjoy.

Of course, the truth at the bottom of the mixing bowl is that we already know which recipes will be Thanksgiving showstoppers. No matter what the 2016 flavor trend is, the recipes everyone loves most come from our own family trees. Grandma’s dumplings, Auntie’s stuffing, and Dad’s famous sweet potatoes are what everybody really craves.

The ingredients for these dishes are written on our taste buds: we only know it’s Aunt Trish’s gravy or Great-Grandma’s cranberries when we lick the spoon clean. At Thanksgiving we can look at our plates and see our family connections piled high.

So go ahead, savor the recipes that make your family your family. But be sure to add an unexpected dish, too. You never know—your new recipe might just become a part of family history.

Ginger Pumpkin Pie with a Honey Butter Crust

Crust ingredients:

2 ¼ cups flour

2 sticks of cold butter

¼ teaspoon salt

6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

¾ cup honey (or more to taste)

¼ cup of milk for cookie toppers

Plastic wrap

Extra flour for the work surface

9-in. pie pan

Filling ingredients:

1 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree

1 ⅓ cup of evaporated milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon of ginger

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon of nutmeg

¾ cup of white sugar

¼ teaspoon of salt

Crust instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Add flour and salt to a mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Cut your butter into half-inch cubes and add to flour mixture. Using your fingers, break the butter up into the flour. Squeeze and pinch the butter until the flour looks a little like corn meal. You don’t want any big chunks of butter left!

Add 2 tablespoons of the ice-cold water and use a fork to combine it with the flour mixture. Add 2 more tablespoons and combine. Keep this up until the dough starts to come together (6-8 tablespoons total).

When the dough starts to stick together, lightly knead it into a dough ball. The dough ball should be a little crumbly, but still hold together.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

After chilling, dust your workspace with flour, cut the dough ball in half, and roll out one portion of dough.

Press the dough into pie pan and trim to fit.

Swirl the honey onto the crust. Start in the center and spiral out. Make sure to cover a good portion of the bottom and dribble a little onto the crust. Honey in a squeeze bottle makes the swirling super easy! There should be some leftover honey for the cookie toppers.

Before you add the filling, place your honey butter crust in the oven for 5 minutes to help make the honey set.

After the prebake, add the filling to the crust.

Filling instructions:

Whisk all filling ingredients together in a bowl, then add to the honey butter crust.

Bake the pie for 40-45 minutes until the center is firm.

Milk and honey Cookie Toppers:

With the extra dough, use a cookie cutter to cut fall leaves. Add them to a cookie sheet and brush lightly with leftover honey and then milk.

Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

While the pie is cooling decorate the top with the cookies!

Can’t get enough sweet recipes? Check out more Thanksgiving recipes at Hallmark.com. And you can find more of Stephanie’s kitchen escapades on her blog!

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— Stephanie Y.