A failed calabasa pie

I bake this pie because I do not have enough filling to fill my 8-inch pie crust. So I have to mix up some filling at the last minute.

Recipe: Last minute pumpkin pie (one 8-inch pie)

Ingredients:
- 1.5 cup cooked calabasa, mashed
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1 tp Trader Joe's pumpkin pie spice
- half-and-half to top up the filling to 3 cups

Procedure:
1. Beat eggs separately. Mix everything.
2. Allow the filling to sit for a while. Skim off bubbles.
3. Pour into pie crust and bake at 425F for 15 minutes. Then cover crust edge and bake at 350F until edge of filling is set.

Results:
7:33pm, ingredients:

7:37pm, all ingredients mixed except half and half:

7:45pm, filling making up 2 cups:

7:45pm, filling beaten with an extra egg and more cream to make up 3 cups:

7:47pm, filling in 8-inch crust:

7:47pm, filling height in crust:

7:47pm, 8-inch pie to bake at 425F:

8:00pm, pie baked 10 minutes:

8:03pm, pie crust covered and baking resumed at 350F:

8:19pm, pie baked another 16 minutes:

8:22pm, baked crust:

8:33pm, pie crust and edge when just done:

8:37pm, comparison between this failure (left) and previous success (right):

9:17pm, cooled top:

9:17pm, cooled crust:

9:17pm, cooled crust details:

Overnight
Served:

Observations:
1. The most obvious reason of my failure is that I have not given the filling any time to sit. The bubbles in the filling expands when baking, causing the filling to become very coarse in texture. The pumpkin floats up onto the top.
2. What I find out in this experiment is that an 8-inch pie crust can take 3 cups of liquid.
3. It turns out that my guests are all very graceful and acceptance of my failure. They happily try it and compare it with the success. Then some of them say they actually like this pie more. It is more creamy and tender because this pie is made with half-and-half. The success pie is made with evaporated milk. This pie has less of the spices. So the flavor of milk stands out better.