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Pumpkin Pie is the quintessential holiday dessert. It’s got it all from its melt in your mouth crust, rich custard- filling, and vibrant color, this is a pie like no other. Let’s get into what makes this dessert a festive classic.
Oh pumpkin pie, such a simple dessert that packs so much flavor, texture, and of course nostalgia! Who doesn’t have a good memory when it comes to making or devouring one of these holiday essentials?
When it comes to that perfectly buttery, flakey crust, and an oh so cinnamon-y silky smooth filling, what isn’t there to love? I dream about eating this pie year round and I sincerely believe that we should serve it monthly, as a society.
There’s just something about home made pie crust, especially mine, I guess I’m a little biased but what can I say? It’s buttery, flakey, and baked to golden perfection. I mean I guess you can go with store bought if you want, but who wants that?
Ingredients
Crust
- Follow my recipe here for the best pie crust.
Filling
- Pumpkin – Just straight pumpkin from the can – no fancy stuff required!
- Sugar – We’re using both granulated white sugar and packed brown sugar today.
- Spices – Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ground ginger, and ground cloves.
- Milk – We want to use an entire can of evaporated milk
- Eggs – We’re using entire eggs and egg yolk to act as a rich binder for our filling.
- Seasoning – Salt is a very important flavor enhancer for our filling, be sure to include it! It really does bring out all the flavors together.
Missing Pie Weights?
I always keep pie weights on hand in my kitchen, especially around the holidays as they are a blind baking essential. Pie weights ensure your crust cooks uniformly by preventing air bubbles from puffing up when it’s placed in the oven.
You can always substitute metal or ceramic weights or dried beans in a pinch.
How To Make Pumpkin Pie
- Make the pie crust according to this pie crust recipe. You can also use store bought pie crust.
- Preheat your oven to 425 °F.
- Combine the spices and seasoning: In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves and salt.
- Combine the filling: In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the pumpkin and the sugar-spice mixutre. Gradually stir in the evaporated milk. Set aside.
- Rest the dough: If using your own homemade pie crust, remove the dough from the refrigerator, and let it sit at room temperature for up to 10 minutes. This is required to soften the dough a bit, so that you can roll it out.
- Roll out the dough: Roll out the disc using a rolling pin. If your dough is sticking to the surface or to the rolling pin add a bit more flour as necessary. Roll it until it’s about 1/8 of an inch in thickness. Place the pie dough lightly into a pie plate. I usually roll it on the rolling pin and unroll it over the pie plate. (see video) Crimp the edge and cut off excess dough.
- Blind bake the pie: Place a piece of parchment paper over the pie shell and fill it with pie weights. If you don’t have pie weights, you can use dry beans. Place the pie shell into the oven and blind bake it for 15 minutes. Read more about blind baking here. Once done, remove the pie weights and the parchment paper from the pie shell.
- Assemble the pumpkin pie: Pour the pumpkin filling into the pie shell.
- Bake at 425 °F for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 °F; bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours.
- Finish: Top with whipped cream, if preferred, cut into slices and serve. Refrigerate leftovers.
Blind Baking
Well I am about to change how you make pies, I know that that is a bit of a grand statement but I mean it! Blind baking basically means baking your pie crust before filling it and baking the entire pie.
Why do we do this you may ask – well it’s necessary when making a pie with a custard filling like ours here as it prevents the crust from becoming soggy.
Crumbly Dough Is The Goal
You might notice that I keep specifying cold butter and ice water when it comes to making the dough perfect for this recipe, and that’s because cold ingredients are crucial in our crust! As the butter melts and releases steam in the oven, it will create little air pockets that will give our crust that perfect flaky texture.
How To Tell When Pumpkin Pie Is Done Baking
Do the jiggle test! Although I must stress to jiggle the pie gently. It can be hard to tell with pumpkin pie when it’s been fully cooked, the filling doesn’t quite change color but if you leave it in the oven too long it can develop unsightly cracks along the center.
The pie should still have a bit of jiggle to it when removed from the oven so give it a gentle wiggle when you’ve passed that 30 minute mark.
How to serve
With a classic like this you’re going to want to keep it nice and simple. Either some vanilla bean ice cream, scooped fresh and plunked right over top, or my personal favorite – a big dollop of fresh whipped cream. If you’re not quite sure how to whip this up homemade, here’s my go to recipe!
- An electric mixer
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine the above ingredients and mix until peaks form. Do not overmix as you’ll find you’ve accidentally taken it too far and created butter!
Leftovers
Pumpkin pies are great because they can easily be made a day or two ahead. You can bake it, cool it to room temperature, then wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge until ready to serve.
Freezing
This option works just great! It’ll last up to a month in the freezer. Just make sure you wrap it tightly with plastic wrap after it comes to room temperature. Wrap it with a few layers of plastic wrap and then a layer of aluminum foil.
To defrost, place the pie in the fridge overnight and let it defrost slowly.
Can’t Get Enough Of That Pumpkin? Try These Mouth Watering Dishes
- Pumpkin Delight
- Best Ever Pumpkin Roll
- Pumpkin Magic Cake
- Healthy Whole Wheat And Oats Pumpkin Pancakes
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Bread
- The Best Pumpkin Pancakes
Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 1/2 recipe pie crust only need 1/2 for bottom
Filling
- 3/4 cup sugar granulated
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon ground
- 1 teaspoon allspice ground
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg ground
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger ground
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves ground
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 15 ounce canned pumpkin 1 can
- 12 ounce evaporated milk 1 can
Instructions
- Make the pie crust according to this pie crust recipe. You can also use store bought pie crust.
- Preheat your oven to 425 °F.
- In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the pumpkin and the sugar-spice mixutre. Gradually stir in the evaporated milk. Set aside.
- If using your own homemade pie crust, remove the dough from the refrigerator, and let it sit at room temperature for up to 10 minutes. This is required to soften the dough a bit, so that you can roll it out.
- Roll out the disc using a rolling pin. If your dough is sticking to the surface or to the rolling pin add a bit more flour as necessary. Roll it until it's about 1/8 of an inch in thickness. Place the pie dough lightly into a pie plate. I usually roll it on the rolling pin and unroll it over the pie plate. (see video) Crimp the edge and cut off excess dough.
- Place a piece of parchment paper over the pie shell and fill it with pie weights. If you don't have pie weights, you can use dry beans. Place the pie shell into the oven and blind bake it for 15 minutes. Read more about blind baking here. Once done, remove the pie weights and the parchment paper from the pie shell.
- Pour the pumpkin filling into the pie shell.
- Bake at 425 °F for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 °F; bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours.
- Top with whipped cream, if preferred, cut into slices and serve. Refrigerate leftovers.
Tips & Notes:
- Pumpkin pies are great because they can easily be made a day or two ahead. You can bake it, cool it to room temperature, then wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge until ready to serve.
- This option works just great! It’ll last up to a month in the freezer. Just make sure you wrap it tightly with plastic wrap after it comes to room temperature. Wrap it with a few layers of plastic wrap and then a layer of aluminum foil.
- To defrost, place the pie in the fridge overnight and let it defrost slowly.
