INGREDIENTS FOR THIS RECIPE
This pumpkin pie recipe requires minimal ingredients, so it’s important that you use the right ones. Here’s an overview of what you’ll be using to make this recipe:
- Pie crust: I like to use my favorite pie crust recipe to make this pie, but a store-bought crust works as well.
- Brown sugar: Sweetens the pumpkin pie filling and also adds flavor. I used light brown sugar, but dark brown sugar works great too.
- All-purpose flour: There’s just one tablespoon of flour in the filling to help thicken it and ensure that the pie sets up properly.
- Spices: I use a blend of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. There’s also a pinch of salt in the filling to enhance the pumpkin flavor.
- Eggs: Helps bind the filling together and creates a custard-like consistency. I recommend lightly beating the eggs first to ensure that they mix together better with the other wet ingredients. Room temperature eggs are also best. If you forget to set them out ahead of time, just place them in a bowl of warm water for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Pumpkin puree: Make sure to use pure pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, which is already sweetened and has spices added to it. The only ingredient on the back of the can of pumpkin puree will just be pumpkin.
- Evaporated milk: Not to be confused with sweetened condensed milk, which is much thicker and sweeter. Evaporated milk is richer than regular milk and makes for a creamier pie!
HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN PIE
To make this pie, you want to start by blind baking your pie crust. If you’re not familiar with this term, it simply means to bake the pie crust for a little while on it’s own before adding the filling.
While this isn’t necessary for every pie, I highly recommend doing it for this recipe because it ensures that the bottom of your crust stays crisp. Here’s a quick breakdown on how to blind bake your crust:
- Roll out the pie crust: I typically roll mine out to about 12-inches in diameter. You want the pie crust to be a little bigger than your dish, so you have enough to fit it into the dish and decorate the edges.
- Transfer the crust to your pie dish: You can do this several ways, but I find that rolling it up over my rolling pin, then unrolling it over the dish is easiest. This recipe makes quite a bit of filling too, so be sure to use a pie dish that’s at least 1 and 1/2 inches deep.
- Fit the crust into the dish and decorate the edges: Make sure to be gentle with the dough during this process and don’t stretch it (which can cause the crust to shrink).
- Chill the crust: This gives the dough time to relax, which makes it less likely to shrink. It will also ensure that the butter and shortening in your pie dough are cold, which makes for a flakier pie crust.
- Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork: This will help prevent the bottom from bubbling up when you remove the pie weights later.
- Line the dough with parchment paper & fill with pie weights: I just use dried beans for my pie weights.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 400°F
- Remove the pie weights: Lift up the parchment paper with your pie weights and remove them from the pie crust.
- Bake for another 5 minutes at 400°F: This will allow the bottom of the crust to bake a little more.
- Cool slightly while you make the filling
Once the crust is partially baked, it’s time to mix together the filling. To make the pumpkin pie filling:
- Reduce oven temperature to 375°F (190°C): The filling needs to bake at a slightly lower temperature so that it doesn’t burn or crack.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients: In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, flour, spices, and salt. Don’t worry if you have a few lumps of brown sugar in the mixture, they will whisk out once you add them to the wet ingredients.
- Whisk together the wet ingredients: In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then whisk in the pumpkin puree and evaporated milk.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients: Whisk in the dry ingredients until just combined.
- Pour the filling into the partially baked pie crust
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 375°F: I highly recommend using a pie crust shield to prevent the edges of your crust from burning. I prefer to cover the edges of my pie crust once I’ve blind baked the crust and added the filling, so I don’t have to open the oven door again. If you don’t have a pie crust shield, you can simply use foil to cover the edges instead.
- Cool completely & chill in the refrigerator: Once the pie comes out of the oven, let it cool on the countertop for a good two to three hours. Then, it needs to be refrigerated for several hours before slicing and serving (overnight is best).
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