Super Easy and Part Homemade Pumpkin Pie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are 2 types of pumpkins perfect for pies? ›

Pumpkin Varieties for Cooking

Flesh of carving pumpkins are generally stringy, watery and bland, but can be used for making pies. The best varieties for making pumpkin pies are Baby Bear, Cinderella, Jarrahdale and Fairytale.

Store-bought pumpkin pie mix (sometimes labeled "pumpkin pie filling") is a shortcut for making homemade pumpkin pie. It contains puréed pumpkin plus added spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. It also contains sugar and other chemical additives.

Ingredients - Pumpkin puree made from scratch contains only pumpkin, but canned puree may contain a preservative like salt. Pumpkin pie filling contains additional ingredients like sugar, spices, and thickeners. Flavor - Pure pumpkin puree has a slightly sweet, earthy taste.

You can test the doneness by inserting an instant-read thermometer into the filling. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the internal temperature of pumpkin pie should be at least 180°F at its coolest point.

Start with the right variety of pumpkins, sugar pumpkins. Large pumpkins that we traditionally think of as jack-o-lanterns aren't ideal for pie as they are very stringy and have a lot of seeds. There really isn't very much “meat” to the larger pumpkins. Sugar pumpkins, also known as pie pumpkins, are sweeter.

Pie pumpkins, also called sugar pumpkins, usually weigh 1 to 6 pounds. Their flesh is denser and sweeter that the bigger ones, which are called carving or jack-o'-lantern pumpkins. The biggies have a moister, softer interior with a bigger seed cavity, and the flesh tends to be stringier.

Pumpkin pie filling shouldn't be used in place of pumpkin puree since the finished dish will be too sweet. You can always set the can aside to make a quick pumpkin pie another day.

As the name suggests, sweetened condensed milk makes the pie sweeter and gives it a denser, creamier texture. Evaporated milk, on the other hand, yields a lighter, airier result. Evaporated milk isn't sweetened either, which is why you can't simply swap one thickener for the other.

Although they both come in cans and the packaging looks almost identical, they can't be used interchangeably. Pumpkin puree doesn't have anything added to it, but pumpkin pie filling comes with pumpkin spice and sugar already mixed in.

While a wobbly, runny pie is a telltale sign that a pumpkin pie is undercooked, an overcooked pumpkin pie is a bit harder to spot. When you've overcooked a pumpkin pie, you may see: The filling separating from the crust. The filling has visible cracks.

Should I pre-bake pumpkin pie crust? ›

Think of it this way: poor pie dough wouldn't stand a chance (aka be a soggy mess) with a custard filling if we don't give it a head start. Hence why we pre-bake, because custard pies are too delicious to have soggy bottoms. Custard pies = pumpkin pies.

Pumpkins are a type of squash. There are two types of squash: summer and winter squash. While summer squash (like zucchini) have thin skins, winter squash (like pumpkins) tend to have thicker rinds.

Prolonged baking creates a deep browning on the surface, often forming delicious caramelization at the edges after cooling, much like a crème brulee crust. Baking a large batch of pies from a jack-o-lantern pumpkin can bring joy to your neighbors and family.

Carving Pumpkins

It is the Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin! These pumpkins were bred for carving, so they have little flesh (“pumpkin guts”) on the inside and thin walls that make it easy to carve and allow candles to shine through. Lumina pumpkins are also a fun choice for carving due to their eerie white skin.

Pumpkin Filling. As we don't really have the big, sweet orange pumpkins that Americans use, most sources suggest using a Queensland Blue or Kent instead. I've had good results with butternut pumpkins as well, though for this recipe I've used a Kent.