Sweetened with condensed milk, this homemade pumpkin pie recipe is the only one you’ll ever need. Flavorful and with a smooth texture that melts in your mouth, this pie is filled with fall-inspired spices and flavors.
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Ingredients you will need
For the pumpkin pie crust recipe
Flour - I use all-purpose flour, but you can use pastry flour if you want.
Butter - Use cubed, cold, unsalted butter.
Salt and sugar - Additionally, you can add ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon to your crust.
Water - The water should be ice-cold.
For the pumpkin filling
Pumpkin purée - There's nothing better than fresh pumpkin purée that one can easily make at home. However, you can use canned pumpkin purée for convenience. Make sure that you buy 100% purée without any other additives. I use Libby's 100% pumpkin purée.
Condensed milk - In my opinion, the perfect pumpkin pie is made with condensed milk, also known as sweetened evaporated milk. Usually, there's no problem finding it in the store, but it's also possible to make it at home from whole milk and sugar. When I buy sweetened condensed milk, I make sure that it consists of only two ingredients – milk and sugar.
Honey - As with inverted sugar, honey improves the texture, lengthens the shelf life, and adds a nice flavor. You can replace it with maple syrup if you want.
Eggs - Pumpkin pie is a custard pie and the eggs hold the filling together. Don't forget to bring the eggs to room temperature before mixing up the filling.
Spices, vanilla, and salt - You can follow my recipe and make your own homemade pumpkin spice by combining ground cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and ginger, or replace these ingredients with two teaspoons of store-bought pumpkin pie spice blend. I also like to add vanilla extract to my homemade pie, so you should try that too!
Corn starch - It soaks up moisture and improves the texture of our easy pumpkin pie.
Cooking tips
Freeze the butter. The colder the butter, the easier it is to work with it. This is especially true if you don't have a food processor and use a pastry knife to make your pie crust dough, or if you work the butter into the flour by hand. Cube the butter, place it on a small plate, and leave it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before making the dough.
Use ice-cold water. As with the butter, the colder the ingredients, the easier it is to work with the dough and the flakier your dough will be. I measure the water in advance in a small bowl and leave it with the butter in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
Use a pie crust shield. Overbrowning is a common problem for pies like pumpkin pie. To avoid it, you should bake your pie on the lowest rack (this will also give your pie a nice baked-through bottom) and use a pie crust shield that you can buy in a store or make yourself at home from foil.
Step by step directions
For the pie crust
1. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse a couple of times to combine. Then, add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
2. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and start adding ice-cold water a little bit at a time while mixing with a fork or rubber spatula. Add the water just until it’s possible to form a ball. Finish bringing the dough together into a ball with your hands but don’t knead it.
3. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 40 minutes, overnight, or for up to two days.
4. Preheat the oven to 205C or 400F and prepare a 9-inch (23 cm) pie dish.
5. Roll the dough out into a circle on the surface dusted with flour, so it’s approximately 11-inches in diameter.
6. Place the dough into the pie dish (roll it loosely around your rolling pin and unroll it right into your pie dish), then gently press to attach the dough to the bottom and the sides of the dish but do not stretch it.
7. Trim the sides if needed or tuck the extra dough underneath itself, then crimp the edges or decorate as desired. Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes.
8. Then, use parchment paper to line the pie dish with the raw dough in it, so the paper hangs over the edges while covering them loosely. Place pie weights (dry rice or beans will work too) on top.
9. Bake for 20 minutes on the lowest rack, then remove the weights and the paper and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until the dough is cooked but hasn’t started picking up too much color yet.
10. Remove from the oven and let it cool down completely before pouring in the filling.
For the pumpkin pie filling
1. Reduce oven temperature to 165C or 325F.
2. Add the pumpkin purée, condensed milk, and honey in a bowl. Mix using a hand mixer or whisk.
3. Add the ground cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, salt, and corn starch. Whisk, so there are no clumps left.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until homogenous in consistency and the eggs are completely incorporated.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water for the egg wash.
6. Pour the mixture into the cooled pie crust, brush the exposed crust with the egg wash, and bake for around 50 minutes or until set. Rotate the pie after 30 minutes. If the crust browns too much, place a crust shield to prevent burning or cover loosely with aluminum foil strips.
7. The pie is ready when the edges are set, the center is a bit wobbly, and the crust is golden brown.
8. Remove from the oven and let it cool down before slicing. Serve with whipped cream sprinkled with some nutmeg (optional).
Serving variations
Whipped cream and nutmeg - I like to serve my pumpkin pie with heavy cream whipped to soft peaks and freshly ground nutmeg.
Ice cream - I really like how simple vanilla ice cream complements pumpkin pie. You can, however, serve it with any ice cream of your choice or try my Condensed milk ice cream.
What to do with the dough leftovers
If you're like me and you have some dough leftovers, don't hurry to throw them away. You can create a stunning decoration for your pie!
Collect all the scraps of the dough into a ball (do not knead them, just bring everything together) and place it into the fridge to firm up. When the dough has firmed up, take it out and roll it into a small disk. The size will vary based on the amount of leftovers. I had enough to cut out two small maple leaves.
Before cutting out the shapes, place the rolled-out dough disk into the fridge to firm up again. Then, cut out whatever you want using cookie cutters or shape different leaves by hand using a small knife. I printed out the maple leaf shape on my printer, which I placed on the firm dough and cut out with a small knife.
Then, I brushed them with the egg wash and baked them for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown (the baking time can vary depending on the size of the pieces you bake) on small pieces of parchment paper. There’s no need to start the oven just for these décor elements, you can bake them along with the pie or while pre-baking the crust.
Troubleshooting
The pie cracked. If you bake your pumpkin pie for too long or at a higher temperature, the eggs in the custard filling start coagulating. They become solid and shrink. The more you bake your pie, the more the filling shrinks, causing all those cracks.
To solve this problem, you need to know your oven and experiment. If your pumpkin pies get cracks, next time, try to lower the heat by 40F (5C), bake the pie on the lower rack, and check on it more often. Once it’s set on the sides but a bit wobbly in the middle, it’s done. Once the pie is out of the oven, it will continue cooking with residual heat and the center will set!
You can also check the temperature inside your pie with an instant-read thermometer to know if it’s done without being cracked. The temperature in the center should be 325-340F (165-170C).
And don’t forget, even if you’ve got cracks, you can always cover them with a dollop of whipping cream or other decorations!
Soggy bottom. It’s okay for custard pies to have a bit of soggy bottom because of the amount of liquid in the filling. However, making mealy pie crust instead of flaky and pre-baking helps a lot with the texture of the bottom of your pie crust.
Overbaking your pie will, however, make your crust soggy no matter what. Overcooked custard pushes water away from the eggs. It leaks into the bottom and even the top of your pie. Read the first paragraph to learn when your pie is perfectly cooked.
The pie sweats. If you see small droplets of water on top of your pie filling after it’s cooled down, you overbaked it (see the previous paragraph). The water will make the bottom soggier than you probably want but fixing the top is easy. Take a paper towel and gently blot it until dry.
Runny pumpkin purée can also be the reason your pie is sweating. To remove excess water, place the purée into a cheese cloth and gently squeeze.
FAQ
If you don’t mind a soggy bottom, you can bake the pie all at once in a raw pie crust. The edges will be flaky but the bottom will be soggy. Make sure that you chill your assembled crust in the pie dish before pouring in the filling.
Store completely cooled pie in the fridge for up to 4 days. Keep it loosely covered with plastic wrap.
Yes, you can! Bake your pumpkin pie in a disposable aluminum pie pan and let it cool down completely. Then, wrap the pie with plastic wrap and then with aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn. Freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight and then let it sit for an hour at room temperature before serving.
Yes, you can! Roll the dough and place it into a disposal aluminum pie pan. Place this into the freezer to firm up. Meanwhile, prepare the pie filling. When the pie crust is frozen, pour in the filling and freeze again. Make sure that your pie pan is standing on a flat surface in the freezer. When the pie filling is frozen, wrap it in plastic wrap and then in a piece of foil and freeze for up to two months.
More sweet pumpkin recipes
Recipe card
Pumpkin pie
Equipment
- Food processor
- 9-inch (23 cm) pie dish
Ingredients
For the crust
- 185 g all-purpose flour
- 10 g white granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 130 g unsalted butter cold
- 50 ml ice-cold water you might need more or less water
For the filling
- 450 g pumpkin puree at room temperature
- 396 g sweetened condensed milk at room temperature
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 10 g cornstarch
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Egg wash (optional)
- 1 small egg
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
For the pie crust
- Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse a couple of times to combine. Then, add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
- Transfer the mixture to a bowl and start adding ice-cold water a little bit at a time while mixing with a fork or rubber spatula. Add the water just until it’s possible to form a ball. The dough should look a bit crumbly but if you pinch a small portion of the dough, it should stay together. Finish bringing the dough together into a ball with your hands but don’t knead it.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 40 minutes, overnight, or for up to two days.
- Preheat the oven to 205C or 400F and prepare a 9-inch (23 cm) pie dish.
- Roll the dough out into a circle on the surface dusted with flour, so it’s approximately 11- inches in diameter.
- Place the dough into the pie dish (roll it loosely around your rolling pin and unroll it right into your pie dish), then gently press to attach the dough to the bottom and the sides of the dish but do not stretch it.
- Trim the sides if needed or tuck the extra dough underneath itself, then crimp the edges or decorate as desired (read the post to see what you can do with the dough leftovers). Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Then, use parchment paper to line the pie dish with the raw dough in it, so the paper hangs over the edges while covering them loosely. Place pie weights (dry rice or beans will work too) on top.
- Bake for 20 minutes on the lowest rack, then remove the weights and the paper and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until the dough is cooked but hasn’t started picking up too much color yet. If the bottom has puffed up, gently press down with the flat bottom of a cup while still hot out from the oven.
- Let it cool down completely before pouring in the filling.
For the pie filling
- Reduce oven temperature to 165C or 325F.
- Add the pumpkin purée, condensed milk, and honey in a bowl. Mix using a hand mixer or whisk.
- Add the ground cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, salt, and corn starch. Whisk so there are no clumps left.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until homogenous in consistency and the eggs are completely incorporated.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water for the egg wash.
- Pour the mixture into the cooled pie crust, brush the exposed crust with the egg wash, and bake for 50-55 minutes or until set. Rotate the pie after 30 minutes. If the crust browns too much, place a crust shield to prevent over-browning or cover loosely with aluminum foil strips.
- The pie is ready when the edges are set, the center is a bit wobbly, and the crust is golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool down completely before slicing. Serve with whipped cream sprinkled with some nutmeg (optional).
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