The 19 Best Pumpkin Pie Recipes, Because One Is Not Enough (2024)

FAQs

Do you have to prebake pie crust for pumpkin pie? ›

Too many pumpkin pies have soggy crusts that never fully brown. To avoid this, recipes often call for blind baking your crust. That is, baking the empty crust before the filling is added. This gives the crust time to firm up and brown, time it typically doesn't get if the faster cooking filling is added first.

They are the same product. Both canned pumpkin puree and pie filling are useful, shelf-stable ingredients that can help speed up your kitchen prep time. Just remember that puree is unsweetened, while pie filling contains sugar and spices. This will help you choose the right pumpkin product for your recipes.

For better pumpkin pie, refrigerate the filling overnight

Any “sharp edges” disappear, and you're left with a smooth meld of complementary flavors.

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.

You do not need to pre-bake a pie crust for an apple pie or any baked fruit pie really, but we do freeze the dough to help it stay put. Pre-baking the pie crust is only required when making a custard pie OR when making a fresh fruit pie.

If the filling needs to be baked (like for a pumpkin pie), you don't want to overdo it on the pre-baking. But if the filling does not need to be baked, then you'll want to fully blind bake the crust until the bottom is golden.

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.

Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin

In this taste test, our Test Kitchen pros found that the biggest name in the pumpkin game does, in fact, make the best canned pumpkin on the market. Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin is a favorite among our culinary crew.

Don't use pumpkin pie filling in place of pumpkin purée.

Every can of pumpkin pie filling has a different amount of sugar and spices and if you add it to a bread or muffin recipe you might get a very sweet and not-spiced-enough loaf. Try this instead: Buy pumpkin purée!

Pumpkin pie is a great make-ahead dessert to cross off your Thanksgiving to-do list. You can prepare and bake the pie up to two days in advance, and it will still taste great on the big day. Just make sure you store the pie in the refrigerator—not on the kitchen counter—until you are ready to serve it.

Can you put an undercooked pumpkin pie back in the oven? ›

Solution if it's too late: If the pie hasn't been out of the oven for too long, you can put it back in the oven. Cover the pie with foil and bake it at 425°F, checking after 15 minutes.

Make Ahead: Pumpkin pie can be made one day ahead of time and refrigerated. Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The dough can be made ahead, wrapped in plastic, and refrigerated for up to 2 days, or frozen for up to 1 month. If you freeze it, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin: Of course, you'll need a can of Libby's pure pumpkin. Evaporated milk: A can of evaporated milk lends richness and helps thicken the pie filling.

You overbaked the pie

Eggs, when cooked, thicken and set the custard, but when overcooked the egg proteins will tighten up quickly and create cracks. The key to perfectly baking a pumpkin pie is to pull it out of the oven before it's actually finished cooking.

Libby's, the quintessential canned pumpkin brand, uses a proprietary strain of the Dickinson pumpkin variety in their product, which is also often called a Dickinson squash. On Libby's website, it states that their product is 100 percent pumpkin.

Often, blind-baking solves this problem. If you're making a single crust custard-filled pie, like a pumpkin pie, bake the pie dough first before adding filling to allow some of the moisture in the crust to evaporate. You can also totally blind-bake fruit pies.

Some recipes like quiches recommend partially cooked pie shells because the baking time wouldn't be long enough to fully cook the dough otherwise. Pre-baking a crust can ensure that your pie or tart crust will be fully baked and browned, and not soggy.

Traditionally the crust for pumpkin pie is not baked before the filling is added. This is because the filling takes so long to cook that the edges of the dough easily end up burnt. But without blind-baking, you're putting wet filling on raw dough, which is the main source of our sogginess problem.