THE BEST PUMPKIN PIE
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 350 g (3 cups) all purpose flour
- 3 g (1/2 tsp) salt
- 30 g (2 tbsp) sugar
- 200 g (3/4 cups+2 tbsp) unsalted butter cubed and chilled
- 40-50 g (3-4 tbsp) water cold
Filling
- 8 g (1 tbsp) cornstarch
- 150 g (3/4 cup) light brown sugar
- 3 g (1/2 tsp) salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/8 tsp cloves powder
- 1/4 tsp ginger powder
- pinch of nutmeg grated
- 360 ml (1+1/2 cup) whole milk warm
- 425 g (15 oz) fresh pumpkin puree or canned plain pumpkin puree
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
Instructions
Pie Crust
- In a food processor place flour, salt, sugar, cubed chilled butter and mix with pulse function until well combined and crumbs form. Don’t mix too much, you don’t have to heat the butter.
- Add water little by little and mix until get moist crumbs. The water amount depends on your flour, maybe you couldn’t need all the water, so add it little by little and check the dough that should not be too wet.
- Transfer the crumbs onto a baking paper sheets and press the crumbs together until get a dough (don’t touch the dough too much, you don’t have to heat it with your hands).
- Place some plastic wrap over the dough and roll it until get a 37 cm-15 inch circle.
- Fit a 25 cm-10 inch pie pan with the rolled dough + baking paper and remove the plastic wrap on top.
- Trim the extra dough to a 2,5 cm – 1 inch overhang.
- Fold the overhand under itself to create a rim.
- Crimp the rim with your knuckles as you can see in the video.
- Place it in freezer for about 10-15 minutes to chill.
- Prick the bottom and the sides of the crust with a fork: this will prevent it to puff in the oven.
- Place a baking paper sheet onto the pie crust and fill it with dry beans, raw rice or pie weights to blind bake the crust.
- Bake in preheated fan oven at 210°C-410°F for 15-18 minutes.
- Remove the pie weights, place aluminium foil on the rim to prevent burn and bake again in preheated fan oven at 190°C-375°F for 15 minutes or until the bottom is slightly golden.
- Cool down until prepare the pie filling.
Filling
- In a medium size pan, mix together sifted cornstarch, sugar, salt and all the spices.
- Add the warm milk and mix until combined.
- Add Pumpkin Puree and mix until combined.
- Bring to a simmer over medium low heat and stir often.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together eggs and vanilla.
- When the pumpkin mix is simmering, remove from the heat and add 1/3 of the hot pumpkin mix into the egg mix: mix immediately.
- Add the rest of the pumpkin mix into the eggs and mix until well combined.
- Brush the bottom of the pie crust with egg whites to waterproof it and avoid that it turns out soggy.
- Pour slowly the pumpkin filling on the pie crust through a spatula or a spoon: with this method you break the larger air bubbles. For break all the air bubbles you can also tap the pan onto the work surface and heat the filling with an hair dryer.
- Brush the edges of the pie crust with some egg wash and cover it with aluminium to prevent burn.
- Bake in preheated fan oven at 170°C-340°F for about 45-55 minutes or until the filling is set and won’t jiggle.
- When the pie is done, turn down the oven, slightly open the oven door and cool the pie down into the oven for about 30 minute to slowly cool down: it prevent the top to crack.
- Remove from the oven and cool down completely before serve it.
- I prefer to refrigerate the pie for 2 hours before serving it, but it’s optional.
- Serve with some whipped cream (optional).
Video
Notes
Hello, I am Valentina! Welcome to How Tasty!
I am an Italian girl in love with baking and cooking. I’ve been raised in a cooking family, baking since I was a little girl and learning from my mom and my professional chef grandma.
I created the Youtube channel How Tasty in 2017 to share with you my passion.
You don’t need to be a professional cook to follow all my recipes thanks to the video tutorials and the tips & hints you can find here.
Let’s cook!
Tips:
If you complain about your soggy pie crust, here some precious tips to always get a crispy, crunchy and never soggy homemade crust!
Firstable, you have to blind bake your crust (baking the crust before you pour the filling inside).
Place some baking paper inside the crust, fill it with wome weights to get a flat bottom, then baking.
After about 15 minutes at 210°C-410°F, you can remove the pie weights and bake for the second time the pie crust to get a crispy bottom (is done in about 15 minutes, when it become slightly golden).
The second tip to keep your crust crunchy, is to brugh the bottom and the sides with egg whites before pouring the filling.
I suggest to let the egg whites dry a bit before pouring the pumpkin filling inside the crust, so it will create a waterproof membrane that will keep the crust crispy and not soggy.
The secret to avoid cracking on top of your baked Pumpkin Pie, is to NOT overbake the pie and to bake it and cool it down slowly and gradually.
Stop baking when the sides of the filling are firm but the center still jiggle, after about 45-55 minutes in preheated oven at 170°C-340°F.
Then, turn of the oven, slightly open it and let it cool down on the oven for at least 30 minutes. Consider that in these 30 minutes the pie will keep on baking slowly, that’s the reason why you should stop the oven when the center still jiggle (like a cheesecake).
