The Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe

There’s lemon zest in my pumpkin pie and I’m not taking it out. You won’t taste lemon, I promise. What you get is pumpkin and warm spice that tastes bright instead of flat, in a custard that sets silky and smooth without cracking down the middle. The Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe, on a crisp blind baked crust. Make it the day before and it’ll be even better.

What’s In This Pumpkin Pie Filling

Most pumpkin pie filling is pumpkin, sugar, spice and evaporated milk, and that makes a perfectly nice pie. Mine has 3 small additions that change it quite a lot, and the strangest one is lemon zest.

One teaspoon of lemon zest. Pumpkin pie can get sickly sweet, and a little sour from the lemon pushes back against the sweetness. The spices come through better and the whole slice tastes lighter.

The other 2 are both about texture. I use white and brown sugar together, because the brown brings a little molasses and stops the filling tasting like one flat note. And there’s an extra egg yolk on top of the 2 whole eggs, which is what gets you a smooth custard instead of something slightly grainy.

Do I Need To Blind Bake The Crust?

Yes, and I know it’s an extra step at a busy time of year.

Pumpkin pie filling is wet, and it goes into the oven wet and stays that way for about an hour. Pour it onto raw dough and the bottom of your crust never gets a chance to dry out and crisp. You end up with pale soggy pastry under a lovely filling, which is a sad way to lose a pie.

Blind baking just means baking the crust on its own first. You line it with parchment, fill it with pie weights so it can’t puff up or slump down the sides, and give it 15 minutes at 425°F. Then the weights and parchment come out and the filling goes in.

Pie weights are little ceramic or metal beads sold for exactly this. If you don’t have any, dried beans or uncooked rice do the same job and can be kept in a jar and reused for years. Just label the jar, because dried beans that have been in the oven 6 times do not make good chili.

Ingredients in Pumpkin Pie

• Pie crust (½ recipe): Half a batch of my Pie Crust Recipe, which is what I use. Store bought rolled crust works too and I won’t judge you for it in the slightest.
• Granulated sugar (¼ cup) and brown sugar (½ cup, packed): Two sugars rather than one. The brown sugar is the bigger share on purpose, because that bit of molasses is what makes the filling taste deep rather than just sweet.
• Pumpkin pie spice (2 teaspoons): Store bought is fine, or there’s my Pumpkin Pie Spice if you’d rather mix your own and have cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves sitting in the cupboard anyway.
• Cinnamon (1 teaspoon): On top of the spice blend. Pumpkin pie spice already has cinnamon in it, and I still want more.
• Salt (½ teaspoon): Custard without salt tastes like nothing. Don’t skip it.
• Lemon zest (1 teaspoon): The whole reason this pie tastes different from the one on the back of the can. Zest only, no juice.
• Eggs (2) plus 1 egg yolk: The eggs set the custard and the extra yolk makes it silky. If you’ve got spare whites, that’s a meringue or an omelet waiting to happen.
• Evaporated milk (12 ounces, 1 can): Not condensed milk, which is thick and sweetened and will give you a completely different pie. Evaporated milk has had water cooked out of it, so you get richness without extra liquid to set.
• Canned pumpkin (15 ounces, 1 can): Pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling, which comes already sweetened and spiced. One can, the whole thing, and nothing left in the fridge to deal with later.

How To Make Pumpkin Pie

Make the crust: Make up half a batch of pie crust, or unroll your store bought one. If you’re using homemade dough straight from the fridge, let it sit on the counter for up to 10 minutes so it rolls out without fighting you.

Heat the oven: Oven to 425°F. It needs to be properly up to temperature before the crust goes in, so turn it on early.

Mix the filling: Whisk the granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and salt together first, which breaks up any lumps in the brown sugar. Then in go the lemon zest, eggs, egg yolk, evaporated milk and pumpkin, and whisk until it’s completely smooth.

Whisk it until it’s smooth and then stop. You’re not trying to get air into it, and a lot of beating is one of the things that makes a pie crack later. Set it aside.

Roll out the dough: Roll the dough to about ⅛ inch thick and lay it into a 9 inch pie plate. Press it gently into the corners, crimp the edge however you like, and trim off the extra. Mine never looks the same twice and nobody has sent it back yet.

Blind bake: Line the crust with parchment, fill it with pie weights, and bake at 425°F for 15 minutes. Then lift out the weights and the parchment.

Fill and bake: Pour the filling into the hot crust and put it back in at 425°F for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 350°F and give it about 45 minutes more.

That first blast of high heat sets the outside edge of the custard quickly, and the long gentle bake after it does the middle without curdling the eggs.

Cool it completely: This is the hard part. The pie carries on setting as it cools, so cutting it warm gets you a slice that slumps onto the plate. Give it a few hours on the counter, or make it the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Whipped cream on top, if you ask me, but I would say that about most things.

Every pie needs a crust! So to begin, you need to make my easy pie crust recipe. However, it is also possible to use a store-bought pie crust if you prefer or just don’t have the time to make a homemade pie crust. Both options work well.

How To Tell When Pumpkin Pie Is Done

Slide a knife into the filling about an inch from the edge of the crust. If it comes out clean, you’re done.

The middle is the part that fools people. A finished pumpkin pie still wobbles a little in the center, about the size of a toonie, and it looks underdone sitting there in the oven. That wobble is what you want, because the pie keeps cooking from its own heat for a while after it comes out and the middle sets as it cools.

If you’ve got an instant read thermometer, the center should read around 175°F. That’s where egg custard sets, and it takes the guessing out of it completely.

What you’re avoiding is leaving it in until the middle is firm, because by then the outside has gone past set and into curdled. That’s where the big crack down the middle comes from, and no amount of whipped cream hides it. Well. Some amount of whipped cream hides it.

Can I Use Something Other Than Evaporated Milk?

You can, and the pie will still be good, just slightly different.

Heavy cream is the closest swap, cup for cup, and makes the richest version of the three. Half and half works too and sits in the middle. Whole milk will work in a pinch, but it’s thinner, so the custard sets a bit softer and you’ll want to lean on the full baking time.

What I’d steer you away from is sweetened condensed milk, which gets mixed up with evaporated milk constantly because the cans look nearly identical on the shelf. Condensed milk is thick and already full of sugar, so you’d have a much sweeter, denser pie and all the sugar in this recipe would need rethinking.

Coconut milk from a can is a good dairy free option. Use the full fat kind and shake it well, and the pie picks up a faint coconut note that works nicely with the spice.

Does Pumpkin Pie Need To Be Refrigerated?

Yes. Pumpkin pie is an egg custard, so it belongs in the fridge once it’s cooled.

Cool it on the counter first, because putting a hot pie straight into the fridge makes the top sweat and go wet. But don’t let it sit out longer than about 2 hours before it goes in.

In the fridge it keeps 3 to 4 days, loosely covered with foil or plastic wrap. Loosely, so condensation doesn’t collect on the surface.

Take it out about 30 minutes before you serve it. Cold from the fridge is perfectly nice, but the spices come through better once the chill has come off.

One thing that’s usually confusing for people: the pumpkin pies sold on the shelf at room temperature in the grocery store are made with preservatives and a different formula, so they’re fine out there. Yours isn’t one of those.

Can You Freeze Pumpkin Pie?

Yes, and it freezes better than most custard pies.

Let it cool completely, then wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and again in foil, and it’ll keep about 1 month. Thaw it overnight in the fridge rather than on the counter.

The filling comes through beautifully. The crust softens a little, so it’s never quite as crisp as it was on day 1, but it’s a very small price for having a pie already made in late November.

Freeze it bare, without whipped cream on top. Whipped cream and the freezer have never once worked out for me.

More Must Try Pumpkin Recipes

• Pumpkin Pie Bars – All the same flavors, cut into squares, no crimping required.
• Pumpkin Roll – Spiced sponge wrapped around cream cheese filling, and it looks far harder than it is.
• Pumpkin Magic Cake – One batter that separates into 3 layers in the oven.
• The Best Pumpkin Bread – For the days when you want pumpkin but not pastry.
• Pumpkin Sex In A Pan – Layers of pudding, cream cheese and whipped cream, and the name does the rest.
• Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies – Swirled, fudgy, and gone within a day here.
• Pumpkin Bread – Over on Craving Home Cooked.