When we make pumpkin pie from scratch we usually just use the regular old pumpkin we have sitting outside with the corn stalks for decoration. Is a sugar pumpkin those smaller ones you see on sale that are advertised as "pie pumpkins?"

Would a regular pumpkin do just as well--or--is there such a difference in taste it would be wiser to buy a pie pumpkin? Thanks.

Hi Elise, I made this pie out of our jack-o-lantern (a huge sugar pie pumpkin). It was the first time I've made pumpkin pie out of a whole pumpkin and it was actually pretty easy and turned out beautifully. My husband said it was the best pumpkin pie he's ever had!

I've used regular pumpkins any size for years. All you need to do is cut the pumpkin in half scoop out the seeds and extra strings. Place the halves flesh side down on a cookie sheet. Make sure you use one with sides to trap the moisture that will render. Bake in a 350 degree oven until fork tender. I use a serving fork for that job. Remove cookie sheet from oven let set to cool slightly. Next take a metal serving spoon and scrape out the cooked pumpkin. If you find some of the pumpkin seems too firm just put it in a microwave safe dish and cook longer till tender. When ready put the pumpkin in a food processor. Run processor to get an even consistency. We usually take ziplock bags and measure out the proportions needed for recipes and freeze. We also date and put the volume amount on the bags for future baking. When the pumpkin puree defrost you will find alot of fluid, we just drain it off and use as is. The work goes fairly fast because my wife and I worked out a routine for this kitchen ritual.

In our area the Amish swear by "neck pumpkins", which look like butternut squash with a longer neck, for making pies. They are delicious.
And recently I read that the canned pumpkin sold by Libby's is actually a form of butternut squash.
So that just goes to show that whatever squash you like the taste of will work, but I think fresher is definitely better.

I plan to make this recipe for Thanksgiving using butternut squash instead of pumpkin. I prefer butternut because it is never watery and it has more flavor than most pumpkins. Kabocha makes a nice pumpkin pie too.

Another good spice is sold by the Pampered Chef. It is called Cinnamon Plus. Yum! Not sure what is in it, though, but when we run out I definitely hear about it.

I've always used sugar pumpkins and wouldn't do it any other way. They make the best pumpkin pie with an original taste and impress my guests always. I get many compliments on the flavor, you can actually taste the natural pumpkin flavor and are not overwhelmed by all the spices. The recipe creates a very creamy and delicious pie. Don't be discouraged and try it again. Make sure to get a small sweet pumpkin, I get mine from the local farm but you can get them at certain grocery stores, I know Haggen's and Alberstons carry them at certain times throughout the year.

Thanks Elise for a wonderful pumpkin pie recipe! I love pumpkin pie, and tried NUMEROUS recipes, but this one may be my favorite. It was a big hit this Thanksgiving, and I think the lemon zest was a great touch.

Wow! I made this pumpkin pie recipe with a Cinderella pumpkin. I cut it in half and put it in the oven. Scraped it and pureed it. I have never made a pumpkin pie from scratch, and let me tell you my family loved it. Great recipe!

I like to make 2 desserts for Thxgiving, one has to use pumpkin, the other apple. Thxgiving tends to be very busy the actual day you make the turkey, so to free up time, I try to make one of the desserts the day before. This is a decadent alternative to pumpkin pie and is as smooth as silk, melts in your mouth.

PUMPKIN POT DE CRÈME

Ingredients:

500 ml (2 cups) whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar, divided
5 egg yolks
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each of ginger, nutmeg and cloves
1 tsp dark rum
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpie pie filling)
½ cup toasted pecans
¼ cup maple syrup

1. Put the whipping cream, two thirds of the sugar, the spices and the pumpkin puree in a medium sized saucepan. Slit the vanilla bean vertically and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds and the vanilla pod to the cream mixture. On medium low heat, slowly bring the custard mixture to a simmer. Add the rum. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

2. Beat the egg yolks with the remaining third of sugar. Add one or two ladles of the custard to the beaten yolks and mix well. Add the egg yolk mixture back to the remaining custard. Stir well. Turn on heat and cook custard mixture a further 3 to 5 minutes, just to the simmer. Strain the custard mixture.

3. Oven should be pre-heated to 325F. Put your ramekins in a shallow rectangular pan. Divide the pumpkin custard evenly among 6 ramekins. Pour boiling water half way up the sides of the ramekins, cover loosely with a sheet of foil and bake.

4. Start checking the custards after 25 minutes. They should take anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes to bake. They should still have a “jiggle” in the center about the size of a dime. Do not fully bake the custards.

5. Remove the pan from the oven. The custards should be kept in the hot water in the baking pan for a further half an hour. The sheet of foil should still be loosely on top as well. After half an hour, the custards should have finished baking and there will no longer be a jiggle area in the center. Remove the foil cover being careful not to drip water from the foil on the custards. Remove the ramekins from the hot water and cool at room temperature a further half an hour. Now cover each ramekin with saran and refrigerate over night or up to 2 days.

6. Toast pecans at 350F for 10 minutes and coarsely chop. To serve, sprinkle each pot de crème with some chopped pecans, then put on a dollop of whipped cream, sift a bit of cocoa and cinnamon over the whipped cream, top with a truffle covered coffee bean and if desired, drizzle with 1 tsp of maple syrup.

I have been making pies for 60 years. I find that if you use sweet potatoes just as you would pumpkin and go ahead and make a pie that it is much milder and doesn't give you heartburn like regular pumpkin pie does. Also as an older person I like the pies without all that spice in them. Make up the filling and just put vanilla in them and a small amount of nutmeg on top. My mother in law made them and they were just a light yellow in color. They were delicious.

Made this the other day with canned puree - sort of a pre-Thanksgiving trial run!! The crust was the best I've ever made (and tasted). The spices seemed a little strong - the adults liked it but the kids not so much. Adding more homemade whipped cream to theirs helped;). Maybe next time I will adjust the spices a bit?

For those who might want to make this with other than pumpkin - try Hubbard squash. They are the large (sometimes huge!) grayish-skinned, warty squash at farmer's markets and in some groceries. They have an orange flesh that tastes a bit richer than butternut. Roast like other winter squash. Great in all your squash recipes, and I've found it doesn't get quite as watery when you freeze it.
Recipe sounds delish, BTW! I will be making it this week for my son's birthday. Wanted a recipe that didn't use evap. milk.

Thanks for posting this great recipe, as well as the Pâte Brisée recipe; I used them multiple times over the holidays and both turned out great! I do have to say that for the first time I made the pie, the only lemons I had were Meyers from my neighbor's tree. This gave it an odd aftertaste and the next time I made the pie I used the same quantity of vanilla (1/2t) and it was delicious. I don't know if I will ever want to take the chance on lemons again, even if I do have regular non-Meyer ones, as I made it again with vanilla and it was fantastic.

Also I should say that I am a fanatic about nutrition, so I wanted to use unrefined flour and sugar. My pie crust was made with sprouted/dried/milled whole wheat flour with 1/3 of it hard red wheat (bread wheat) and 2/3 of it a soft pastry wheat. It was out of this world; flaky, delicate and delicious. I think that the problems people have baking with whole wheat are threefold: they use bread flour, it's not fresh (milled whole grains go rancid very quickly) and they don't sprout or soak it before milling. You can get Summer's Sprouted Flours if you don't have your own mill, and keep them in the freezer so they don't go rancid. I used Rapunzel Rapadura unrefined sugar for the sweetener and used a total of 3/4 cup (instead of split between brown sugar and white sugar as listed above).

Finally, if you click on the "recommended reading" link above to Shuna Fish Lydon's blog, there is a link there to a recipe for homemade pop-tarts, and these are what I made from the leftover dough. Yum!

Pumpkin pies made with fresh sugar pumpkin puree are simply the best. To get the smoothest texture, puree the flesh in a food processor while it's still warm until it's smooth. If you want it really silky strain it after processing. If you don't have a processor, but the pulp through a food mill.

The most common reason why the filling separates from the crust is that the crust is too warm when the filling is poured in. The crust should be cool, not warm. Another reason is over baking. It's important to fully pre-bake the crust before filling it, so the filling doesn't over bake while your waiting for the crust to brown.

To pre-bake: Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes in the pie plate; line the crust with foil or a large 1.5 or 3 gallon coffee filter and fill it with dried beans; bake at 450 for 15 minutes to set the crust; then turn down the oven to 400 and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, remove the liner with the beans and bake unlined for another 6-10 minutes until the crust is fully baked and lightly browned all over.

Don't over bake the custard! The custard should just set with just a smidgen of a wobble in the very center. It will finish baking as it cools. If the pie cracks on the surface or pulls away from the crust, it's over baked.

For the best pumpkin flavor I only use either granulated or demerara sugar, if I want a very light brown sugar note. I also lightly spice the custard base with just really good cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg (about 20 strokes on a microplane). I also liberally season w/ salt (about 2 tsp of kosher salt for 2 cups of pumpkin). If you don't use enough salt, not only will it be bland, but the pumpkin will end up taking on a bitter note during baking (which is usually covered by spices, but when spices are not used or lightly used, the bitterness is noticeable, so salt is necessary!)

I think it's a crime against pumpkin pie to use anything below half and half. If you don't want to use heavy cream, AT LEAST use half and half. Evaporated milk does not do this pie justice.

I want to try this, but do I need to pre bake my pie crust(it is handmade)?

No, not with this recipe. No pre-baking. ~Elise

If I make the crust from scratch (from your recommended recipe), do I need to bake the crust at all before placing the pie mixture inside?

Typically no, but I suppose you could if you wanted to. ~Elise

Elise, this is the new - and permanent - favorite pumpkin pie recipe for our family - thank you! I had cooked, mashed, and frozen a pie pumpkin about a month ago and was looking for a recipe to use it in that was just a bit different from the usual. When I saw the list of spices in this one, I knew I had to try it. My husband is not usually too excited about pumpkin pie, but he had three slices of this one. And my 79 year old dad, who loves any kind of pie, called me at home 20 minutes after I dropped off a few servings for him to taste, telling me it was the best he'd ever had and to please make this again for Christmas! That's high praise from dad, as my grandmother (his mom) made the best pies I've had yet. Thank you for an easy and delicious recipe.

On Nov 22, 2006, Naomi Daugherty asked about a recipe using molasses and brown sugar. I like wise am looking for the same thing. I have a recipe from my mother that has no quantities (not unusual) and it uses CUT UP PUMPKIN instead of puree which I like very much. Here it is (it's double crust);
Sprinkle a thin layer of flour and sugar in bottom of pie crust.
Peel and dice thin enough pumpkin for pie.
Sprinkle a little salt over pumpkin and mix, then pour over molasses and sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon and mix.
Put in pie crust and dot with butter or margarine.
Put on top crust and bake at 425 degrees until juice cooks out of holes thickly.

Several people have asked about differences between carving pumpkins and sugar pumpkins. First - there is no botanical difference between a pumpkin and a squash - pumpkins are squash. And there are lots of different textures. Squashes like Hubbard, Kabocha, and Buttercup all have very dry, smooth flesh that is ideal for pie making. The canned pumpkin puree you get in the stores is more often than not gray Hubbard squash. Butternut also produces a great pie. I usually puree it with an immersion blender, then pour it into a large strainer and let it stand over a bowl for about half an hour to get rid of the extra water.

This is the first time I've added cardamom to a pumpkin pie; mine is in the oven right now (made with a Triamble squash) and I can't wait to try it!

Hi, I made this pie last night as a trial run for thanksgiving. It was delicious, but next time I will try the cream instead of the condensed milk as some one suggested as we thought it was too sweet. My other concern was I thought that the pie was too moist. Is this the way pie made with roasted pumpkins turns out?
I want to thank you for posting this, even though I sound like we did not like it, it still way better than the pie mass produced from a store.

It is harder to predict results when you roast your own pumpkin rather than using canned pumpkin. ~Elise

... it's in the oven!

Made my first pie from scratch last Thanksgiving. A world of difference in the tasts when using fresh ingredients. One thing I have always done, whether using canned filling or fresh, is instead of using condensed milk, I use an 8oz. container of sour cream. It adds a depth and richness to the pie that is not to be believed.

Yum! This is exactly what I've been looking for. A quick question, since I've not made pumpkin pie before - can I make this the day before? Like, early the day before? And if so, how should I store it? I have a cool three-season porch, room in the fridge, counter space...
Thanks for the recipe! And for the step-by-step photos in the crust recipe. :)

Yes you can make it a day ahead. I would store in the fridge. ~Elise

What size pie tin do I use?

9-inch. ~Elise

Thanks for the great recipe! I just cooked it up today, came out a treat.

Elise,
Just thought I would follow up on a previous post regarding shrinking crust and cracked pies... A person responded with suggesting to pre-bake the pie shell. I can say I followed instructions and came up with a pretty sorry looking crust. So, I pitched it and started over. This time, I followed your original instructions. The only change I did make was put the crust in the freezer for 30 minutes prior to filling the pie crust. It did not shrink as much. Taste of the pie and crust...great as usual. As for the cracking, I read cold drafts and cooling too fast causes cracking, as well as over baking. I hid mine in the microwave to cool off and that helped as well.

Again, thanks for an awesome website. Each Thanksgiving, my family thinks I am the great cook... ;-)

Oh I'm so glad I found this recipe again. I made it last year for Christmas dinner and I didn't bookmark it.

Anyway, I'm a Canadian expat living in Australia and there's no tinned pumpkin here unless I order it from some online specialty store. But there's plenty of fresh pumpkin available in the shops. So, I was thrilled to find this recipe last year and we made it for Christmas dinner (there's no Thanksgiving here) and my husband and I both thought it was the best pumpkin pie we'd ever tasted.

Now it's Christmas Eve here and we're getting ready to make it again to bring to our friends' house for dinner. They're from England and South Africa and none of the family members have ever tried pumpkin pie before. They've been looking forward to it and talking about it all week, so I knew that I couldn't make any other version but this one...it's perfect! Thanks so much for an amazing, delicious recipe that is becoming a family tradition here.

Did I do something wrong? It has taken over two hours for this pie to bake properly. I had the temp up to 425 then lowered it down to 350 like it stated in the recipe. I used fresh pumpkin and the cream. I keep looking over the recipe but cannot find where I went wrong. Oh, never mind, it is at 400 and is still taking forever to bake! Can you imagine what it would've looked like if I baked it at 350?

Don't know. Perhaps the fresh pumpkin puree was too moist, and needed to have some of the moisture squeezed out of it (you can do that with paper towels.) ~Elise

I hate pumpkin pie..... I LOVE this pumpkin pie.
I share the same sentiments of numerous other
commenters that I shall never ever make
another pumpkin pie from a can again. I made tarts
as well with the filling and they turned out
wonderfully! THANK YOU for converting me!

I see your recipe specifically asks for dark brown sugar? just getting started in the cooking/baking world so I am wondering what the difference will be if I make this with the light brown sugar that I have on hand rather than the dark brown as you say I need?

Hi Danielle, dark brown sugar is just a light brown sugar with a little more molasses in it. You can make the pie with light brown sugar, if that's all you have. Or if you have some molasses, you can add a teaspoon to the light brown sugar for the extra flavor. ~Elise

This will be my first year trying your recipe for Pumpkin Pie. But I have a topper to dress it, if you would like to try.

As an aside,I've cooked for 45 years, and when I saw your instructions for chicken soup, I knew we were a match (My gold standard for recipe books).

Try any amount, but end up with one stick of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add one cup of pecans and, four minutes later, 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar. Mix just until congealed. Cool for five minutes, then distribute over a cooled pumpkin pie. My son's "To die for" Thanksgiving favorite. Make both the day before and refrigerate until serving.

I do hope you enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanks Pixie! ~Elise

I never comment on recipes (although I definitely read the comments!) but I wanted to tell you that this Thanksgiving will be the third time since Halloween I've used your recipe for homemade pumpkin pie. I had never made a pumpkin pie from scratch before, and your simple instructions for roasting and scooping the pumpkin - with pictures - was very helpful. Now I'm a pro, and my boyfriend asks for another pie the moment he finishes one! The only thing I do differently is make the pie with a gluten-free crust for my celiac significant other.

thanks!

I'm lactose intolerant and make the regular Betty Crocker pumpkin pie recipe with two cups of scalded milk instead of evaporated milk. For years I stopped making my favorite pie when my lactose intolerance got bad. Then I saw an Amish recipe for pumpkin pie and it used scalded regular milk which I buy in a lactose free variety. I also add a quarter cup of flour to the filling to help it thicken a little. No one notices the difference and I am a very happy pumpkin pie junkie.

Great ideas for those who are lactose free. Thank you. ~Elise

Glad to see the recipe that says from scratch and is from scratch. I was verbally abused last year on another cooking site when I commented on their 'from scratch' pumpkin pie recipe that was made from canned pumpkin. I use kabocha pumpkins as they are readily available in Japan, where I live. When I made a pie recently using canned pumpkin it tasted good, but I prefer pies made from fresh pumpkins. Nice recipe.

Please can you help my pumpkin pies always weep after they cool there is always a liquid laying on top which I have to remove gently by placing a papertowel to absorb,I have not been able to find anyone who can tell my why this happens or to try and fix it.
Thanks so very much.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Usually I make my own puree too, but this year, I've gotten so lazy. It's good to know that the fresh stuff really makes a difference!

Gorgeous pie, by the way.

I am not a pumpkin pie person but I really like this one. I think the lemon zest and cardamom are what make it different from others. I did make a few changes. I used half and half, 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, and1/8 cloves. I cut back on those two spices because I was concerned they would overwhelm. This pleased all in the family, pumpkin lovers and non-lovers both. Great recipe!

I've made it yesterday for diner and everybody loved it! Encore une fois, un vrai régal!

Warmest regards from your Brazilian fan in France.

Wow, excellent! I used canned pumpkin and evaporated milk, and reduced the sugar even a bit further, to 2/3 cup total. My eggs were small so I just used three whole eggs. :) The spices were perfect! Everyone loved this.

I use condensed milk and omit all the sugars and it isn't overly sweet. I love fresh pumpkin too, but I found that the organic canned pumpkin has as much flavor as fresh if you're pressed for time. Good to know that the Libby's is butternut squash as it doesn't have much of a pumpkin flavor.

My dad always made the Thanksgiving pies and this was our first big holiday without him. So I decided to try in an effort to both honor him and not miss him as much. This pie is delicious; the lemon zest is inspired. I used two small pumpkins from my CSA box. So many great recipes here. Thanks!

This pumpkin pie recipe looks delicious! I will definitely have to try it!