Go to the Recipe: Perfect Pumpkin Pie
Sure I want to make this! The Chefsteps roadmaps are always fun to follow. Yet, there are red flags for me. 1 large egg weighs 1.75 oz..... 1.075 oz. is white, and .675 oz. is yolk. 6 yolks is 4.05 oz, or 114.8 grams....noticeably different than the recipes "90 g.".
I was trying to think about how to make pumpkin pie using a low and slow approach for the custard. Maybe sous vide? Would that make sense and if so how would one combine the two different parts (crust and filling)? Or is the difference in custard quality (between sous vide and 300F) not worth the effort/hassle?
I'm a very seasoned baker, and I just tried this recipe, but ended up with a filling that puffed and curdled, despite watching it like a hawk.
Any suggestions for dairy free custard?
Our vegan pumpkin pie pudding can be poured into a blind-baked pie crust. The crust still has butter in it, however.
I gave this a try to experiment ahead of the holiday and was a bit disappointed. The spice is great- unexpectedly more complex and lighter than a typical pie, but the texture of the custard, cooked to 175 F in the center checked with a Thermapen One, was not as silky smooth as hoped. It was also slightly loose. I did a head-to-head comparison with an old family recipe in which the pumpkin purée, sugars & spices are caramelized & dried out on the stove top, cooled and whisked with eggs & cream (fresh dairy, not evaporated or sweetened condensed milk). The custard of this pie was also cooked to 175 F in the center. The latter pie had a much silkier, smoother custard with no looseness. The crust turned out great.
I’m curious, can I use something other than sweetened condensed milk? It doesn’t have to be vegan, just for those with dairy allergies.
I’m missing what the saucepan and sieve is used for.
Hello KR. Personally I don't think its worth the hassle. The lower bake temp Grant is doing is a nice middle ground between a classic higher temp baked pie and a low temp sous vide. If you have the time you can certainly lower the bake temp down to 250f when the custard is added and cook longer until set to insure a silky smooth custard.
Unfortunately you cant cook your custard sous vide and cast it on the pie because it will break up the gel and it wont set the same.
Great catch Kathy, thank you! We just removed them from the recipe.
Thank you for the thorough feedback, we do appreciate it! I'm sorry to hear you were disappointed with the texture. I would love to try and trouble shoot what might have happened just for my own curiosity because I've tried this pie too many times if I'm being honest and always found it to be nice.
Can I ask how long the pie cooled out of the oven before it was cut into and was it served from the fridge or room temperature?
Your old family recipe sounds amazing! Would love to give it a try sometime if you're willing to share.
Hello Jeff. Sorry about the confusion with the weights. I hope you believe me that we do spend a great deal of time discussing weights and try to standardize them so the scaling is as easy as possible.
I'm reading your comment now and looking at the ingredient block at the top. It looks like our whole egg weight is set to 55g (1.94 oz). At ChefSteps we choose to use large eggs as our "standard" as we believe it to be the most common to find. The USDA states the average mass of a large egg per dozen (including the shell) to be 56.69 g. Taking the shell into account and to clean the number up we rounded it down.
I know y'all added egg yolks, more spices and salt to the base canned pumpkin puree recipe but on Libby's can, the recipe only calls for evaporated milk, not evap AND condensed milk. Can I skip the condensed milk and make your recipe as-is?
There's a 2nd recipe on my can for 'New Fashioned Pumpkin Pie' and the recipe is here: https://www.verybestbaking.com/carnation/recipes/new-fashioned-pumpkin-pie/ I suspect if you omit the condensed milk you'll need to make up the sugar, and possibly some liquid also
In the video only 4 extra yolks go into the bowl (6 total when you include 2 from the whole.)
The recipe calls for what looks like 8 total yolks. Can you please clarify. Thanks! Baking this now and it’s not setting and thinking it’s missing those 2 yolks.
It set finally, but took over an hour 🤞🏻
Is it possible to make the custard ahead of time and store it in the fridge?
While I haven't made Grant's recipe specifically, looking at the ingredients for the filling, and based on past experience with similar recipes, I'd argue that you can safely mix the custard base ahead of time and store it in the fridge. I would re-whisk the mixture briefly before filling your pie shell, but other than that, there are no ingredients here that stick out to me (e.g. acids, or fresh aromatics that might oxidize and affect the color of the base) that might pose a problem for make-ahead storage.
Hope this helps!
Tough question here. One option that comes to mind: sweetened condensed coconut milk. It has a similar viscosity to sweetened condensed milk, and behaves similarly when baked. Like sweetened condensed milk, the added sugar prevents curdling, so the base should stay nice and smooth as it bakes. You can also make sweetened condensed coconut milk yourself by reducing coconut milk and sugar until it's quite thick. I would start with a 4:1 ratio of coconut milk to sugar by weight, and reduce until it resembles sweetened condensed milk. Cool it, and use it as a substitute.
Big caveat: I haven't tested sweetened condensed coconut milk with this recipe. And as for an evaporated milk substitute, evaporated coconut milk exists. But I've never played with it in recipes. So proceed at your own caution.
Good luck!
Crust is in Joule to start the blind bake. Can't wait to see how this turns out, as I always make pumpkin pie, but mainly for family as I have always found it less than appealing. Always feels "wet", grainy, and weirdly crumbly. So, if this turns out, should address all those things. Plan to bake off pie and give it a full 24 hours in fridge before eating tomorrow... Will update as we progress.
20 minutes was not enough time for the first part of blind bake. Kept in for another 15 with weights on. Then another ~20 without. A bit worried that the edges still may get overbaked for the hour long custard cook. It's in the oven. Onward. Update - cooking complete to 175 in middle. Took about 55 minutes. Admittedly not the most photogenic pie I've made... Nicked top while rotating and thermopen leaves a large hole in middle. Interestingly there was little waves/bubbles forming on the edge as you can see. Now to cool and in fridge overnight. I have a feeling the spices will be ideal for me, and too much for wife...
Thank you! That's very helpful.
There is no way this even fits in a 9"deep dish! I have enough for two. After reading comments should not make this. Usually you need at least 1 can of pumpkin per pie. No wonder comments say weak pumpkin flavor. Yes, the eggs in the video do not match the number in the recipe 👎
Followed the crust recipe to the letter, including the rest, and it shrunk a lot. Now I have to make shallow pies. I’ve never had this happen with pie dough before. I think it is likely the bread flour. No crust is good enough to be worth making a shallow pie.
I made this tonight using store bought crust. It is setting now on the counter, but I wanted to mention that I had about 2x more filling than I needed for a standard store bought crust. I whipped up a graham cracker crust and baked a second one. Oh no
Also, I weighed my egg yolks and needed 5 yolks to hit 90 grams.
I am excited to try this once it cools!
Edit: reporting back after the big night: the pie was a resounding success! Even my family members who hate pumpkin pie agreed this was excellent and cleaned their plates. The custard texture was spot on: just set enough to cut and serve but totally smooth. The spices were also a great addition. Served with maple whipped cream and some flaky salt, it really was the best pumpkin pie any of us have ever had. I've been volunteered to bring pumpkin pie to all future holidays. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you for the feedback on the amounts! I like your style Nick, whipping up a graham crust on the fly for a second pie. I'm sure you wont regret the extra work.
Sorry about the shrunk crust Brian. Would love to try and better understand what might have happened. I'm all about the filling no matter how good the crust is.
I believe that you followed the recipe to a letter. From my experience this can be caused by 2 things. The dough being over worked during the mixing and/or hasn't been rested long enough in the fridge before baking. We might need to revisit the instructions if this issue persists. We appreciate the feedback!
I have the same issue with the number of yolks due to the discrepancy that you point out. Haven't seen a reply as yet.
Loved the pie completely. Family thought the anise was a touch much. But that’s an amazing recipe. Might just do a bit more clove and cinnamon in future for their benefit. But wow. Took everything I hate about pumpkin pie and fixed it. Bravo!
Made this pie for Thanksgiving dinner, and I was underwhelmed. The 6 yolks made it very eggy, and this was probably the first pie I’ve ever made that didn’t seem sweet enough to me. I’ll go back to using light cream and whole eggs.
I was very careful with the crust to follow all the directions, and it still shrunk up in a strange shape. I think part of the problem may have been that I was using deep dish, ceramic pie plate. The crust looked great when it went into the freezer. After the pie weights came out, it was smaller and mis-shaped. I may try again with a normal sized, metal pie plate to see if that works better.
The consensus at our Thanksgiving was that we'd happily make (and eat) this again, and none of us are particularly big fans of pumpkin pie. The sweet spice, IMO, is required here: it adds a definite magic touch to the flavor of the pie, and folks were asking about it a lot.
That said, I had to cook this far longer than the recipe suggested to get the custard to set, and the timing for the blind bake, too, wasn't long enough. I was using the temps for a conventional (non-convection) oven; could that be to blame? If I try this again, I'll make sure to use convection.
Thanks Greg!
Hands down, the most delicious pumpkin pie filling ever, the spices were familiar but also complex, and sweetness level was perfect. Enjoyed the filling texture (baked to 175F) but I might want to add an extra egg yolk for next time for an even more flan-like texture. Aesthetically, pie crust turned out beautifully with all the tips share.
Only issue for me was that the blind bake time was way off -- to get the golden brown color crust in the video, at 325F, it needed 40 mins which is 2x the recipe time. So in total, pie was blind baking 1 hour before the filling even went in + 1 hour with filling. Sadly the crust came out super tough, likely from the overbaking. For next time, I'd probably increase temp to 350F or 375F for a shorter baking time, especially if crust was in the freezer.
What would you substitute for eggs in a vegan version (I’m not vegan, just sensitive to eggs and dairy). Aquafaba? Most of the recipes I’ve seen just use cornstarch
I noticed that the 2 eggs account for 2 of the 6 yolks, so you use 2 eggs and 4 additional yolks. I watched the video, otherwise I would have thought it was 2 eggs with 6 additional yolks.
Only thing to do if making it the day before is to bring the custard to room temperature prior to baking in the pie shell. So take the custard out and let it warm up for several hours should work or put in metal bowl with a warm water bath to speed up the process.
How very nice of you to respond. Thank you.
Hi. Could you please clarify how many whole eggs and how many additional yolks are needed? As mentioned below the printed recipe does not match to the video. I too ended up with enough filling for 2 pies and wondering if it is because of too many yolks. That being said the pie was delicious - the filling was creamy and the additional spices were wonderful. This crust recipe is my new go-to pie crust! The other portion was perfect for my apple pie. Thank you!
I was just looking at the vegan puddings and I think that is going to be amazing. I made the faux gras a while back and the technique is mind blowing. Vegan crust is an easy sub, but butter isn’t an issue as much as the condensed milk - a little dairy is ok, a lot is not, at least for me.
From what I’ve understood it’s two whole eggs, 6 TOTAL yokes (4 additional yokes).
Unfortunately didn't read the comments before I made this one for Thanksgiving. This recipe really misses the mark. The volume of filling was way too much for one 9 inch pie even in a deep dish pan and splitting 1 can of pumpkin between two pies leaves a pretty underwhelming tasting filling.
