Recipe: All Meals and Days Pumpkin Pie

Recipe by Elizebett Rocha Bento Eslinger

 
In my house, a slice of pumpkin pie isn’t just for dessert; it’s also breakfast, an afternoon snack, or a birthday celebration centerpiece. We’ve eaten a lot of pumpkin pie over the years! While seemingly simple, getting the filling set perfectly without a soggy pastry is a delicate balancing act. Blind baking the crust (i.e. cooking the crust for a period of time before adding the filling) helps the crust flake beautifully without overcooking the pumpkin custard.

Substitution note: if you don’t have a 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk, you can replace it with 100 g (about ½ cup) of granulated sugar, 50 g (about ¼ cup packed) brown sugar, and 12 oz (about 1 ½ cups) evaporated milk. 

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour (optional)
• ½ tsp table salt
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
• 15 oz (about 2 cups) canned or pureed pumpkin
• 3 large eggs, beaten (150g or 5.25oz)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 recipe “Pie Dough” (use one disk for this recipe; use the second disk for decorating the pie or save the second disk for a different recipe)
• 1 egg white, beaten

1. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices in a small bowl.
2. In a large measuring cup (at least 4 cups), whisk together pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, and milk. Add spice mixture to pumpkin mixture and whisk together. Cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.
3. Lightly grease a glass, deep-dish pie plate (1.5” to 2” deep; 9” in diameter). Use a rolling pin to roll out the pie dough into a 13” diameter circle (about 1/8” to 1/16” thick) and transfer to the pie plate. Fold the ends of the crust under and then use well-floured fingers to crimp the edge. Allow to cool in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
4. Adjust oven rack to the middle placement. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove your pie shell from the refrigerator and prepare for “blind baking”: crinkle up a large sheet of parchment paper (to make it much more flexible) and place it in the pie shell. Add baking beans or pie weights and fill up the parchment-lined crust.
5. Cook the pie crust for 25-30 minutes so that it is set. Take out the beans, poke the bottom with a fork all over (aka “docking”), and bake for another 3-5 minutes until dried on top (it may look pale) and golden on the bottom.
6. Remove from the oven and while it’s still hot, brush the inside bottom and sides of the blind-baked pastry with some of the beaten egg white. 
7. Lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
8. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the pie crust. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the filling is set around the edges but the center still has a wobble. *Tip: the edges of the pie filling should look cooked and slightly domed; the middle should look “sunken” in comparison to the edges and it should slightly wobble (there should be a 4-inch circle in the middle of what looks like wobbly filling. The internal temperature should be 170-180 degrees, BUT I avoid taking the temperature because I don't want a hole in my pie! So I use visual cues to know when the pie is done. See picture below for a visual example.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack to room temperature. Then, cool in the fridge overnight before serving.