My Classic Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Classic pumpkin pie easy to make for all your holiday events. This recipes is full of warm spices and creamy pumpkin and goes great with gingerbread crust! Enjoy this simple recipe this season for Thanksgiving, Christmas, all your fall potlucks and teas or just for the family on a warm cozy dessert on a cold night.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin

I love using fresh pumpkins from our own garden but we never grow enough for all the pies, breads and soups that I start making in the fall. Canned pumpkin puree is really easy to use, makes the process quick and then making fresh pumpkin puree. I like to cook a few pumpkin then freeze the puree so I can have my own pumpkin all season long.

Substitutes Sweet potato or butternut squash also make some really good pie and you can substitute the pumpkin with equal amounts of either of them.

Evaporated Milk

For some reason evaporated milk is always hard for me to find in the store. Sweeten Condensed Milk is everywhere but evaporated milk likes to hide in the aisles of the store along with the molasses. So I’ve stopping looking for it and instead I make my own.

Its really easy to make your own evaporated milk, simply simmer the milk until it is reduced by 50-60%. Check our Jenny’s Blog on how to make Evaporated Milk. To make Sweetened Condensed Milk you do the same but add sugar.

Sugar

Sugar is our sweetener, you can substitute with a 1:1 ratio of Monk Fruit Sweetener. I have never tired to substitute honey or maple syrup for this pumpkin pie recipe but I believe it could be done. If you do try consider reducing the milk by 1/4 of a cup to make up for the added moisture.

Eggs

Eggs are a binding agent in baking as well as adding a creamy texture from the rich egg yoke.

Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, & All-Spice

Our spices include cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and all-spice. These spices add so much flavor and you can easily adjust the amounts and create a whole new flavor. If you favor one flavor over the other you can experiment by adding a extra 1/4 teaspoon to the spice you want to stand out. Reduce another spice you want to be more subtle then the others.

I also really like freshly ground nutmeg. This is optional but if you have never tried grating your own nutmeg from whole cloves you are missing out. I love the taste of nutmeg and fresh nutmeg does not disappoint.

Vanilla Powder/Extract

You can use vanilla powder or vanilla extract. The vanilla is optional but I like the subtle background flavor it gives to my pumpkin pie.

Salt

Enhance the flavor with good salt like Redmond Real Salt. If you are looking for a unrefined natural salt with multiple minerals and electrolytes harvested in the United States of America, then look no further. Redmond Real Salt is full of flavor and nutrients and harvested out of the ancient seabed deep beneath Central Utah.

Flour or Cornstarch

We don’t need much but just a little flour or cornstarch mixed in to our pie batter thickens our pie just enough to keep hold our pie together, especially when we cut into it.

How To Make Pumpkin Pie

Prepare Your Gingerbread or Classic Pie Crust

I have a recipe for both a gingerbread crust or a classic crust. I love the gingerbread spices and if you’ve followed me for any amount of time your might have notice I love Blackstrap Molasses. So making a gingerbread crust with blackstrap molasses makes me so happy! But if you just want just want a classic perfect crust I have that too or if you are gluten free… I’ve got a recipe for that as well

Make Evaporated Milk (if you can’t find in store)

You can use store bought evaporated milk or make your own. Its really easy to make your own evaporated milk, simply simmer the milk until it is reduced by 50-60%. Check our Jenny’s Blog on how to make Evaporated Milk. To make Sweetened Condensed Milk you do the same but add sugar.

Mix Ingredients Together

Let your evaporated milk cool down to room temperature then mix it with all the other ingredients, pumpkin, spices, vanilla, eggs and flour/cornstarch

Pour Into Pie Pan and Bake

In your prepared unbaked pie crust, poor your pumpkin pie batter into the pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 325. We want the crust to get hot so that the butter can do its job in making a flaky crust, then we reduce the temperature so that we don’t burn the tops of our pies before the center is cooked through.

Let Cool and Enjoy!

Let cool all the way before serving. Pumpkin pie is served best with homemade whipped cream! A cup of hot coco or eggnog or some vanilla ice cream on the side would also complement this pumpkin pie recipe.

Side Story: So my 3 year old daughter got upset when playing outside with her big brother and immediately, without any prompting, as shes is still crying, started helping me finish making my pumpkin pie. She was soon happy again. This just goes to show baking truly does make everything better!

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