Maggie's No-Fail Pumpkin Pie - © 2013 maggiejs.ca

Perfect Pumpkin Pie!

There’s nothing that says Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner Dessert better than a luscious homemade Pumpkin Pie! It’s not as hard as you might think, and there’s no danger of a watery pie or a soggy crust with my fail-proof recipe!

Maggie's No-Fail Pumpkin Pie - © 2013 maggiejs.ca

First, visit our post on Perfect Pastry and print out the recipe.

Next, assemble the Pastry ingredients and make up the mixture according to the instructions. Make up enough pastry for a single-crust pie. That’s about 1 1/4 cups flour and appropriately scaled amounts of the other ingredients.

Pre-heat your oven to 425 F. Yup, that’s right. I know it sounds too hot, but this is key to your pumpkin Pie success!

Now, while the pastry ball is chilling and firming up in the fridge, combine the following ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer or a steel mixing bowl:

1 L (2 large cans) of Pumpkin Purée
1/2 cup whole or 2 % Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream or unflavoured Pourable Yoghurt
2 Large Eggs
2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. Ground Cloves
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Using the Whisk attachment of your mixer or a hand whisk, beat the mixture until all ingredients are well combined and the filling mixture is is smooth and velvety.

Roll out your crust as usual and line a standard 9 in. pie pan with it. Trim or roll the edges any way you like. I like to re-roll any leftover pastry I have after lining the pan and cut out one or more ornaments to float on top of the filling. (See my Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie, pictured above, with Oak Leaf Ornament.)

Now… This is important: Bake your pie on the centre oven rack, for 15 minutes at pre-heat temperature – 425 F. After the initial 15 minutes, turn the heat down to 350 F for another 45 minutes. After that full hour, you can start toothpick-testing the pie to see if it’s done. A thicker pie will take longer to produce a ‘clean’ toothpick than the one I’ve described above, which fills the pie crust about 1 in. deep. (Will puff up during baking about another 1.4 in.) This two-stage baking process ensures that the pie’s bottom crust is set and firm before any liquid from the filling can seep in, while the lower temp for the last 45 minutes ensures that the pie will be fully cooked and the crust won’t be burned.

Remove from the oven. and let cool for half an hour on a rack. Serve warm or cold with Whipped Cream, or Ice Cream.

And have a great Holiday Feast!

~ Maggie J.