With all the recipes I could share for Thanksgiving, I didn’t think pumpkin pie would be top of mind with some of you, but I’ve been getting a fair amount of queries so let’s get the pumpkin pie situation under control. 

Some questions were about dairy – evaporated or condensed milk? And there were spice questions – can apple pie spice be used? 

First, pumpkin pie can be made using evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk. Evaporated milk is canned milk with water removed. That makes a lighter, mousse-like filling.

Condensed milk is evaporated milk sweetened with sugar. That makes it thicker and higher in fat, which creates a creamy, more dense filling. It bakes up faster. 

As far as spices, both apple and pumpkin pie spices may include cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. The difference is pumpkin also contains cloves. So you could use apple pie spice and add a dash of cloves.

Use unsweetened, pure pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie filling for these recipes.  

There’s a range in the spices amount for both pies, so before you add eggs, taste and adjust spices if necessary.

You’ll start baking pumpkin pie at a higher temperature to let the bottom crust set, then the temperature gets lowered to finish baking the filling.

Now, just for you, I made both versions. Some folks loved the pie with evaporated milk. My husband, Frank, gave 2 thumbs up for the condensed milk version. Choices…

Pumpkin pie with evaporated milk

Ingredients

1 pie shell, 9”

15 oz can pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling

12 oz can evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar OR 3/4 cup granulated sugar

1-3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice OR 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon powdered cloves)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425. 

Whisk puree, milk and vanilla together until smooth.

Whisk in sugars, spice, salt and vanilla until smooth. 

Whisk in eggs until smooth.
Pour into pie shell and bake 15 minutes. 

Reduce to 350 and bake until knife inserted near center comes clean but center is a bit jiggly, 40-50 minutes. This helps prevent cracking as the pie cools.  Pie will continue to firm as it sets.

Place on rack and cool completely at room temperature, then refrigerate, covered loosely, for up to 3 days.

Serve with whipped cream, maybe sprinkled with a tiny bit of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.

Frank’s favorite pumpkin pie (with condensed milk)

Ingredients

15 oz can pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling

14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice OR 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon powdered cloves)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Instructions

Whisk puree, milk and vanilla together until smooth.

Whisk in spices and salt and blend until smooth. 

Whisk in eggs until smooth. 

Pour into pie shell and bake as directed with evaporated milk, but after you lower temperature to 350, check after 30 minutes.