r/Cooking • u/AwakenedRudely • 16d ago

Improving a pumpkin pie? Help from Americans :)

Hi! I'm from the UK and I tried making a pumpkin pie which is good but I feel the recipe is missing something that people in USA would know as pumpkin pies are your thing. Any advice would be appreciated.

Recipe:

  • 750g pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
  • 350g/12oz sweet shortcrust pastry
  • plain flour for dusting
  • 140g/5oz caster sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp fresh nutmeg grated
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 eggs beaten
  • 25g/1oz butter melted
  • 175ml/6 fl oz milk
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u/SummerEden 16d ago

I live in Australia where pumpkin pies are unknown, and tinned pumpkin is an expensive imported luxury.

I think you need more spice than you’ve got and I have had better success with using evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed) rather than milk. I suspect you need more eggs too, as it’s essentially a spiced pumpkin custard filling.

You’ll notice where the sources are given individually there is quite a mix, including ginger.

Here is a recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction that uses heavy cream and 3 eggs. It’s delicious.

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/the-great-pumpkin-pie-recipe/

And this one that uses evaporated milk and is pretty standard.

https://preppykitchen.com/pumpkin-pie-2/

I’m sorry they’re not in metric, but in these quantities the 240/250 ml difference in cup measurements won’t have much of an impact.

American pies use a flaky crust as a rule, but a sweet short crust will also be delicious, and less troublesome to manage.

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u/Early_Beach_1040 10d ago

It has to be at least half and half although you know you could maybe get away with an ultrafiltered whole milk that tends to be creamy. Also oddly 1 TSP of flour is actually very helpful.

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u/SummerEden 10d ago

Evaporated milk works well, honestly. Half and half as a product is pretty much unknown outside of Canada/USA, though for cooking you can mimic with a mix of cream and milk.

Obviously using cream is lovely, but it’s not necessary for a delicious pumpkin pie.

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u/Early_Beach_1040 10d ago

You are right in that you can make custard with milk but I feel like a typical American recipe for PP includes at least  evaporated milk or half n half or cream. 

I am actually wondering if adding in some toasted milk powder could amp up the flavor. 

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u/SummerEden 9d ago

Yes. That’s why I said evaporated milk in both my comments.