Pumpkin Pie
A custard pie in a single crust — pull it from the oven while the centre still wobbles.
Makes 1 9-inch pie · Prep 20 min · Bake 55 min
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 Basic pie pastry dough, one disc
Filling
- 15 oz Pumpkin purée — plain purée, not pie filling
- 12 oz Evaporated milk
- 2 Eggs
- 2/3 cup Brown sugar, packed
- 1 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp Ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Instructions
Shell
- Roll the pastry out and fit into a 9-inch pie pan, crimping the edges. Chill.
Prep
- Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F).
Filling
- Whisk the pumpkin purée, evaporated milk, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt together until smooth.
Bake
- Pour into the chilled shell and bake at 220°C (425°F) for 15 minutes. (Tip: The initial high heat gives the crust a head start on setting before it can absorb much of the wet filling.)
- Reduce the oven to 165°C (330°F) and continue baking until the edges are set but the centre still jiggles gently, like a not-quite-set jelly. (Tip: Pull it looking slightly underdone at the centre. It firms up fully as it cools, and an outwardly fully-set filling has usually already curdled slightly.)
Cool
- Cool completely before slicing.
Tips
- Filling cracked or turned grainy: Overbaked. Once the eggs coagulate past their setting point they curdle, the same failure as any baked custard — pull the pie earlier next time, trusting the jiggle test over a fully firm appearance.
- Bottom crust came out soggy: The shell likely needed a partial blind bake before the wet filling went in, or the initial high-heat stage was skipped. Both give the crust time to set before it's exposed to liquid.