Meta Given's Pumpkin Pie
An underrated gem, if you ask us.
First thing's first: whip up some pie crust (we like lapadia's simple Himalayan Blackberry Pie crust, also on FOOD52). We also like measuring flour with the old dip-and-sweep.
Super cold cubes of butter, come on down!
Pulse that food processor (or use a pastry cutter or your fingers) just until the butter and flour look like this.
Then dribble in some ice water.
Till it looks like this!
Moosh that dough into a disk and let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes. Go measure some spices or something.
See the little flecks of butter? Those babies will steam up into pockets of flaky, airy pastry.
Rolling between two floured sheets of plastic wrap is such a good short cut it should be illegal.
Like a delicious blanket.
Now trim your overreaching edges (bake those up on their own with a little sugar: pie cookies!).
And if you don't feel like crimping, don't crimp! Just tuck the edges under. And stick it back in the fridge while you turn to filling.
Regular pumpkin pie would have you bake with this pumpkin puree -- pretty, but sort of predictable, don't you think?
We like to push our pumpkin to the limit -- by cooking it down and caramelizing it. Extreme pumpkin pie.
A shower of sugar, spice (cinnamon + ginger), and everything nice.
It looks like this (and smells out of this world).
Eggs, milk, and cream, do your worst.
Starting to look like pumpkin pie, right?
Quick! To the oven! (No blind-baking required.)
Just 25 minutes till pie.
Going all the way to 400 degrees makes for a crispy golden crust and puffed middle.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Author Notes: Caramelizing the pumpkin puree means that this is a pie with guts, one that won't just sit there phoning in the pumpkin flavor, burying it under lots of spice. But its genius is much more than that. You don't have to blind bake the crust. You use real milk and cream instead of evaporated milk, with predictably better results. And because you blast it at 400 degrees the whole time, it bakes in 25 minutes -- less than half the time of your average back-of-the-can recipe. From Meta Given's Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, an underrated gem of a cookbook. —Genius Recipes
Serves 6
- 1 3/4 cups canned or fresh cooked pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- Unbaked, unpricked, chilled 9-inch pie shell (we like lapadia's simple Himalayan Blackberry Pie crust, also on FOOD52)
- Turn pumpkin into saucepan and stir over direct heat for 10 minutes until somewhat dry and slightly caramelized, stirring frequently. Remove from heat but keep hot.
- Mix thoroughly together the sugar, salt, and spices, and stir into hot pumpkin.
- Beat eggs, add cream and milk, and beat into pumpkin mixture until smooth.
- Pour immediately into unpricked pastry-lined pie pan and bake in a moderately hot oven (400° F) for 25 to 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and only an inch circle in the center of the filling remains liquid. Cool thoroughly on cake rack before cutting.
- Note: Perfectly baked pumpkin pie has no cracks on its surface. Baking hot filling in a chilled crust at 400° F for 25 to 30 minutes produces a smooth, shiny good textured custard and a well-baked crust free from soaking. But if your pie dish is thicker glass or ceramic instead of metal, or you loathe underdone bottom crust, you might still want to blind bake it a little. Here's what we'd recommend: Blind bake at 350 F lined with parchment and filled with baking beans/weights until sides are dry and firm, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove weights, then bake until completely dry and firm (including bottom crust) and starting to turn golden, 5 to 10 minutes more. Cool thoroughly. Then watch the pie closely as it bakes -- it might be done early, since the cold raw crust isn't there to protect it. And if the edges are starting to look wrinkled while the middle is very jiggly, turn the heat down to 350.
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
More Great Recipes:
Vegetables|Desserts|Pies & Tarts|Blackberries|Tarts
Topics: Thanksgiving, Pie
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7 months ago Julie Beal
This is the nostalgic pumpkin pie of my childhood, and my 86 year young mom just made two of them for Thanksgiving dinner this year. She has always made Meta Given's caramelized pumpkin pie and has always had rave reviews from any gathering to which she has contributed the pies. She did have to bake it a little longer at my son's house, and they were delicious!
7 months ago jeanne_marie
This pie is def genius. Was a huge hit at the thanksgiving potluck. Used freshly baked pumpkin and the taste was very unique and much more interesting than usual pumpkin pie flavors. Not too sweet, custardy. Also had to bake it longer, for 20 more minutes at 350.
7 months ago Nicole F. Scalissi
I also found the baking time to be inaccurately short -- I baked it for about 45 minutes, and it was still a little too soft (but tasty). I used heaping measurements for the spices and made spiced rum whipped cream to go with it. I'll probably make this again next year because it was great, but will plan to bake it for 45-50 mins (so I don't have to keep checking it every 10 minutes!).
7 months ago BeetRiot
The baking time seems a little short. I've made this pie three years in a row now and every year I've had to lower the oven temp at around 25 minutes and bake for another 15+ minutes.
7 months ago Monica8866
Me too.
7 months ago Kevin Duellman
Same here...40 minutes in, center isn't set.
7 months ago Kristen Miglore
Kristen is the Creative Director of Food52
This is great to know, thanks for sharing everyone. Kevin, hope your pie set up after a bit longer!
7 months ago Kevin Duellman
I think the total was around 50 minutes, but it looks good...haven't cut into it yet, but we ate the "baby" sized one we made with the extra filling....it was awesome....
7 months ago Kristen Miglore
Kristen is the Creative Director of Food52
Excellent news.
7 months ago Marjorie
Has anyone tried this in cast iron? Would you have to blind bake?
7 months ago Kristen Miglore
Kristen is the Creative Director of Food52
I haven't but you might want to follow the blind baking instructions, to be safe, and fiddle with the timing. Let us know how it goes if you do it!
7 months ago Deedledum
For those who are hesitant about using cream, evaporated (not condensed) milk works well, with less fat. Which allows you to add copious amts. of whipped cream.
7 months ago Joyce Gordon
could I use almond milk
7 months ago Kristen Miglore
Kristen is the Creative Director of Food52
Sorry for missing this Joyce—the fat in the cream is important for keeping the custard stable at such a high temperature, so I wouldn't use regular milk or almond milk. Deedledum (above) suggested evaporated milk works well, however.
7 months ago Joyce Gordon
could i use a pre made graham crust?
7 months ago Liz Ko Youn
I tried it a few years ago with a graham crust and thought it worked well!
7 months ago Becky
Cream: heavy or light?
7 months ago Kristen Miglore
Kristen is the Creative Director of Food52
Sorry for missing this Becky—I've always used heavy cream and it's wonderful. Light cream might work just fine too, but I haven't tried it. (Let us know if you do!)
7 months ago Kate
This looks fantastic! Plan to make it for Thanksgiving this year. Question: where are all of the spices? Does the caramelizing of the pumpkin make cloves and nutmeg unnecessary?
7 months ago Kristen Miglore
Kristen is the Creative Director of Food52
The pie as is tastes spiced, but gently so, which I love. But you could add more to taste at step 2 if you have a favorite combo!
8 months ago Anna Francese Gass
Anna is a Test Kitchen Assistant and Recipe Tester for Food52
Going to give this one a try this year. I'm intrigued for sure!
8 months ago HFog
"Turn pumpkin into saucepan and stir over direct heat for 10 minutes until somewhat dry and slightly caramelized, stirring frequently." By "direct heat" do you mean medium? Low?
8 months ago Kristen Miglore
Kristen is the Creative Director of Food52
The visual cues are the most important here, since every pot and stove will behave a little differently. Medium to medium-high heat should be just fine—you just want the extra moisture in the pumpkin to steam away, condense the flavors, and caramelize the pumpkin slightly.
7 months ago X
I've been scorching pumpkin before using it in pies, cookies, cakes, soups, etc for many years. It condenses and improves the flavor and removes the excess liquid. I got the idea from this very recipe in the Meta Given's cookbook, which my mother had and used since it was first published. I always use a large, non-stick frying pan. It cooks the pumpkin faster, it's easier to stir (I use a silicone spatula and stir, flip, and spread it out while it's cooking), and the pumpkin stays in direct contact with the heat at all times instead of sticking to the sides of a pot, which makes it caramelize better.
This is a great recipe, but for me, it lacks traditional pumpkin pie flavor so I add cloves, nutmeg, and mace or allspice along with the ginger and cinnamon (and sometimes the tiniest pinch of cayenne pepper), or if I happen to be out of any spices, I'll use pumpkin pie spice, which I always have in the house (I use it in apple pie).
9 months ago AniaSweets
Soooooo good!
over 1 year ago Uyen Phillips
Delish!! Guests at my thanskgiving dinner couldn't get enough of it. I love that the added spices were subtle, yet detectable. I will never agian buy store bought pies, even from premium grocery stores. Thanks for the recipe!
over 1 year ago Vivian Robbins
I just made this pie, following the recipe very closely, and I had to nearly double the baking time. The filling was still very fluid when I checked it at 25-35 minutes. When it finally did set, there were cracks in the top. Any suggestions about what went wrong?
over 1 year ago Natalie Remington
This is what I learned from my grandma (re: pumpkin pies) and it works for me: 1. if the filling balloons or puffs up, then lower the baking temperature - you are not baking a soufflé but a custard and custard needs a lower temp 2. allow the pie to cool in the oven; that can be difficult to coordinate with all the holiday baking going on so my grandma was known to cool pumpkin pies on top of her hot water heater, covered with a loosely-woven dishcloth 3. never ever put a hot or even warm custard pie in the refrigerator because the rapid change in temperature will cause the cracks and 4. based on your comment, this may be where you went wrong, turn-off oven (or remove pie from oven if you are cooling it on the old water heater?) before the center is set. It's hard to do this, at first, because we learn to test cakes by checking to see if the center is set and cooked through. Don't worry, the pie will continue to bake as you transition it from 350* to room temperature and the center will set.
over 1 year ago Natalie Remington
I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease and Thanksgiving was my first holiday following a strict gluten free (gf) diet. If I wanted pie, I was going to have to bring my own to the party. I made a crust with gf ginger snaps and butter and followed this recipe as written. I thought I would have plenty of "my" pie left-over to have with coffee in the morning. I never could have anticipated how quickly the pie would be eaten! People who say they don't care for pumpkin pie ate this one and raved about it. And, my 9-year old daughter did most of the work on it. I don't think pumpkin pie gets any better than this.
over 1 year ago Megan Chu
I'm using the pyrex glass pit plate 9". Is it "thicker glass" and do I need to blind bake it?
over 1 year ago Hiromi Motojima
This time, I had some left over filling. As I was eating the filling, I had an great idea to make cream puff with this filling! So that's what I am going to do for Thanksgiving dinner at my friend's house.
7 months ago Elena T. Rojas
Minus the eggs I hope?...😷🏥
over 1 year ago Janet
I've been making this recipe for the last 2 yrs my grandson loves it he says it more like a custard....I usually put the left over pumpkin into a ramekin for him...
over 1 year ago p.k
Can I make this with an already baked graham cracker crust?
Showing 34 out of 154 comments