My husband made a quick grocery run one night and mentioned he saw white pumpkins on display. And they had not only mini white pumpkins that are often used as decorations, but they had pie-sized white pumpkins. White pie pumpkins you say? Just a few days before I had mentioned a White Pumpkin Pie recipe I found on Pinterest, and I must have gotten his attention. I’ve made a Pumpkin Pie Smoothie Bowl, Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes, and a Pumpkin Pie Milkshake, but never an actual pumpkin pie. Challenge accepted! I practically ran back to the store to grab one of them so I could give this recipe a try.
A slightly sweeter version of the fall classic, this white pumpkin pie is just as soft and tender and fall of fall flavors.
The Ingredients
As excited as I was to make this White Pumpkin Pie recipe, I did a quick run through my kitchen for ingredients I had on hand. My shopping list ended up being very short. All I needed was the pumpkin, eggs, and unsalted butter. I grabbed some whipped cream too because it’s practically mandatory for a pumpkin pie in my house.
My only question was how big is a medium-sized pumpkin? The recipe also mentions needing two cups of pumpkin puree, so a-googlin’ I did go. The results said a three-pound pie pumpkin would yield the amount of puree I needed. The closest I could find was two pounds 14 ounces. I grabbed it and another smaller white pie pumpkin just in case.
The Process
I often bake pies over a day or two since the pie crust needs to be chilled, and that’s exactly what I did with this White Pumpkin Pie recipe.
I also want to mention that I’ll probably switch between pie pan, pie plate, and pie dish throughout this post, but they are all the same thing. Unless mentioned, the dish is a standard shallow pie pan (1″ to 1 1/4″ deep), not a deep dish style (1 1/2″ to 2″ deep).
I only had a deep-dish pie pan, so I bought one that looked like the one in this recipe’s photos on the author’s blog. She linked to an Anchor Hocking pie plate with no edge that was very similar to a 9 1/2' Pyrex pie plate I already had. It was a little too big, and I don’t like that plate for pie because it doesn’t have a lip that allows an edge to be added to the crust. And what’s a pie with no delicious crusty edge?
When I looked carefully, I noticed the pie dish in her photos was glass and had a lip around it. It made sense since her pie had an edge on the crust. I found a shallow 9' glass pie dish with a similar lip and a domed lid from Oxo.
Day One: Pumpkin Puree and Pie Crust
I decided to begin with the pumpkin puree since it took an hour to bake the pumpkin. Prepping it was quick and simple. I sliced it in half, scooped out the filling, rubbed each half with coconut oil, and sprinkled it with salt. I randomly chose pink Himalayan sea salt, but plain table salt would have worked too. Once the pumpkin was on a parchment-lined sheet pan, I pierced each half a few times with a paring knife and popped them into a preheated oven for an hour.
The pie crust was next on my to-do list. I don’t think I have ever made a pie crust using grated frozen butter, but I had heard of the technique. It was something I have always wanted to try, so I gave it a go.
First, I mixed up the dry ingredients, then I grated a stick of butter with my box grater, adding 1/4 stick at a time. I tried not to grate the butter into a pile so it wouldn’t clump up. Instead, I moved the grater around to cover the entire surface before mixing in the butter. I had to use a knife to cut up the last bit of the stick of butter.
Once the water was added, I turned the dough onto a cutting board and began kneading it. I have always read that pie crust should not be overworked, so this seemed a little odd to me. Still, I turned the process and worked it into a disc at the end, wrapped it in plastic, and refrigerated it.
Back to the Pumpkin Puree
The pie crust was ready long before the pumpkin came out of the oven. I turned the halves over and gave them time to cool. Then I began scooping out the roasted flesh with a spoon and adding it to my blender. I quickly realized the skin was loose enough to peel, so I switched to that method. It allowed me to use all of the flesh and leave almost nothing behind on the skin.
I let it puree for several minutes to make sure it was as fine as possible, then I noticed a difference in the printed recipe versus the blog post. The post mentioned passing the puree through a mesh sieve to remove large pieces the blender might have missed. The printed recipe mentions draining liquid from the puree as well, so I did both.
First, I rested a mesh sieve on a mixing bowl, then I added the puree. I gently pressed down on it with the back of a wooden spoon to remove the excess liquid and discarded it. Then I pressed it firmly with the back of the spoon until all of the puree had been strained. There were almost no bits large enough for the strainer to catch, and I ended up with exactly two cups. I added it to the refrigerator in a sealed container and made the pie the next day.
Making My First White Pumpkin Pie
As with all pies, I began by rolling out the dough for the crust. I was surprised the chilled dough was immediately so soft. It held together without being too sticky, and I quickly had it added to the pie pan with the edges fluted. Then it was back into the refrigerator while I made the filling.
This was the easiest part of the process. The ingredients all had to be added to a bowl and gently whisked together. Then they were poured into the chilled dough, and the pie went into a preheated oven.
I followed the instructions and baked it at 425°F for 15 minutes. Then I reduced the heat to 350°F and let it bake for another 30 minutes. The center was still very jiggly, so I added another 5 minutes before removing it from the oven to cool.
Unfortunately, the edges of the crust slid down the pan and into the center. The sinking was also uneven, and a few bits stayed where they were supposed to be. Ugh! I gave the pie about three hours to cool on the counter before I wrapped it and put it into the refrigerator. I left it in overnight before giving it a quick snap and a taste test. The filling was amazingly good, but the edges of the crust were downright hard.
Making My Second White Pumpkin Pie
My first instinct was to switch the crust recipe to my go-to pie crust recipe. It has worked well for me over the years, and I discovered it right here when I made a Maple Cranberry Pecan Pie recipe way back in December 2017.
My standard pie pan was in use, so I had to use my deep dish pie pan. That caused the edges of the crust to sink in, but they sank evenly all around. The deep dish pan made the edges of the crust tick up noticeably more than the first version, but it was nice and flaky.
I also blind-baked it per the crust recipe before adding the filling. It did make a difference in the crust underneath, and it wasn’t as chewy as the first version. This was more of a success in my book, but it felt like I changed the recipe way too much. I was determined to make the original crust recipe work.
Unfortunately, I didn’t snap a photo of this version. This was when Hurricane Milton was rolling through, and I was a little distracted with hurricane prep.
Pie Crust 101
I scoured the internet and found common themes in pie crust recipes. Sometimes the butter was chopped into small uniform cubes, sometimes those cubes were squished with the fingers, sometimes not, and sometimes they were purposely cut unevenly. They were also mixed by hand and with a food processor. I also found consistencies like the ingredients were often weighed and the dough was never kneaded.
The 3:2:1 ratio of flour, butter, and water was also mentioned a lot. The 3:2:1 ratio is three parts flour, two parts fat, and one part water (all by weight). I knew this recipe called for one four-ounce stick of butter, and that made one part equal to two ounces (4 ounces divided by 2 parts). I used that to determine I needed six ounces of flour (2 ounces x 3 parts), and two ounces of ice water (2 ounces x 1 part).
Making My Third White Pumpkin Pie
I made my new pie crust with those measurements, skipped kneading, froze the newly made crust instead of refrigerating, and kept everything else the same including freezing and grating the butter.
The dough was a touch too dry to come together, and I added an extra 1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) of ice water. The mixture was still dryer than the first, but it held together in a ball. I shaped it into a disk, wrapped it up, and refrigerated it overnight just like the last time.
I was afraid the dry texture of the dough meant it would fall apart when I rolled it out, but it did not. The outer edges cracked some, but it rolled out easily enough and didn’t tear when I placed it into the pie pan. Then I trimmed off the excess, rolled the edges under, and fluted the same way I did the first two times.
Amazon Days had rolled around, and I picked up another pie plate. It was a 9-inch ceramic pie pan with standard depth. I decided not to use my new glass pie pan because I got better results with my ceramic deep dish pan.
I made the pumpkin puree and pie filling as the recipe instructs with no extra baking time. The result was a big improvement over the first version. The crust wasn’t quite as flaky as my go-to recipe, but it was a big improvement over my first attempt.
The crust edges puffed as expected, distorting a little, but didn’t sink. The filling cracked as the pie cooled on the counter, and another smaller crack while it chilled in the refrigerator. I read that is caused by over-baking, and it happened all three times.
Why did my pies crack?
That sent me back to Google to find the reason and solution, but I decided not to bake a fourth pie this time. They were all delicious, but I had reached my limit.
I found that like cheesecake, pumpkin pie is finished cooking when set around the edges and still a little jiggly in the middle. The filling will also darken slightly, and the outer edges of the pumpkin pie filling will look a little puffy.
That matched what I saw when I removed the pie from the oven, but it still cracked. I’m not too mad as I have never baked pumpkin pie before this. I always stuck to Mom’s no-bake cheesecake version because it was so good. I’ll have to post it here one of these days!
Timing
This recipe listed 30 minutes to prep, 1 hour to bake the pumpkin, 45 minutes to cook, and a total time of 2 hours 15 minutes. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 12 minutes to prep the pumpkin for baking
- 1 hour to bake the pumpkin
- 16 minutes to make the pie crust dough
- 20 minutes minimum to chill the dough (actual: overnight)
- 15 minutes to make and strain the pumpkin puree
- 14 minutes to roll out and flute the pie crust dough
- 20 minutes to freeze the pie crust
- 6 minutes to make the pie filling
- 45 minutes to bake the pie
- 3 hours to cool the pie before wrapping and refrigerating
- 6 hours 28 minutes total
That’s a lot longer than the time listed. It looks like the total listed doesn’t include time to chill the dough before rolling out, chill the rolled-out crust, or cool the freshly baked pie. That’s 3 hours 40 minutes of chilling and cooling. Removing them brings my total to 2 hours 48 minutes, which is more in line with the recipe.
