Pumpkin Pie with Homemade Crust

Pumpkin Pie on a fall-colored placemat. Plate garnished with whipped cream and cinnamon stick.

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming! Including my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving! I’m starting to publish recipes for some of my best holiday dishes, beginning with today’s post for my gluten-free pumpkin pie. This recipe makes two pies, because a week’s worth of leftovers would be nothing without a week’s worth of pie to go with it.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I will once again be live-streaming my entire routine for Thanksgiving meal prep and cooking. I will likely start the evening of Sunday, November 24^th, and stream each evening through Wednesday. Thursday morning I’ll sleep in a bit, then jump on stream to throw the turkey in the oven, make gravy, and reheat all the ready-made sides that I’ve made throughout the week. I don’t know yet if I’m streaming just on twitch, or if I want to stream cross-platform to YouTube and twitch. Either way, I hope you’ll join me as I make breads, casseroles, vegetables, turkey, gravy, and of course, desserts (including this pumpkin pie).

So let’s dive into this pumpkin pie recipe!

Ingredients:

Crust-
9.2 oz. 1-to-1 flour blend
6 tbsp. butter (3/4 stick)
1.3 oz. granulated sugar
2.5 oz. vegetable shortening
¼ tsp. non-iodized salt
5-6 tbsp. ice-cold water

Filling-
1 c. granulated sugar
1tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg (or approximately that amount fresh nutmeg)
1 tsp. salt
2 15-oz. cans pumpkin (or 1 29-oz. can)
4 eggs
2 12-oz. cans evaporated milk

Directions:

In a food processor, combine 1-to-1 flour, butter, sugar, shortening, and salt. Pulse until mixture reaches a wet sand texture.
Set processor to low speed and gradually add cold water until dough forms a ball.
Wrap dough in plastic and chill at least two hours to allow flour to hydrate. Overnight would be ideal.
Preheat oven to 375°. Remove dough from refrigerator. Divide evenly between two deep-dish 9-inch pie plates or standard 10-inch pie plates. Press dough into bottom and sides of the pie plates. Bake at 375° about 15 minutes.
While crusts bake (called blind-baking), prepare the filling. Start by combining sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt in a small mixing bowl. Whisk together until evenly distributed and there are no lumps in the spices.
In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin and eggs. Always crack eggs on a flat surface, not the edge of a counter or bowl. Use the tines of the whisk to break the yolks before whisking eggs and pumpkin together.
Add sugar mixture to wet ingredients and whisk again.
Add the evaporated milk and slowly incorporate into the filling mixture to avoid splashing.
Remove crusts from the oven and reduce temperature to 350°. Divide filling evenly between the two crusts. Place pies back in oven to bake for another 50-60 minutes. Start checking on the pies at 40 minutes to look for dark spots or under-baking.
When pies have finished baking, allow them to cool on baking racks at least two hours. Cooling will allow filling to set properly.
Once pies are cool, they can be stored in the refrigerator until they’re ready to be served, or can be enjoyed immediately on their own, or with a dollop of whipped cream.

And that’s the recipe for my pumpkin pie that I make every year! If you don’t have all the spices you need on-hand, you could just use about 5 tsp. of store-bought pumpkin pie spice blend. In fact, I make two each of pumpkin pie and my maple bourbon pecan pie each Thanksgiving. I can’t make just one type of pie, or certain family members would riot.

I hope you all will join me for my holiday live streams, and that you enjoy making my pumpkin pie at home in your own kitchen. Please leave your thoughts in a comment below, or get in touch with me directly by filling out the form on the contact page.