Pumpkin Pie Faceoff
The Quickest Recipe VS. The Most Traditional
There are a million pumpkin pie recipes online, all claiming perfection. For someone that is just looking to put together a quick homemade dessert, whatever the occasion, it can be difficult to know which steps are necessary for the dish to turn out as intended. Especially with pumpkin pie, there is an expectation cultivated over years of holiday parties, for what they should be like. What ingredients are essential for the custard? Can you use a store bought crust? In order to set the record straight, this article will analyze a traditional homemade recipe and the fastest possible recipe for pumpkin pie to determine whether there is a difference in the quality of the final product.
The Quickest Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz)
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 store bought pie crust
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Step 2
Whisk together pumpkin, eggs, condensed milk, and spices in a large bowl and pour the mixture into an unbaked pie crust.
Step 3
Bake the pie for 15 minutes at 425 F then lower the oven temperature to 350 F and continue to bake for an additional 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted 1 inch from the side comes out clean. Let cool completely before serving.
The Traditional Homemade Recipe
Ingredients:
Pie Crust
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup chilled unsalted butter
- ¼ cup ice water
- ½ tsp salt
Filling
- 1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp cloves
- ⅛ tsp black pepper
Step 1
Begin making the pie crust by whisking together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cube the cold butter, adding it to the flour, and use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles a coarse meal. There should still be small pieces of butter that are not fully incorporated, which will help to build flaky layers in the crust.
Step 2
One tablespoon at a time, add the cold water to the mixture, stirring after each addition until the dough begins forming large clumps. Don’t add more water than it takes to bring the dough together (about 3 tbsp).
Step 3
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours before rolling it out.
Step 4
Once ready to roll out the dough, begin preheating the oven to 375 F.
Step 5
On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to flatten the dough into a thin, 12 inch circle about ⅛ inch thick. Once formed, use the rolling pin to transfer the delicate crust to a 9 inch pie dish.
Step 6
Prick the crust all over with a fork to prevent bubbling and pre-bake in a 375 F oven for about 15 minutes or until lightly brown. Using pie weights during this step will ensure that the crust bakes evenly without bubbling up or shrinking down the sides. Once removed from the oven, it is fine to fill the crust while still hot.
Step 7
While the crust is pre-baking, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, heavy cream, milk, salt, and spices in a large bowl until smooth.
Step 8
Pour the filling into the warm crust. You will almost certainly have left over, especially if your pie crust ended up shrinking at all. You can use the extra to make mini pies in a cupcake pan with any leftover crust scraps.
Step 9
Bake the pie at 375 F for 50-60 minutes or until the center is almost set. After 25 minutes, cover the pan in aluminum foil to prevent the edges of the crust from getting over cooked. Let cool completely before serving.
Comparison and Conclusions
The Quick Recipe:
This recipe did live up to its name in terms of speed. It only took about 5 minutes of active time to complete; when including bake time, the total only comes out to 45 minutes. With barely three steps to the process, the recipe is as simple as possible and has no real opportunities to make mistakes that would cause it not to turn out. It’s quick and it looks the part, but how does it compare to a traditional homemade recipe?
The flavor of this pie is very mild, with the sweetness from the condensed milk taking the primary role in terms of taste. The spices, although not at wildly different levels in each dish, have almost no presence in this pie. The flavor is rather milky and similar to that of sugary cereal milk if it tasted slightly of pumpkin. The texture is decent, but slightly grainy with a leathery film that forms on the top of the custard from the high heat baking. The premade crust isn’t bad, but has a tendency to get soggy on the bottom if not pre-baked, and it doesn’t possess the same flaky layers as a homemade crust. Topping the pie with Cool Whip is an easy alternative to whipped cream, but it ends up further accentuating a slightly tangy aftertaste that is left behind by the filling.
The Traditional Recipe:
In terms of time, it takes much longer to make this recipe, but it is absolutely worth the effort. It’s easy to go wrong when making a pie crust from scratch, which is why the complexity of this recipe is so much higher than the other. The custard can be assembled in moments, no differently from the quick recipe, but budgeting an extra 30 minutes for working the dough, cooking time, and rest time means that this recipe requires a much earlier start. All together it takes about 3.5 hours to make, but only 25-35 minutes are spent actively working on the dish.
In appearance this pie is a bit unimpressive. It isn’t nearly as thick and much more brown in color, but its flavor is much more well defined than the quick variety. The balanced spices are much more noticeable, producing a warm flavor profile and lingering aromatics after each bite. Perhaps most importantly, the pumpkin is not overpowered by a strong milky taste. Using heavy cream in the custard provides milk fat that gives it a smooth, creamy texture without shifting the flavor of the dish. This recipe is notably higher in fat content compared with the other, but is also lower in sugars. The custard’s texture was not grainy like the quick variant, and the homemade crust was far more delicate than the dense premade crust. The buttery flavor came through a lot better, and there was no leathery film forming on the surface of the filling, making the texture very even, if a bit less firm throughout. Using fresh whipped cream as a topping impacted the results more than anticipated. Unlike the quick recipe, neither the custard nor the topping possessed an unsavory aftertaste, which allowed the aromatics of the spices to linger nicely on the palate without forcing you to eat more to wash the aftertaste from your mouth.
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