Salted Caramel Pumpkin Pie Recipe (2025)

FAQs

How do you keep the bottom crust of pumpkin pie from getting soggy? ›

Often, blind-baking solves this problem. If you're making a single crust custard-filled pie, like a pumpkin pie, bake the pie dough first before adding filling to allow some of the moisture in the crust to evaporate. You can also totally blind-bake fruit pies.

Pumpkin pie filling will be labeled as pumpkin pie mix or pumpkin pie filling. Ingredients - Pumpkin puree made from scratch contains only pumpkin, but canned puree may contain a preservative like salt. Pumpkin pie filling contains additional ingredients like sugar, spices, and thickeners.

It says it contains: pumpkin, sugar, water, eggs, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), canola and/or soybean oil, nonfat milk, corn syrup, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, spices, corn sugar, mono & diglycerides, modified food starch.

On the flip side, leaving out most of the sugar creates a beautiful flavor profile. Using one-third of the amount of called-for sugar resulted in a more pumpkin-forward flavor. Though it didn't have much sugar in the batter, the pie still tasted somewhat sweet.

You do not need to pre-bake a pie crust for an apple pie or any baked fruit pie really, but we do freeze the dough to help it stay put. Pre-baking the pie crust is only required when making a custard pie OR when making a fresh fruit pie. you should probably get: Pie weights are super helpful to have for pre-baking.

Pumpkin pie mix can be used as a substitute for pure canned pumpkin in some recipes. However, since it is already sweetened and flavored, you'll need to make some adjustments. In most dessert recipes, leave out the pumpkin pie spice and cut down on the sugar since the pumpkin pie mix includes it.

If you meant to purchase pumpkin pie filling but accidentally grabbed a can of plain pumpkin, it's easy to sweeten and season the puree. Follow a good pumpkin pie recipe (there's usually a recipe printed right on the label) and add sugar and spices to the puree along with other ingredients like eggs before baking.

Don't use pumpkin pie filling in place of pumpkin purée.

Every can of pumpkin pie filling has a different amount of sugar and spices and if you add it to a bread or muffin recipe you might get a very sweet and not-spiced-enough loaf. Try this instead: Buy pumpkin purée!

How Costco Keeps Its Pumpkin Pie So Cheap. In their book, David and Susan disclose that Costco's pumpkin pies are only semi-homemade, which helps cut down on costs.

Pumpkin pie is most popular among residents in North Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, West Virginia, Mississippi, and South Dakota.

Is heavy cream or evaporated milk better for pumpkin pie? ›

During my testing of pumpkin pies, I tried lots of different milk options – heavy whipping cream, regular milk (I used 2% in my testing), sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. Ultimately, I found heavy whipping cream to be the best. It produced the creamiest pie in my opinion.

As the name suggests, sweetened condensed milk makes the pie sweeter and gives it a denser, creamier texture. Evaporated milk, on the other hand, yields a lighter, airier result. Evaporated milk isn't sweetened either, which is why you can't simply swap one thickener for the other.

For better pumpkin pie, refrigerate the filling overnight

To that end, we've found that refrigerating pumpkin pie filling overnight before using it not only enhances the spices' flavors, but also mellows them. Any “sharp edges” disappear, and you're left with a smooth meld of complementary flavors.

Prebake your crust

“Whenever it's possible, I prebake the crust,” says cookbook author and famed baker Dorie Greenspan. “It's such a good way to keep the bottom crisp and tasty.” This works best with single-crust pies, like Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and Chess Pie.

Overcooking your pie will also lead to a soggy bottom crust. A pumpkin pie filling is an egg-based custard, and, like all egg custards, it will weep liquid if those eggs become overcooked (think: the watery pool that builds up underneath overcooked scrambled eggs).

One of my very favorite kitchen tricks is to brush a bottom pie crust with an egg white wash before filling. This keeps the filling from seeping into the crust and creating a soggy bottom. I like to avoid soggy bottoms at all costs. Egg white and water is also perfect for sealing edges, like when making a pie.