Pumpkin Custard Pie

This is the best Pumpkin Custard Pie recipe for Thanksgiving, hands down that features a flaky, buttery pie crust that is filled with silky, creamy, incredible delicious pumpkin custard flavored with aromatic orange zest and nutmeg. This Pumpkin pie is made without evaporated milk yet super rich, smooth, and full of Fall flavors everyone loves! Can be the perfect alternative for your usual traditional Pumpkin pie with evaporated milk!

Jump to:

• 🌟 Why this is the best recipe
• 📝 Ingredient notes
• 👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe
• 🥣 Equipment notes
• 🎓 Expert tips
• 🎃 More Pumpkin recipes
• Pumpkin Custard Pie

🌟 Why this is the best recipe

1. Easy and quick - This Pumpkin Custard pie is in fact, super easy without any special equipment or fancy ingredients.
2. A lifesaver if you are out of condensed milk - Looking to make pumpkin pie without evaporated milk? Look no further! This Custard pumpkin pie will be equally delicious, if not better, than your old-fashioned pumpkin pie.
3. So delicious - With a flaky all-butter crust and a perfectly sweetened custard filling that reminds me of pumpkin creme brulee,
4. Beginner proof – This is a detailed Pumpkin custard pie tutorial that you can comfortably follow even if you are a beginner.

📝 Ingredient notes

For the flaky buttery Pie crust

1. Flour: I am using Cotswold Premium Plain flour for this recipe that I can warmly recommend, if it is not available in your country, use All purpse flour with medium protein content. If you want to be a Pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my Flour guide.
2. Salt: An essential ingredient in most pie recipes, please don´t skip it. It balances the flavor
3. Sugar: I am using a tiny bit of granulated sugar in the Pie dough but it is not necessary. In general, pie crust should not be sweet, it is the filling that brings the sweetness.
4. Butter: Use always unsalted as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat-content butter in all my recipes. While in most of the recipes butter needs to be at room temperature, this is an exception. The butter needs to be chilled, which means take the butter out of the fridge, cut it into cubes then place it into the freezer for 10-15 minutes before using it. Working with cold butter is absolutely key to reaching the right consistency on your pie dough
5. Water: Water needs to be chilled similarly to butter. If you are using the flour I do (Cotswold Premium Plain flour), you will need exactly 80 g of water however if you are using different flour, you might need to adjust the quantity paying attention to the right consistency that I will explain later in more details
6. Egg: This Pie crust for the Pumpkin Pie does not contain egg, however for the egg wash you will need 1 egg. Check my egg wash article for more details.

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

For the pumpkin custard filling

Is it possible to make Pumpkin Pie without evaporated milk? Absolutely! If you are out of evaporated milk, this Custard Pumpkin Pie is the perfect alternative that is smooth, creamy, and equally delicious if not more!

1. Pumpkin Puree: Pumpkin Pie requires good quality, intense pumpkin puree for sure! I like making my own homemade pumpkin puree by roasting pumpkin and blending it. I use 1 ¾ cups pumpkin puree that is measure after the water is removed.
2. Sugar: I am using a mixture of granulated and brown sugar in this pie, you can use either of these. I actually prefer the taste profile of the brown sugar however wanted to avoid the filling being too dark so went for 50%-50%
3. Egg: We are making a custard-like filling so you will only need egg yolk, not the white part of the eggs. Try my macaron recipe perhaps with the leftover egg whites
4. Corn starch: Use corn starch as a thickening agent, just a small amount
5. Heavy cream: Gives the creaminess of the filling. Also known as whipping cream, has a fat content between 36% and 40%, in my recipes, I use ¾ cup heavy cream with 36% fat content
6. Spices: Thanksgiving requires spices! I use freshly grated nutmeg, cinnamon stick, and peeled orange zest to spice up this Pumpkin filling. Other ideas you can try: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, cloves, vanilla bean, ginger, pumpkin spice, etc. Or, why try my homemade pumpkin spice mix?

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe

1. How to make buttery pie crust from scratch

This pie crust is so easy to make, however, if you need more information and guidance, please check my 3 Ingredient Pie Crust recipe out.

1. In a large bowl whisk flour, sugar, and salt until fully combined - then chill the mixture for a few minutes
2. Cut butter into chunks and also chill it in the freezer for a few minutes
3. Once all ingredients are nicely chilled, add the very cold butter chunks into the flour and rub the mixture between your fingers until it becomes a sand-like consistency
4. Add very cold water into the dough, a small amount at a time, and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon after each addition
5. Start working the dough with your hands. Remember, leave in some butter chunks, do not overwork the dough, and do not use a mixer
6. Form a disk, and cover it with plastic wrap. Then, let it rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours
7. After 2 hours, take the pie dough disk out of the fridge and let it rest few minutes on the kitchen counter. The dough should stay cold but slightly warmed up to be able to roll it out without breaking it
8. Transfer the disk to a lightly floured surface and start rolling it out, make sure you turn the dough with your hands after each rolling so it will become even. No need to add too much flour while rolling, the pie dough should be cold enough not to stick to the kitchen counter. If at any point the dough gets too warm, pop it back to the freezer for a minute and continue
9. If you are using a Pie dish 9 inch / 23 cm, roll the dough to a larger diameter then trim it to 10 inch / 27 cm
10. Carefully place the dough into a Pie dish 9 inch / 23 cm. Leftover pie dough will be used later for the leaf decoration
11. Fold the extra 2cm edge of the crust then flute with your fingers
12. Chill pie dough again in the freezer for 30 minutes
13. Pre-heat oven to 200 C / 372 F (no fan)
14. After 30 minutes, line the pie crust with parchment paper and fill it with pie weights (rice can work completely fine too). Blind bake pie crust for 15 minutes
15. After 15 minutes, remove the pie weight, and apply a thin layer of egg wash (using egg white only) on the bottom of the pie crust, this will support the crust not getting wet from the filling.
16. Bake the pie crust again now without pie weight for further 15 minutes or until golden brown and fully baked

💡 Top Tip: The entire pie-making exercise is balancing the temperate. Make sure to work with a dough that is cold enough (so it won´t tear) but not too cold (so it won´t break)

2. How to make custard pumpkin pie filling

The filling part of the Pumpkin Pie is creamy custard-like, similarly to the filling of this Buttermilk Pie, which is another custard type of pie for Thanksgiving.

1. While the dough is resting in the fridge, start making a cream infusion. Heat cream until simmering then place 1 cinnamon stick and the zest of 1 orange (peeled) into the hot cream, cover the saucepan and set aside for 2 hours (or even overnight) for the cream to get infused with cinnamon and orange flavors.
2. Then, while the crust is blind baking, prepare a custard-like mixture by tempering egg yolks + corn starch with warm cream. Remove the orange zest and cinnamon stick and heat cream again until simmering. Mix egg yolk with corn starch then pour the warm cream over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a hand whisk. This is a similar process to making Creme Brulee recipe
3. In another saucepan, heat pumpkin puree with two different kinds of sugar and cook the mixture for 2-3 minutes
4. Then, fold the pumpkin puree mixture with egg yolk & cream mixture then grate nutmeg on top and fold in. The filling is now ready

💡 Top Tip: Use your favorite spices for this pumpkin filling eg. ginger, vanilla bean, cloves, cardamom, or homemade pumpkin spice

3. How to bake

So you have your pie crust fully baked and your pumpkin custard filling also ready. It is time to bake our Pumpkin Custard Pie!

1. Lower the oven temperature to 175C / 347F then pour the filling into the crust
2. At the end of the baking time, the edge of the crust should be beautifully golden brown, the side of the filling should be set and the middle of the filling might be still a bit wobbly
3. Do not overbake your Pie as it can cause the filling to dry out and start developing cracks on top. Also too high oven temp can cause the same.

Let the pumpkin pie cool at room temperature for at least 3 hours. The pie will further set as it cools, so make sure you do not attempt to serve or cut the pie straight after baking.

Serve it with the decoration of your choice eg. cinnamon sticks, or cloves. You can also pipe whipped cream or cream cheese frosting on top, or prepare some leaf decorations using leaf cookie stamps and leftover pie dough.

💡 Top Tip: Cover the edge of the pie crust around with aluminum foil if at any point it was browning too much.

🥣 Equipment notes

Pie is one of those technical bakes that do not require any special equipment, you will only need your hands and an understanding of the temperature and temperament of the pie dough. Rolling pin is handy and a Pie dish but that's it.

I recommend using a 20-23 cm pish dish to make this Spiced pumpkin custard pie, I was using a 9-inch/ 23cm Pie dish. Anything bigger can cause significantly longer baking time, anything smaller can be maybe a bit too tiny to slice. You can use deep dish or smaller one like mine.

I am using an inexpensive and fun cookie stamp to make the leaves decoration however I have seen people making lovely leaves using a sharp knife only.

As always, for a consistent, happy baking experience always measure your ingredients with the help of a Digital scale. And make sure you invest in an inexpensive Digital oven thermometer to avoid under-baked or burnt Pumpkin Pie.

And finally, for the piping decoration, I am using my favorite 104 nozzle tip. It is a super elegant way to decorate most desserts.

🎓 Expert tips

1. The key to making pie crust from scratch is that the pie dough ingredients must be very cold at all times.
2. Combine the butter and flour together using your fingers. Never knead the dough or use a mixer. Leave in some larger butter chunks for the perfect flaky texture
3. It's must chill the dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours to allow the butter time to firm up and for the gluten to develop. 
4. Always apply egg wash (that is made of egg white) when blind baking pie crust to prevent a soggy bottom.
5. Make sure that your pumpkin puree is not watery. You must remove the excess liquid before measuring it out for the recipe. See my detailed instructions on how to maximize your pumpkin puree filling before baking
6. It's crucial that the crust be prebaked before pouring in the filling. The crust won´t bake after the filling is in. Pre-baking will ensure that your pie won´t turn out soggy

🎃 More Pumpkin recipes