Pumpkin Custard Pie

5 from 10 votes

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!

Prep Time1

Cook Time2

Waiting Time3

Total Time6

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 488kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Pie dough

250 g All purpose eg. Cotswold Premium Plain flour
10 g Granulated sugar
½ teaspoon Salt
180 g Unsalted butter very cold
80 g Water very cold
1 Egg for egg wash

Pumpkin filling

380 g Pumpkin puree
50 g Granulated sugar
50 g Brown sugar
3 Egg yolk
8 g Corn starch
180 g Heavy Cream 36% fat content
1 tablespoon Lemon juice
1 Cinnamon stick
1 Orange zest peeled, not grated
1 Whole nutmeg

Decoration

20 g Heavy cream very cold, 36% fat content
20 g Cream cheese
5 g Icing sugar
Few Pie Leaves using leftover pie dough
1 Cinnamon stick

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Start with Pie dough

In a large bowl whisk flour, sugar and salt until fully combined and cut butter into small cubes
Pop butter cubes, flour mixture and water into the freezer for 10-15 minutes
Once all ingredients are nicely chilled, add very cold butter cubes into flour and rub the mixture between your fingers until it becomes a sand like consistency. Leave some bigger butter chunks in the mixture, no need to fully incorporate butter into flour
Add very cold water into the dough, a small amount at a time and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon after each addition
Start working the dough with your hands. First it will look crumby but it should come together in the next minute or so. Remember, leave in some butter chunks, do not overwork the dough, do not use a mixer
Form a disk, cover with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for minimum 2 hours
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
Transfer the disk to 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
If you are using a Pie dish 9 inch / 23 cm, roll the dough into 27 cm in diameter. Remember, do not force the dough, after rolling, it should stay smooth and cold, easy to work with
Trim the rolled out dough into 27 cm in diameter then carefully place the dough into a Pie dish 9 inch / 23 cm. Leftover pie dough will be used later for the leaf decoration
Fold the extra 2cm edge of the crust then flute with your fingers
Chill pie dough again in the freezer for 30minutes
Pre-heat oven to 200 C / 372 F
After 30 minutes, line pie crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights (rice can work completely fine too). Blind bake pie crust for 15 minutes
After 15 minutes, remove pie weight, apply a thin layer of egg wash (using egg white only) on the bottom of the pie crust, this will support the crust not to get wet from the filling. Bake the pie crust again now without pie weight for further 15 minutes

For the pumpkin filling

While dough is resting in the fridge, start making the 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 for the cream to get infused with cinnamon and orange flavours
After 2 hours, while pie crust is blind baking, remove orange zest and cinnamon stick and heat cream again until simmering. Mix egg yolk with corn starch then pour warm cream over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a hand whisk. This stage is tempering the egg yolks and the mixture should slightly thicken
In a saucepan heat pumpkin puree with two different kinds of sugar and cook the mixture for 2-3 minutes. Add lemon juice in, that will balance the flavours
Fold warm pumpkin puree mixture with egg yolk & cream mixture then grate nutmeg on top and fold in. The filling is now ready

Assembling

Once pumpkin filling is ready and still warm and pie crust is fully baked (should be golden brown after 30 minutes baking), carefully pour warm pumpkin filling into the pie crust
Apply light egg wash (egg yolk + splash of cream) on the edge of the pie crust
Lower oven temperature to 175C / 347F at this point and bake the pie for about 50 minutes. Cover the edge of the pie crust around with aluminium foil if at any point it was browning too much
At the end of the baking time the edge of the crust should be beautiful golden brown, the side of the filling should be set and the middle of the filling might be still a bit wobbly
Let the pumpkin pie cool on 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

Decoration

Using the leftover pie dough make the leaf decorations. Either cut the leaf pattern by hand using a sharp knife or use Leaf Cookie Cutter
Bake the leaf decorations in 200C for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Place the leaves on the pie after both pie and leaves are cooled
Whip heavy cream, cream cheese and icing sugar with an electric hand mixer for a minute until it reaches a pipeable consistency
Pipe decoration (I am using 104 nozzle tip) on top then place one cinnamon stick on top of the piping

Nutrition