The Art of Making a Perfect Pumpkin Pie

To start making this pie, you can put it in the freezer and let it get really cold. This is a great way to chill your ingredients before baking, especially if you're using heavy cream. You can do this 30 minutes ahead of baking or even a day or two ahead. If you're buying pre-cut squash, use two pounds of it before peeling and removing the seeds.

Peeling a butternut squash is actually quite easy. The easiest way to peel a butternut squash is using a vegetable peeler. Simply slip off the peel, and you'll have smooth skin on your squash. If you're having trouble, try peeling one that's not too big, as this will make it easier to manage.

Once you've peeled the squash, cut it into cubes. You can save the seeds and roast them up like pumpkin seeds. To get perfectly roasted seeds, let them dry out overnight before roasting them the next day. This will help remove any excess moisture, making them crunchier.

To add some flavor to your squash, drizzle it with heavy cream, toss it in a little sugar, and dot the top with butter. Roast this at 400°F for about 40-50 minutes until the squash is tender and lightly browned. Be careful not to overcook it, as you want it to stay soft.

While your squash is roasting, preheat a sheet pan where your pie will eventually sit. Once the squash is done, let it cool before adding eggs. This ensures that the eggs don't cook while you're making the filling.

Now it's time for the filling. Simply scrape down the sides of the bowl to get rid of any stuck-on ingredients and pulse until everything is just combined. You want to be gentle here, as you don't want to overmix. Add one teaspoon of finely grated ginger root if you have someone in your life who loves ginger.

For a classic pumpkin pie, use canned pumpkin puree (1 1/2 cups) and add it to the filling along with the other ingredients. If you prefer, you can save that extra half cup of pumpkin puree for another recipe.

Hit the pie against the counter to remove any air bubbles, allowing it to flatten and become a perfectly smooth surface. Now your pie is ready to go into the oven.

The Final Touches

Before putting the pie in the oven, make sure to let it cool at room temperature for at least two hours. This ensures that the crust stays crunchy, even if you've made the pie the day before. Resist the temptation to put it in the fridge, as this will only lead to a soggy crust.

The best part of making pumpkin pie is, of course, eating it! When I'm growing up, I would say pumpkin pie was my favorite Thanksgiving dessert. It's a dense and creamy pie with just the right amount of spice, making it perfect for the holiday season.

But what makes pumpkin pie truly special? For me, it's all about balance – not too sweet, not too spicy. The crust has to be flaky and crunchy, while the filling is smooth and creamy. And let's not forget the importance of fresh ingredients; using real butter, heavy cream, and pure pumpkin puree is essential.

So there you have it – a classic pumpkin pie recipe that's sure to become your new favorite Thanksgiving tradition. Just remember, practice makes perfect, so don't be discouraged if your first pie doesn't turn out exactly as expected. Keep trying until you get the hang of it, and happy baking!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni'm patching up a little hole it happens no one can tell and besides if anyone actually ever said anything about the fluting of your pie the crimping of your pie don't give them a slice it's just gorgeous that's all they should say hi i'm melissa clark from nyt cooking and i am making the three iconic thanksgiving pies there is the apple pie the pecan pie and today the pumpkin pie which by the way is actually better when it's made with butternut squash okay hear me out so the stuff in the can you know the solid pack pumpkin is a variety of pumpkin that is extremely like butternut squash looks similar has very similar flesh when it comes to the difference between squashes and pumpkins they're actually very closely related botanically so when i started making my homemade version i found that butternut squash is actually the best variety it's the sweetest and it's also the easiest to deal with the next question is what's the best way to cook it you could steam it you could saute it or you could roast it i am in favor of roasting and not just roasting but i like to cube the squash before i roast it and that way i also get evaporation and a little bit of caramelization all of those things make a superior puree to a steamed squash another thing to take note of do you know that can of evaporated milk that many recipes call for don't use it evaporated milk is a wartime convenience it's shelf stable but it actually doesn't taste that good you know what's better heavy cream it's richer it's just got a fresh flavor and it is exactly what i want to use for my pie if you're worried about missing roasting the pumpkin seeds because you're not using one of those big jack-o-lantern pumpkins did you know you could roast squash seeds exactly like pumpkin seeds and they are just as good if you've seen any of the other pie videos we did this is going to look familiar because i'm going to roll out some pie dough again you can use any kind of pie dough that you like your favorite recipe i really like an all butter pie dough if you like a little shortening that's fine actually you know it's really good with pumpkin pie graham cracker crust too so that's an option for you so many high options if hitting your pie dough with a rolling pin stresses you out you could just take the dough out of the fridge five minutes or 10 minutes before you want to roll it out that works too but i kind of like another trick is to keep the dough moving around the counter so that it doesn't stick do not worry about ragged edges because you're going to trim them off later and then you just want to roll it out a little bigger than your pie dish like two inches and that is perfect you just want to adjust it so that it's an even amount of overhang and now i'm just going to trim it so that it's about an inch over the rim of the pie dish for the edge of the pie dough i am doing a really simple crimp so i'm just folding the edge of the dough in and then using my fingers to flute it like that i am going to put this in the freezer and let it get really really cold you can do this 30 minutes ahead of baking or even a day or two ahead to make this pie you're gonna need two pounds of butternut squash so it's two pounds of squash before you peel it and take out the seeds if you're buying like a little container of squash that's already cut up you need one and a quarter pounds i'm gonna think this is two pounds i'm gonna say it's two pounds two pounds two ounces all right so i'm gonna use this vegetable peeler this is the easiest way to peel a butternut squash you just slip off the peel i swear i just did this and it was totally easy and fine what's going on peeler i just did it let's try this guy okay let's pretend that never happened i swear oh there all right not too bad and now you're just going to cut this into chunks of squash you can save the seeds and you can roast them up just like pumpkin seeds i have a really good tip for when you roast pumpkin seeds if you let it dry out overnight and then roast it the next day the seeds are actually crunchier because they you know they dry out a little bit and it's easier to remove all of this stuff and then when you're cutting the squash into cubes you really don't have to worry about them being even or looking pretty because in the end it all just gets pureed you just want them to roast you know somewhat evenly now i'm going to drizzle the squash with a little bit of heavy cream and this just helps it caramelize a little bit and then two tablespoons of sugar and just toss it a little bit and then finally you're gonna dot the top with butter and i'm going to roast this at 400 for about 40 to 50 minutes until it's very tender and just a little bit brown i am also going to preheat a sheet pan and this is going to be where my pie lands when it's all filled and ready to bake the squash is thoroughly roasted you can see it's super tender very soft which is what you want you want it to cool before you add the eggs so the eggs don't cook this is just a good way to cook squash be a great thanksgiving side dish just saying this pie you do not need to be precise with because the eggs set it up you've got the structure and really you can just have fun with the flame rings salt and you can use bourbon you could use dark rum is really good brandy or vanilla extract just scrape it down because there's stuff stuck on the sides give it one more little pulse and that's it that's done it's really easy you know once you've got the squash cubes it goes super quickly and if you wanted to substitute canned pumpkin you absolutely can it's one and a half cups of canned pumpkin which annoyingly is a little less than the one and three quarters cup pan sorry but that's just how it worked out um save that extra half a cup of pumpkin puree and add it to your oatmeal pumpkin pie was my dad's favorite at thanksgiving and every year he would always say this is good but it could use more ginger he was crazy about ginger so for him i would always grate fresh ginger root and put it into the filling so if you have someone in your life who is crazy about ginger i would highly recommend one teaspoon of finely grated ginger right in here and leave everything else the same okay you want to um just hit it against the counter if you like to get rid of air bubbles and then it's gonna flatten and melt into just a perfectly smooth shiny surface when it's in the oven pie is now thoroughly cooled you need to let it cool for at least a couple of hours whatever you do don't put it in the fridge the fridge is the enemy of a crunchy crispy crust it's gonna make it soggy so even if you make it the day before it's okay to leave it out overnight pumpkin pie when i was growing up i would say in my ranking my personal ranking it's number two it's just a little bit below pecan they're kind of neck and neck but pecan has the edge because i really like the crunch but a pumpkin pie that's just you know really dense and super creamy lightly spiced with a great pumpkin flavor that's what i'm looking for now is that time during every video where i get to eat the pie that's the best part of the video it's so good is it better than pecan pie i mean maybe my favorite pie is just the pie that's on my plate right now of course when it's thanksgiving that's the thing about thanksgiving you don't have to choose if you've got three pies on the table then you get three slices right on your platei'm patching up a little hole it happens no one can tell and besides if anyone actually ever said anything about the fluting of your pie the crimping of your pie don't give them a slice it's just gorgeous that's all they should say hi i'm melissa clark from nyt cooking and i am making the three iconic thanksgiving pies there is the apple pie the pecan pie and today the pumpkin pie which by the way is actually better when it's made with butternut squash okay hear me out so the stuff in the can you know the solid pack pumpkin is a variety of pumpkin that is extremely like butternut squash looks similar has very similar flesh when it comes to the difference between squashes and pumpkins they're actually very closely related botanically so when i started making my homemade version i found that butternut squash is actually the best variety it's the sweetest and it's also the easiest to deal with the next question is what's the best way to cook it you could steam it you could saute it or you could roast it i am in favor of roasting and not just roasting but i like to cube the squash before i roast it and that way i also get evaporation and a little bit of caramelization all of those things make a superior puree to a steamed squash another thing to take note of do you know that can of evaporated milk that many recipes call for don't use it evaporated milk is a wartime convenience it's shelf stable but it actually doesn't taste that good you know what's better heavy cream it's richer it's just got a fresh flavor and it is exactly what i want to use for my pie if you're worried about missing roasting the pumpkin seeds because you're not using one of those big jack-o-lantern pumpkins did you know you could roast squash seeds exactly like pumpkin seeds and they are just as good if you've seen any of the other pie videos we did this is going to look familiar because i'm going to roll out some pie dough again you can use any kind of pie dough that you like your favorite recipe i really like an all butter pie dough if you like a little shortening that's fine actually you know it's really good with pumpkin pie graham cracker crust too so that's an option for you so many high options if hitting your pie dough with a rolling pin stresses you out you could just take the dough out of the fridge five minutes or 10 minutes before you want to roll it out that works too but i kind of like another trick is to keep the dough moving around the counter so that it doesn't stick do not worry about ragged edges because you're going to trim them off later and then you just want to roll it out a little bigger than your pie dish like two inches and that is perfect you just want to adjust it so that it's an even amount of overhang and now i'm just going to trim it so that it's about an inch over the rim of the pie dish for the edge of the pie dough i am doing a really simple crimp so i'm just folding the edge of the dough in and then using my fingers to flute it like that i am going to put this in the freezer and let it get really really cold you can do this 30 minutes ahead of baking or even a day or two ahead to make this pie you're gonna need two pounds of butternut squash so it's two pounds of squash before you peel it and take out the seeds if you're buying like a little container of squash that's already cut up you need one and a quarter pounds i'm gonna think this is two pounds i'm gonna say it's two pounds two pounds two ounces all right so i'm gonna use this vegetable peeler this is the easiest way to peel a butternut squash you just slip off the peel i swear i just did this and it was totally easy and fine what's going on peeler i just did it let's try this guy okay let's pretend that never happened i swear oh there all right not too bad and now you're just going to cut this into chunks of squash you can save the seeds and you can roast them up just like pumpkin seeds i have a really good tip for when you roast pumpkin seeds if you let it dry out overnight and then roast it the next day the seeds are actually crunchier because they you know they dry out a little bit and it's easier to remove all of this stuff and then when you're cutting the squash into cubes you really don't have to worry about them being even or looking pretty because in the end it all just gets pureed you just want them to roast you know somewhat evenly now i'm going to drizzle the squash with a little bit of heavy cream and this just helps it caramelize a little bit and then two tablespoons of sugar and just toss it a little bit and then finally you're gonna dot the top with butter and i'm going to roast this at 400 for about 40 to 50 minutes until it's very tender and just a little bit brown i am also going to preheat a sheet pan and this is going to be where my pie lands when it's all filled and ready to bake the squash is thoroughly roasted you can see it's super tender very soft which is what you want you want it to cool before you add the eggs so the eggs don't cook this is just a good way to cook squash be a great thanksgiving side dish just saying this pie you do not need to be precise with because the eggs set it up you've got the structure and really you can just have fun with the flame rings salt and you can use bourbon you could use dark rum is really good brandy or vanilla extract just scrape it down because there's stuff stuck on the sides give it one more little pulse and that's it that's done it's really easy you know once you've got the squash cubes it goes super quickly and if you wanted to substitute canned pumpkin you absolutely can it's one and a half cups of canned pumpkin which annoyingly is a little less than the one and three quarters cup pan sorry but that's just how it worked out um save that extra half a cup of pumpkin puree and add it to your oatmeal pumpkin pie was my dad's favorite at thanksgiving and every year he would always say this is good but it could use more ginger he was crazy about ginger so for him i would always grate fresh ginger root and put it into the filling so if you have someone in your life who is crazy about ginger i would highly recommend one teaspoon of finely grated ginger right in here and leave everything else the same okay you want to um just hit it against the counter if you like to get rid of air bubbles and then it's gonna flatten and melt into just a perfectly smooth shiny surface when it's in the oven pie is now thoroughly cooled you need to let it cool for at least a couple of hours whatever you do don't put it in the fridge the fridge is the enemy of a crunchy crispy crust it's gonna make it soggy so even if you make it the day before it's okay to leave it out overnight pumpkin pie when i was growing up i would say in my ranking my personal ranking it's number two it's just a little bit below pecan they're kind of neck and neck but pecan has the edge because i really like the crunch but a pumpkin pie that's just you know really dense and super creamy lightly spiced with a great pumpkin flavor that's what i'm looking for now is that time during every video where i get to eat the pie that's the best part of the video it's so good is it better than pecan pie i mean maybe my favorite pie is just the pie that's on my plate right now of course when it's thanksgiving that's the thing about thanksgiving you don't have to choose if you've got three pies on the table then you get three slices right on your plate\n"