No Fail Homemade Pumpkin Pie
How to make classic, unfussy pumpkin pie from scratch. This is our favorite way to make pumpkin pie. It’s easy, too! Jump to the Homemade Pumpkin Pie Recipe
How to Make Our Favorite Pumpkin Pie
We take it plain or, when feeling feisty, with a dollop of softly whipped cream. The pie filling is creamy, rich and has just enough sweetness to balance some spice from cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. You can easily go for an extra slice at the end of dinner. Don’t tell anyone, but we’ve even stolen a few bites for breakfast.
Making this pumpkin pie from scratch is easy — we think it’s one of the simplest (and tastiest) pies you can make at home.
The filling comes together in minutes and is made from pumpkin puree, eggs, cream, sugar, and fall spices. Everything is mixed together and poured into a pie crust. You can use canned or homemade pumpkin puree in this pie. I love the pie when we’ve used canned (especially since it is so consistent), but making your own puree is easy and means the pie is 100% homemade. (Bonus, you get to roast the pumpkin seeds. Here’s our easy recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds.)
We don’t add too many spices either — we like how the pumpkin gets a chance to shine. If you love spicier pies, just bump up the spice amounts listed in the recipe below.
For the crust, we use our own homemade pie dough. Our favorite crust calls for 100% butter and is pretty simple to make. You can even make it well in advance and refrigerate or freeze it until you are ready to make the full pie. If you have a favorite store-bought pie crust, then use it. It’s completely up to you.
The Crust – Blind Bake or not?
We’re usually partial to blind baking single-crust pies — especially those with liquid fillings. With that said, we don’t blind bake when making pumpkin pie. “Blind baking” means to partially cook the crust before adding the filling, which helps the crust stay crisp and flaky.
With pumpkin pie, though, we love how the crust becomes moistened a little from the filling. The base of the crust browns, but where the filling and crust meet, it’s soft and tender. That’s how we saw our mothers make it as kids, so we just can’t stray.
If you want to blind bake the crust, go for it. Line your pie dish with dough, prick the bottom with a fork and line with foil. Fill the foil with pie weights (or use uncooked rice or beans) then bake in a 450-degree oven for 8 minutes. Remove the foil (and weights) then bake another 5 to 6 minutes, or until golden. From there, fill the crust as usual and bake until the filling sets.
More Pumpkin Recipes
- Easy Pumpkin Mac and Cheese — How to make extra creamy pumpkin mac and cheese in under 1 hour. The perfect Fall dinner!
- Homemade Pumpkin Pancakes — We love these pumpkin pancakes: not too sweet with a hint of spice.
- Seriously Good Pumpkin Cupcakes — These moist spiced pumpkin cupcakes are hard to beat.
- Perfectly Spiced Pumpkin Scones — How to make the best spiced pumpkin scones inspired by Starbucks.
- Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Bread — This quick bread has pumpkin, orange, and is packed with chopped chocolate. Not too sweet, extremely moist and perfect for fall!
- Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte — How to make the best pumpkin spice latte at home with pumpkin puree, coffee, milk, and fall spices. Better than store-bought!
For more pie recipes, check out Our Favorite Apple Pie from scratch, Easy Homemade Blueberry Pie, this delicious Cherry Pie from Scratch and our Fresh Strawberry Pie topped with whipped cream.
Recipe updated, originally posted October 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have added a recipe video and tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
No Fail Homemade Pumpkin Pie
- PREP
This is a classic, unfussy pumpkin pie recipe. We take it plain or, when feeling feisty, with a dollop of softly whipped cream. The spices are not overpowering, here. If you like your pie spicy, increase the cinnamon and ginger a little. (We’d stay away from increasing the cloves, a 1/4-teaspoon should suffice).
Makes 1 (9-inch) pie
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Chilled pie dough for one single-crust 9-inch pie, see our pie crust recipe
3 large eggs 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (65 grams) light brown sugar
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin puree or 2 cups (440 grams) fresh pumpkin puree, see our homemade pumpkin puree recipe
3/4 cup (175 ml) heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
- Prepare Crust
- Make Filling
- Bake the Pie
- To Finish
Roll out the dough so that it is two inches larger than your pie dish. Gently press dough down into the dish so that it lines the bottom and sides. (Be careful not to pull or stretch the dough). Trim dough to within 1/2-inch of the dish edge.
Fold edges of dough underneath itself, creating a thicker, 1/4-inch border that rests on the lip of the dish. Crimp edges. (You can see us do this in our pie crust recipe video). Refrigerate while you make the pie filling.
Whisk eggs and both sugars together until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and the salt. Stir until well blended.
Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Place the pie on a baking sheet. Pour pumpkin filling into the pie shell.
Bake pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick or thin knife plunged it into the pie, about 2 inches from the edge, comes out clean. Rotate once or twice during baking. If, while the pie bakes, the tops of the crust becomes too dark, cover with a thin strip of aluminum foil.
Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours or until room temperature. Cut into eight wedges and serve alone or topped with whipped cream. To store, cover the cooled pie loosely with foil or plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator up to 3 days.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Substitute 2 ¼ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Here’s our homemade pumpkin spice blend.
- How to tell the pie is done: Take the pie out of the oven when the majority of the pie looks shiny and set on top. It should jiggle a little like jello, but not much more. The middle will still look wet on top. This is okay, it will continue to cook as the pie cools on the counter. And, as a final test, grab a toothpick or thin knife then plunge it into the pie, about 2 inches from the edge. If it comes out clean, the pie is done. As the pie sits until cooled to room temperature, it will continue to cook and set. We wait for 2 hours. If, when you cut into the pie, the middle does not seem to be set, let it cool a little longer. Or, cut the slice anyway and cover the end with whipped cream. It will still taste great.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size 1 slice (1/8th of pie) / Calories 365 / Protein 6 g / Carbohydrate 38 g / Dietary Fiber 2 g / Total Sugars 21 g / Total Fat 22 g / Saturated Fat 13 g / Cholesterol 131 mg
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Do you bake your pumpkin and apple pie on the bottom rack of the oven or the middle rack?
Towards to center of the oven.
This was excellent! This is going to be my go-to pumpkin pie recipe from now on!
Made this pumpkin pie again tonight! I’ve made it three times before and everyone loved it! Even people who don’t like pumpkin pie usually, so great. A regular recipe in this home.
Thank you! Have made this twice now and absolutely love it.
Well I had made the Flaky Pie Crust shell from your recipe before. So now I’m ready. The pie was not difficult & it was Delicious. It looks great holding it’s form, cut in a thick slice. Our friends were impressed & devowered it up with vanilla icecream. Thanks again for a great recipe Joanne & Adam.
I don’t normally like pumpkin pie but this was delicious. I substituted the heavy cream with full fat coconut milk and a gluten free crust. Wow!!!
I only make or eat Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving. I usually make the recipe from the condensed milk can, in hopes of masking the pumpkin taste. I followed this recipe and was delighted, as were my family and guests! I might really like Pumpkin pie after all !!! Great recipe. I made your crust too. Thanks!!
My crust collapsed inward shortly after being in the oven. What did I do wrong? It looked so pretty when it went in:(
Hi Leah, We’re sorry your crust fell inward. Pie crust is tricky. There is this magical moment of “setting” the crust in the oven before the butter starts to melt. To help with this, we start with a cold crust and place into a hot oven. Then when the crust has set, we reduce the temperature to finish cooking the pie. Next time, make sure your crust is cool to the touch and the oven temp is properly set. Some ovens say they are at 350F and are actually running cooler or hotter. To see if this is the case for your oven, buy an oven thermometer (we got ours from a kitchen store for around $10). Place it into the oven and check to see if when you set your oven to 350, it actually is at 350. Most of the time, an oven that’s off slightly won’t cause too many problems, but with all-butter pie crust, it’s pretty important. Hope that helps!
It is wonderful. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I followed the crust recipe in the other post, it also is super nice. Perfect for holiday season.
Can i substitute the cream for evaporated milk?
Hi Alexis, We have never used evaporated milk in this pie.
Hi! Does this need to be kept in the refrigerator or can it be safely left out for a day? Thank you!
Hi Annie, We usually keep ours in the fridge until a couple of hours before serving.
I have made pumpkin pie once a week for the past three weeks with this recipe, and each time it has turned out perfectly! I used fresh Cinderella pumpkin that I roasted and pureed myself all three times. You can be sure that I am going to make it a fourth time next week…
This was wonderful! I substituted sour cream for the whipping cream, and a gluten-free ginger cookie crumb crust, but otherwise followed the recipe, and it was my best pumpkin pie ever! Thank you!
So I did the pie and pre heated the oven to 425 degrees and baked t for 15 min then I dropped the tem to 375 and baked for another 35 min as stated on recipe, but the crust came out super dark and I wonder why?
Hi Sonia, this can happen. A tip for preventing it is to loosely cover the crust around the edges if it seems to be getting darker than you’d like.
Sorry! I spoke too soon! I saw your recommendation for the blind bake option in the last part of the blog. Thanks again?.