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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Worked out perfectly for our Thanksgiving dinner!
Have you ever added cornstartch? I see a lot of recipes call for it! So wondering if it would be helpful
We have not found cornstarch to be necessary when making this pie.
This is such a wonderful recipe!! I’ve made it twice now using pie pumpkins from our garden (using your pumpkin purée recipe). It’s so simple and they come out perfectly delicious every time. Thank you so much for sharing!
Love your recipes!
Run out to vanilla extract so used approximately 1 teaspoon of honey ………yummmmm
I purchased whipping cream instead of heavy whipping cream. Can i use it if I whip it first and then use it in the pie? or maybe use less? say 1/2 cup? in the recipe? I made your pie crust a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome. Was my first pie crust ever. Thank you Charlotte
You can still use the whipping cream in the recipe. No adjustments should be necessary.
Thank you for the reply. I made 2 of your wonderful pies using the whipping cream. I used your pie crust recipe and used your pumpkin puree recipe and used country eggs. The pies turned out great!!! Thank you with your help ( loved the videos too ) I made my first home grown, made from scratch delicious pumpkin pies. I am 63 yrs old. Which proves you can teach an old dog new tricks!!! God bless you both. Charlotte
Charlotte you just made my day! Colleen… You are a sweetheart !
Tried a pumpkin pie for the first time and with this recipe it turned out great! No fail, delicious pumpkin pie.
Can you use nutmeg instead of ground cloves?
Yes, but the flavor will be slightly different.
Hi guys! Never made a pie before,but my husband really likes pumpkin. So here it goes. My o ly question is, does this use a regular pie crust or deep dish crust? I bought deep dish not realizing there was a difference. Can i just double the recipe to use this crust?
Hi Kim, This recipe is for a regular sized pie. I have made this in a deep dish pie plate, though. I usually use 1 1/2 of this pie dough recipe (that recipe usually makes enough for 2 single crust pumpkin pies, but since the deeper pie plate uses more dough, I use almost all the recipe. For the pie filling, I make a double batch and then fill the pie as high as I’d like. There will likely be a bit of the filling left over. The pie will bake slightly longer (just keep an eye on it) and you might find that you need to cover the edges of the crust to prevent them from over browning.
Discovered I used too much salt in my pie AFTER I put it in the oven. Any ideas on how to “fix” my pie?
Oh no! Some extra whipping cream or maybe a sweetened whipping cream for serving might balance out the extra salt.
What does it mean when I took it out to cool and now theirs a big crack in the middle? :o/
Hi Mila, Unfortunately, this can happen with pumpkin pie. The pie can crack when it’s been baked a little longer than necessary. If this happens to me, I simply add some whipped cream on top with a few pomegranate seeds or pumpkin seeds. It looks beautiful and no one will be the wiser.
Made this pie last night with Graham Cracker crust. My husband said “best pumpkin pie ever” and I agreed with him. I did not know if it would work with Graham Cracker crust but it came out absolutely delicious. I would definitely make this again.
I was at my parents, (different state) when she decided she wanted my famous homemade pumpkin pie. Of course, my recipes were at home. This one seemed like the closest to mine, so I used it but I always add extra nutmeg and go light on cinnamon. It was an absolute HIT! Thank you!
I made this recipe and it was awesome. The key is straining the fresh pumpkin puree, for me it took two sugar pumpkins to get two cups strained. I did a taste test one with fresh puree one with canned, and by far the fresh pumpkin WON!! It didn’t even taste like the same recipe.
I want to make this pumpkin pie dairy free for my daughter. Can I substitute coconut cream for heavy whipping cream? Thank you!
I have never done this myself, but I know some of our readers have. You might need to do some experimenting yourself on this one.
Oh my word! I’ve been making pumpkin pies for at least 50 years and I’m tossing my previous recipes. My crust was perfect; I use egg white on crust before filling so not soggy. Don’t do Facebook,etc or would send pic. Made two and sliced small piece to test when still slightly warm. Other for son. He will certainly visit more after tasting this. Thank you.