Dessert & Baked Goods › Guaranteed Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Filling - for best flavor, cover & refrigerate the filling overnight before baking

• 2 cups (or one 15-oz can) pumpkin
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1¼ cups light cream or evaporated milk

Pie Crust - two single-crust shells or one double-crust pie

• 3 cups (12¾ oz) all-purpose flour
• 1½ tsp salt
• 8 tbsp shortening, chilled
• 1 stick butter, chilled
• 4-6 oz cold water

Pumpkin Filling

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugars, flour, salt, and spices
2. In a large measuring cup, beat together the eggs, pumpkin, and cream or evaporated milk. Whisk into the dry ingredients. [For best flavor, cover and refrigerate the filling overnight before baking]
3. Lightly grease a 9" pie pan that's at least 1½" deep. Roll the pie dough out to a 13" circle, and transfer to the pan. Crimp the edges above the rim; this will give you a little extra headroom to hold the filling when it expands in the oven. Refrigerate the crust while the oven preheats to 424°F
4. When the oven is hot, place the pie pan on a baking sheet to catch any drips. Pour the filling into the unbaked pie shell
5. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Then finish baking at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. The center should still be wobbly. Remove the pie from the oven and cool on a rack; the center will finish cooking through as the pie sits

Pie Crust

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Cut or rub in half of the shortening/butter, then the other half, leaving some pieces as large as your thumbnail
2. Sprinkle the ice water, 1 tbsp at a time, over the mixture. With a fork, toss the mixture together. Continue until the dough is just moist enough to hold together when pressed
3. If you're making a two-crust pie, gather a little more than half of the dough and pat it into a disk; wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour (the larger portion will be the bottom crust.) Do the same with the remaining dough for the top crust. If you're making two one-crust pies, divide the dough evenly, wrap and chill before rolling
4. Roll the crust until it is about ⅛" thick and about 2" larger than the diameter of the pie plate. This gives you enough to make a good high rim (single crust shell) or to match with the upper crust (double crust bottom). If you turn your pie plate upside down on the dough, you will be able to figure out just about how big to roll it. Keep chilled until ready to use
5. These can be made up to a month ahead of time, and frozen (well-wrapped!) until needed

Tips from King Arthur Flour Bakers

• People get nervous about pie crust, and in their anxiety they tend to work the dough too much. Cutting the butter in too far makes a mealy crust. Kneading it too much and/or adding too much water toughens the dough, making it more difficult to roll out

• Resting the dough in the refrigerator both after mixing and rolling out, will dramatically increase the quality of your results. This "time out" allows the gluten in the dough to relax (making the crust more tender), and firms up the fats in the dough (helping it stay flakier)