How To Make Classic Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving

Ah, pumpkin pie. It’s a recipe filled with nostalgia, a creamy combination of sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and custardy filling, baked in a homemade pie crust and topped with a dollop of whipped cream. Thanksgiving isn’t the same without it.

This recipe leaves out certain shortcuts like evaporated milk for more flavorful whole milk and heavy cream but keeps the canned pumpkin purée: We’ve found the pie isn’t improved much with fresh roasted pumpkin, which is a lot more work. Here’s everything you need to know to make a delicious homemade pumpkin pie.

• Our pumpkin pie uses canned pumpkin purée. You can use homemade, but you’ll need to purée it more and cook it on the stove per the directions below.
• This recipe calls for a blind baked, flaky pie crust. However, you can use store-bought frozen pie crust in a pinch. Don’t forget to crimp your pie crust!
• The pie bakes for 50 to 60 minutes at 375°F.
• Be sure to cool the pie completely before slicing and serving.

Classic pumpkin pie is simply pumpkin custard that is sweetened and lightly spiced, baked until creamy but sliceable, in a crisp pie crust. It’s the dessert most guests expect at Thanksgiving and one we think every home cook should master. Follow these four simple steps to perfect your pumpkin pie.

A soggy crust is the curse of many a good pie, particularly custard-based ones like our dear pumpkin. To help avoid this, partially bake the crust before adding the filling (i.e., “blind bake” the crust).

If you’ve never done this before, don’t worry — it’s easy. Just roll out the crust and fit it into the pan. Then, line it with a piece of parchment paper and fill the bottom with pie weights, dried beans, or even pennies. The weights help keep the bottom from puffing up and the sides from slouching. Bake for about 15 minutes, remove the weights, bake for another few minutes to dry out the bottom, and you’re ready to go.

This is a trick I picked up from Cook’s Illustrated a while back: Run the pumpkin purée in a food processor or blender for a minute before proceeding on with the recipe. Even though canned pumpkin purée is already, yes, puréed, fibrous stringy bits often remain. Puréeing the purée helps ensure a silky-smooth texture.

When I say “cook” here, I really just mean to let the pumpkin purée bubble on the stovetop for about five minutes. I find that this brief kiss of warmth helps cook out the raw pumpkin flavor and give the finished pie much more depth. It also melts the sugar into the purée and infuses it with the spices for an all-around richer, more complex flavor.

To make sure that the filling and the crust fuse into a single delicious creation, add the warm filling to the warm crust. Don’t get too fussy about this — I know that the blind-baked crust and the warmed filling might not be ready in perfect synchrony. I mention it only because it’s a detail that pumpkin pie-lovers will appreciate.