The Absolute Easiest 5-Ingredient Pumpkin Pie

Every Thanksgiving, it seems, it’s not the turkey or the stuffing or the potatoes that causes my family stress — it’s the pumpkin pie, which should be jiggly but how jiggly? And what does it mean that it cracked in the oven? And do you think it has a soggy bottom? But not this year. This year, we are making the easiest pumpkin pie ever. With only five ingredients, I think this pie might actually be easier than buying one. Here’s how to do it.

A can of pure pumpkin purée is the first item to go into the mixing bowl. Just open the can and plop the whole thing in — no measuring. Next up is a can of sweetened condensed milk, which adds richness to the filling and sweetens the pie without the need for sugar (most pumpkin pies call for both granulated sugar and brown sugar; you can now skip both). Go ahead and pour the whole can straight into the bowl.

In go two eggs, and then the pumpkin pie spice. This convenient, deliciously scented spice blend eliminates the tedious step of measuring tiny amounts of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. You want about a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice, but you can eyeball it. Just shake several dashes straight into the mixing bowl.

Whisk it all together, then pour into one deep-dish pie shell or two standard pie shells (store-bought crust is the easiest, but of course you can use a homemade crust). If you make two pies, they’ll take less time to bake (since there’s less custard in each one), so you’ll want to give the crusts a head start and blind-bake them first.

Canned pumpkin pie filling is already spiced and sweetened, giving you less control over the flavor of your pie and likely resulting in one that’s way too sweet. For this reason, canned pumpkin purée (or homemade purée, if you want to put in the extra effort) is the preferred choice.