Best Pumpkin pie and homemade crust recipe

My best pumpkin pie recipe and homemade crust

I absolutely love love pumpkin pie! I love the pumpkin filling because it is creamy and very flavorful with cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and a little nutmeg. My best pumpkin pie recipe and homemade crust is pretty darn close to Libby’s pumpkin with just a little difference in the spices.

The pie shells has to be a homemade pie crust. Made with my grandma Billie’s pie crust recipe. It is what I call perfection! My grandma used to make pies for a restaurant when she was young and people would come from all over to have her pies. I think it is because it has such a flaky crust. Grandma has been gone for many years now but her pie crust lives on! It is such a great recipe and easy to make.

Pumpkin pie homemade crust recipe

To make the best homemade pumpkin pie crust the easy way I use my food processor. This pie crust recipe is a total family favorite for our Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday meal.

What is the crust of a pumpkin pie made of? Flour, butter and Crisco, a pinch of salt and ice cold water.

Ingredients

1 1/4 C flour

Pinch of salt

1/4 C Cold butter

1/4 C Cold Crisco

2-3 Tbsp Ice cold water

I scoop my flour into a dry measuring cup and scrape off excess with a knife to make sure I have the correct amount. Place the flour into the work bowl of your food processor. Then I cut the butter into pieces and place into the work bowl.

Next I add in the crisco. Pulse a few times until the butter and crisco are incorporated.

While the food processor is running add in ! tablespoon at a time of ice cold water through the feeding tube. Run the machine just until the dough barely starts to come together.

My grandma did not own a food processor and made her homemade crust by hand. You can use a large mixing bowl and two knifes to cut the butter and crisco into the flour.

This is really such an easy recipe and you will want to keep it handy all during the holidays.

I promise there will never be any leftover pumpkin pie when you make this recipe 🙂

Gather the dough together and form a ball. Wrap in cellophane and refrigerate for 15 min or longer.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface.

2nd Tip- Keep your ingredients in the fridge for a bit before you make you pie dough.

Rolling dough and filling the pie tin

The reason I like making a classic pumpkin pie recipe is because you don’t have to pre bake the pie crust using pie weights. Just roll, fill and bake.

You can always have little ones help with the rolling. It is such a fun way to teach them about baking!

After rolling out the dough it does tend to break a little bit so you might have to piece it together in the pie tin.

What is the secret to a good pie crust? Make sure the pie dough is super cold not room temperature.

Here is a tip- After I roll out the pie crust and place it in the pie tin I put it in the freezer while I mix up the pumpkin pie filling.

Pumpkin pie filling ingredients

I only use Libby’s canned pumpkin. Not the pumpkin pie mix. Not any other canned pumpkin, only Libby’s. I make this pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I use it to make pumpkin bars too.

Do you remember a couple of years ago there was a shortage of Libby’s canned pumpkin? I went to a few grocery stores and had a hard time trying to track down some but I finally did. Now I always keep a few cans in my pantry…just in case.

Ingredients

1 15 ounce can Libby’s pumpkin

12 ounces evaporated milk

3/4 C white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mixing up the pumpkin pie filling

Making pumpkin pies are just about the easiest thing to make! I simply put the pumpkin, canned evaporated milk and eggs into my kitchen aid and mix for a few minutes.

Then I add the sugar, salt and spices.

Mix well scrapping down the sides of the bowl to make sure any spices that stuck to the sides of the bowl are completely mixed into the batter. 

Once you have the filling made you can pour your traditional pumpkin pie filling into the pie crust. I always place my filled pie crust on a cookie sheet before I put it into the oven.

It helps if there is any spills. I think it also helps to cook the pie evenly.

Baking pumpkin pie tips

Bake in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes and then turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees for another 35 min. I ended up baking my pies a little longer because when you stick a knife into the center of the pie with a knife you want it to come out clean and it didn’t.

My pumpkin pie needed about 10 more minutes. Everyones ovens are a little different so just keep an eye on your pie.

If the edges of the crust start to burn you can always put a few aluminum foil pieces over the edges to keep them from burning.

Let the pie cool for an hour or so if you can keep your hands off of it. The smell of the pumpkin in the air is seriously like bread baking or chocolate chip cookies baking.

It is intoxicating.

Whipped cream for the topping

What is pumpkin pie without freshly whipped cream? I have to have real whipped cream for my pumpkin pie. No cool whip in this house and no whip cream from a can either!

To make freshly whipped cream I simply pour a pint of cream into my kitchen aid and add 1/4 or a little more of sugar and vanilla and whip until the cream is light and fluffy.

Don’t whip it too much or it will turn into butter!

Time to serve your pumpkin pie with homemade crust

Now you are ready to have yourself a slice of pumpkin pie that will become your favorite pumpkin pie recipe that you can pass down to your family.

A lovely slice of pumpkin pie with a large dollop of whip cream is heaven on earth. I know there are many different ways to make pumpkin pie out there but I prefer this classic pumpkin pie recipe.

You would think I would have a photo of the slice of pie with whipped cream but it gets eaten so fast I couldn’t get one picture of it! haha

More Pumpkin recipes

Here are a couple of other pumpkin recipes you might like to have handy during the holidays.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Pumpkin ginger waffles

Best pumpkin bread with chocolate chips

Recipe

Shop