I am already planning my Thanksgiving dinner including a homemade pumpkin pie from scratch. But then I do everything from scratch. I even bake the bread that I dry to make my own stuffing mix, but that’s another recipe. This pumpkin pie is low fat and light because it’s made without butter or cream, or even whole milk. I love it! It’s all low fat and healthier, even the crust. Ever since I discovered how easy it is to make an oil pie crust not to mention how much healthier it is, especially made with extra light olive oil, it’s the only pie crust I ever use.
If you’ve ever made a shortening or butter crust with the ice water you know how hard it is to patch cracks. That’s why I love an oil crust. It’s easy to put together and you can just pat it into your pie pan. Or do what I do and roll it between wax paper to get an even thickness of crust. And any cracks or open spaces can easily be patched with pieces of dough.
Cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner for your family is a challenge. Even for an experienced cook, it’s a lot to put together and my rule is to make absolutely everything I can in advance. And that’s easy for pumpkin pie. In fact, it has to be made in advance because it takes hours to cool and then needs to be refrigerated. I even make the whipped cream in advance. What? You don’t make your own whipped cream? Has anyone told you how easy it is? It’s ONE ingredient… plus a little sugar. It takes about two minutes to make and whipping cream has no carbs.
If you’re tempted to try using fresh pumpkin I have two things to say. One, you have to cut and cook it first and it’s easier to build a guest room over the garage. Second, canned pumpkin has more vitamin A than fresh. I believe in cooking from scratch but not this time. I always use canned pumpkin. But make sure it’s only pure pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling.
My healthier pumpkin pie is made with 1% milk, 2% reduced fat condensed milk, eggs, sugar, and spices. Of course cinnamon is the most important spice but all cinnamons are not the same. The one most stores carry is Ceylon cinnamon but I recently discovered Saigon cinnamon and wow! It’s more potent, more fragrant, and it’s the only one I use. My brand is Spice Islands. If you use Saigon cinnamon, you don’t need as much as you’ll see in the printable recipe. (There’s a how-to video coming next week!)
Homemade pumpkin pie will always trump a store bought pie so I hope you’ll try my recipe. Why not make one this week… just to test it out of course. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
This is in the oven – it is 80 degrees in Minneapolis today but l had to try this pat in pie crust and l love pumpkin!! My Dad owned a bakery and has since passed but he would so love your recipes Jenny – Best – Greg
I made this recipe yesterday and my partner declared it the best pumpkin pie ever! The custard turned out very light, not like typical dense pie filling. The crust was very easy to make and came out more like a cookie, not flaky, but we liked it that way. It was the perfect size for a 9″ deep dish pie pan. But I’ll refrigerate the dough ball before rolling it out next time.
I used fresh pumpkin, it’s really not that hard to prepare by just quartering and cleaning the pumpkin and boiling it until it’s very soft, then draining it well while it cools. The flesh just falls off of the outer shell. I also substituted brown sugar in the custard for flavor. Finally, my super secret ingredient is 1/4 tsp of cardamom in the custard. A very unappreciated spice that adds a subtle taste to holiday baking.
Hi I followed your recipe to the tee but, I used a store bought pie crust, and was unable to fit all the filling into the pie crust. The pie crust box said only that it was deep dish, I’m at a loss as to why I couldn’t all the filling into my pie shell, I also blind baked the crust before hand. Can you tell me as to why this would have happened? Thank you
It’s possible your pan was not a deep dish pan. A regular pyrex pie pan would be too small.
Jenny,
Many thanks for your easy healthy pie crust recipe. We love it and just used it to makes mincemeat pie that didn’t quite get made for Christmas.😻We no longer shy away from making pie crusts from scratch. It has completely changed our approach to making pies!
Many thanks,
Jan & Kevin💜🤗💜
I love love love your videos and recipes and have never had a problem until I made this pie crust. I used extra light olive oil for baking and it mixed just fine, rolled out easily but it turned out dry and was not a tasty , flaky pie crust. So disappointed.🙄
Dear Jenny,
I enjoy watching your videos on youtube. My question is : Can you pre-bake this pie crust or blind bake for cream pie?
Thank you,
Sheila in Cincinnati
can all purpose flour be used? I cannot use whole wheat.
Thank you!!!!
This recipe does not use whole wheat flour.
I have made pumpkin pie with almond milk or even coconut milk eliminating condensed milk all together. The almond milk gives the purée a very nice taste, this also makes the filling dairy free for folks that have dairy sensitivity.
Can I use pumpkin spyce instead of nutmeg and clove??
I’m going to try using the pumpkin pie spice. Adding all the spices, the total comes to 2 & 3/4 tsp. Don’t see why not
If you’re looking for Saigon cinnamon…Costco sells a big container. Saw it today and I seem to remember that it was less than $3.00. Even then…been using this type for years & never noticed there were different types.
Your crust is awesome. Same instructions for the apple pie bars. Which I made last weekend and my friends came for dinner and loved them!! I didn’t have a deep pan to make your apple pie recipe that you recently posted so I made the bars. Wow!! They even took some home. I love pumpkin pie one of my favorites. So I can’t wait to make this!!!
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