7 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Baking Pumpkin Pie

If fall had a culinary mascot, it would be pumpkin pie. It's a dessert classic: smooth, comforting, and equal parts sweet and savory. It's also delightfully easy to make, so long as you avoid a few potential baking blunders, such as underbaking or overbaking, or incorrectly substituting ingredients. To help you ace baking pumpkin pie, we asked chefs and cooking teachers to explain the most common pumpkin pie mistakes and how best to avoid them. Also, advice on how to tell when pumpkin pie is done cooking.

Not Blind Baking the Crust

"Pre-baking the crust, or blind baking, allows you to fully bake the pastry so it's golden and crispy," says Stefanie Bishop, chef instructor of baking and pastry arts at Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. If you fill an unbaked crust with pumpkin custard, the pie will develop an unpleasant soggy bottom. Additionally, the pastry will be underbaked, even if the custard is perfectly cooked. In turn, you might be tempted to bake the pie for longer, resulting in an overbaked dessert.

How to Blind Bake

Luckily, blind baking is an easy step for avoiding this pumpkin pie problem. "To blind bake, roll out the dough and line your pie plate. Chill for 30 minutes to an hour [then] bake your crust," says Bishop. For best results, place parchment paper over the crust and add baking weights (or dried beans) on top, which will keep it from puffing up and losing shape, she says.

With the crust fully baked, you'll be able to cook the custard filling slowly, which is key to avoiding overcooking and curdling.

Using the Wrong Type of Pie Plate

According to Bishop, the type of pie plate will dictate how the pie will cook, so it's important to take it into account. For example, glass and ceramic plates take longer to heat up, but hold heat longer than other pans, she says . This means the pie will have a slower start, then continue to bake and take longer to cool when you pull it from the oven. To work around these aspects, Bishop recommends baking the pie in the lower third of the oven (closer to the heat source) and starting at a higher temperature, then dropping the temperature to finish the pie.

Go With a Metal Pie Plate

Metal pie plates, on the other hand, are typically thinner than glass. They also heat and cool much quicker, according to Bishop. In fact, they're her preferred type of pan as they enable the pie to start baking soon after it’s placed in a hot oven. 

Deep vs. Shallow Dishes

It's also worth considering the depth of your pie plate, as this can also affect baking time. "The deeper the dish, the longer the bake time," notes Bishop. For example, a deep-dish pie will take much longer to bake and may require a lower temperature or foil tent to prevent the crust from burning, she says.

Using the Wrong Type of Milk

Many pumpkin pie recipes use evaporated milk, a few use sweetened condensed milk, and some call for a combination of heavy cream and milk. All these options are dairy products, but they aren't interchangeable. As Isamar Leal, recipe developer and chef creative director at Florida Education Institute explains, each type of milk has a different sweetness level and consistency. For example, "evaporated milk is unsweetened and has a thinner, creamier texture compared to condensed milk, which is sweetened and much thicker. Regular dairy milk is also thinner and lacks the richness of evaporated milk," she adds.

Most pumpkin pie recipes call for a specific type of milk and substituting it for a different milk can negatively alter the texture or flavor of the pie, so it doesn't set or even render it inedible. This is because the recipe is developed to balance the milk called for with other ingredients (like sugar or eggs) and their measurements have been chosen with that milk product in mind.

Using Old Spices

When home cooks start baking in the fall they reach for dried spices—and sometimes they realize those spices were bought several years ago. Spices tend to lose their aroma and flavor over time, so incorporating them into a pie (pumpkin or otherwise) is not a good idea. They are safe to eat, but won't have the pungent aroma and flavor of fresh spices.

Buy Fresh

Check your spices before you go shopping and stock up on good-quality spices to ensure "your pie has the robust and aromatic taste that makes pumpkin pie so delicious," says Leal.

Substituting Pumpkin Puree for Pumpkin Pie Filling

An easy mistake to make is using pumpkin pie filling when a recipe calls for pumpkin puree. Granted, the products are easy to mix up at the grocery store—both are canned and often next to each other on the shelf—but they have vastly different characteristics and ingredients. Whereas pumpkin puree is cooked, pureed pumpkin—pumpkin pie filling is a pre-sweetened and spiced mixture designed specifically for making pies, says Leal.  

"If you use pumpkin pie filling instead of puree, your dish will likely be overly sweet and may have an undesirable mix of spices," explains Leal. In contrast, using pumpkin puree (either store-bought or homemade), will allow you to control the sweetness and spice level in your recipe, she says.

Not Using an Oven Thermometer

Using a separate oven thermometer might seem like an unnecessary step, but it's essential for making the perfect pumpkin pie. As Bishop notes, even if you "set the temperature gauge to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, that doesn't mean the oven is a true 350 degrees." Using a separate oven thermometer will allow you to ensure the oven has reached the correct temperature, and will reduce the risk of overbaking or underbaking your pie.

Baking Until the Center Is Firm

If you're new to making pumpkin pie, a wobbly custard might seem like a sign to bake the pie for longer. However, this increases the risk of overbaking, which can make the filling dry and pull away from the crust, says Leal. A finished pie should be wobbly in the middle, according to Bishop. "A pie might not look set when pulled from the oven; that's OK. You will see the pie thicken as the pie cools and the custard sets," explains Bishop.

How to Tell When a Pumpkin Pie Is Done

• The pumpkin custard filling should be slightly wobbly, not set firm.
• A slightly domed top and firmness around the edges.