Libby's® Famous Pumpkin Pie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is condensed milk or evaporated milk better for pumpkin pie? ›

As the name suggests, sweetened condensed milk makes the pie sweeter and gives it a denser, creamier texture. Evaporated milk, on the other hand, yields a lighter, airier result. Evaporated milk isn't sweetened either, which is why you can't simply swap one thickener for the other.

Pie may be refrigerated for 2 to 3 days.

Pies with too much evaporated milk formed blisters on top.

Though the interior of the filling had a great, creamy texture. The flavor was ever-so-slightly muted and had a hint of milkiness to it.

They are the same product. Both canned pumpkin puree and pie filling are useful, shelf-stable ingredients that can help speed up your kitchen prep time. Just remember that puree is unsweetened, while pie filling contains sugar and spices. This will help you choose the right pumpkin product for your recipes.

These items are essentially the same with one big difference: no sugar is added to evaporated milk. Sweetened condensed milk also has 60% of the water removed, but contains 40% sugar. Due to the big flavor difference, they cannot be substituted for each other.

Evaporated milk: A can of evaporated milk lends richness and helps thicken the pie filling.

Absolutely. Thanks to its high-fat crust and creamy filling, pumpkin pie freezes well.

How should pumpkin pie be eaten? If you leave it in the fridge, it is good for about 3 days. If it is left in a freezer, it is good for about 7 months.

The FDA's official stance is that homemade pumpkin pie is OK at room temperature for up to two hours. That's plenty of time for you to linger over dessert! Just note: The two-hour window doesn't include the time needed to let a freshly baked pie cool completely, which is also important for food safety.

Typically, the crust takes longer to cook than the filling. This is often the case for pie recipes with custard fillings, like this chocolate chess pie, this pumpkin pie, or this rhubarb custard pie. Pre baking the crust for those types of pies will give the pie crust a head start by partially baking it.

When should you not use evaporated milk? ›

Unopened cans of evaporated milk can keep for more than a year. But if you open a can and it's dark yellow or brown (a light brown color is normal), smells bad or appears curdled, don't use it.

You go to take the pumpkin pie out of the oven, and you notice that along the edges, cracks have appeared in what you imagined would be a beautiful, smooth pumpkin filling. Why this happens: Pumpkin pie cracks when it's been overbaked. The filling for pumpkin pie is technically a custard, a liquid thickened with eggs.

Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin

In this taste test, our Test Kitchen pros found that the biggest name in the pumpkin game does, in fact, make the best canned pumpkin on the market. Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin is a favorite among our culinary crew.

Pumpkin pie mix can be used as a substitute for pure canned pumpkin in some recipes. However, since it is already sweetened and flavored, you'll need to make some adjustments. In most dessert recipes, leave out the pumpkin pie spice and cut down on the sugar since the pumpkin pie mix includes it.

Libby's, the quintessential canned pumpkin brand, uses a proprietary strain of the Dickinson pumpkin variety in their product, which is also often called a Dickinson squash. On Libby's website, it states that their product is 100 percent pumpkin.

As Leal explains: "Evaporated milk offers creaminess without sweetness and is suitable for savory dishes and some desserts. On the other hand, sweetened condensed milk is intensely sweet and used in desserts and sweet treats, thanks to its thick, syrupy texture."

Evaporated milk and condensed milk are both shelf-stable canned milks that are easily found at most grocery stores. The main difference is that condensed milk is very sweet, and evaporated milk is unsweetened.

Condensed milk is also another substitute for evaporated milk in pumpkin pie recipes. Condensed milk is sweeter and thicker, so you may need to reduce the amount of sugar in your recipe. Keep in mind that the final result will be richer and more decadent.

The egg proteins in pumpkin pie filling form a loose net that traps moisture. As the egg proteins are heated, they begin to contract. Cook them hot enough, and they'll contract so much that they separate from each other into curds, giving your pie filling that grainy, wet texture.