This Thanksgiving I needed to ante up my pumpkin pie. I have been making the same pumpkin pie for so many years that it was about time I put a twist to the traditional Thanksgiving classic pie.
My twist this year was caramelizing the sugar. Caramelized sugar deepens the flavor of the pumpkin filling and makes it slightly less sweet. And of course what wouldn’t taste better with caramel in it. The result was a rich and sensuous pie. The pumpkin filling is also delicately spiced with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. I like to add some orange zest too because I like the orange note with pumpkin desserts. The filling had a very silken texture to it after baking. The buttery homemade crust had the perfect flake to it, couldn’t have been a better base for that satiny pumpkin filling.
The only challenging part in this pie is making the caramel. Don’t worry about making your caramel perfect, we are not using it to top any cake or ice cream. But adding it to the filling for that taste and also for that deep orange color. Melt the sugar and water and boil it until the mixture is a deep golden caramel. Then stir in the heavy cream in two batches and keep stirring until all the caramel dissolves. Make sure to lightly whisk the eggs in a separate bowl before adding them to the pumpkin filling.
Pumpkin pie has a hand in making Thanksgiving one of the favorite holidays for my boys. So there is never a controversy in our house as to what pie to make and eat on Thanksgiving. There has to be pumpkin pie at our table. And I think this caramel pumpkin pie may have made them more biased towards pumpkin pie.
Video
Recipe
Caramel Pumpkin Pie Pastry Dough
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
 | 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour |
| 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes |
| 2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening |
| ¼ teaspoon salt |
| 3 to 4 tablespoons ice water |
| Instructions | |
|---|---|
| Pulse together flour, butter, shortening, and salt in the bowl of a food processor just until mixture resembles coarse meal with small butter lumps |
| Drizzle 3 tablespoons ice water and pulse some more until incorporated |
| Squeeze a small handful of dough, if it does not hold together, add more ice water, 1 teaspoon at a time, pulsing until incorporated |
| Do not overwork, or pastry will be tough |
| Turn dough into a flat disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to an hour |
Caramel Pumpkin Pie
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| Basic pastry dough for a single-crust pie, recipe shared below or use store bought |
| ⅔ cup sugar |
| ¼ cup water |
| 1 ½ cup heavy cream |
| 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree |
| 1 teaspoon ground ginger |
| 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon |
| ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg |
| Pinch of cloves |
| 1 teaspoon vanilla extract |
| Zest of an orange |
| ¼ teaspoon salt |
| 3 large eggs, lightly beaten |
Special equipment: A 9-inch pie plate
Instructions
| Pie Shell | |
|---|---|
| Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pins into a 13- inch round |
| Fit into a pie plate. Trim edges, leaving a ½- inch overhang. Fold overhang under and press against the rim of the pie plate, then crimp decoratively |
| Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes |
| Preheat oven to 375 degree F |
| Lightly prick the bottom of the shell all over with a fork |
| Line with foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans |
| Bake shell until edges are pale golden and bottom is set, about 20 minutes |
| Carefully remove foil and weights and bake shell until bottom and sides are golden, about 10 minutes more |
| Cool shell completely on a rack, about 25 minutes |
| Filling | |
|---|---|
| Bring sugar and water to a boil in a heavy saucepan, swirling the pan until sugar is dissolved |
| Keep on gently swirling the pan for even cooking, until mixture is a deep golden caramel. This should take about 10 minutes |
| Reduce heat to moderate and carefully add half of the cream mixture. Mixture will bubble vigorously . Keep stirring it until caramel is dissolved . Stir in remaining cream and bring just to a simmer. Remove from heat |
| Whisk together pumpkin, spices, and salt in a large bowl |
| Whisk in the eggs until combined |
| Whisk in hot cream mixture, whisking until well combined |
| Add vanilla and zest of an orange |
| Pour filling into cooled pie shell |
| Bake until filling is puffed from edges and centre is loosely set, 40 to 45 minutes |
| Cool pie completely on a rack, about 2 hours |
Note
1. The pie shell can be baked upto 1 day ahead. Just wrap it with plastic wrap and keep it at room temperature.
2. The pie can be baked upto 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it to room temperature before serving. Although I must say that it tastes the best on the day it is made.
3. The beans used for blind baking can be reused again and again. I store mine in a container after it cools down. Believe it or not, I have been using the same beans for blind baking for the past 15 years.
4. If you are not up for making the pastry dough, store bought is fine.
If you make this Caramel Pumpkin Pie Recipe, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you! And if you do make this recipe, please don’t forget to tag me on Instagram or your favorite social media platform! I would love to see pictures of your creations.
Inspiration: My kids
You may also like
Pumpkin Cheesecake With A Biscoff Cookie Crust
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread with Streusel Topping
Simple Deep Dish Apple Pie