Pumpkin Pie Bars Recipe - Crunchy Creamy Sweet (2024)

FAQs

What makes pumpkin pie gritty? ›

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. This recipe contains cream cheese in order to help the pie stay nice and smooth even if it's slightly overcooked.

Bake at the correct temperature.

It's a good idea to use an oven thermometer ($7, Target) to ensure the temperature is accurate. Cooling pumpkin pie too quickly also causes cracks. Once your pie is done (there should be a slight jiggle to the center), allow the pie to fully reach room temperature before serving.

Why this happens: The pie was underbaked, or the oven temperature wasn't high enough. This is another problem that can occur when you haven't baked a pumpkin pie long enough, or if the oven temperature wasn't high enough.

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.

Often, blind-baking solves this problem. If you're making a single crust custard-filled pie, like a pumpkin pie, bake the pie dough first before adding filling to allow some of the moisture in the crust to evaporate. You can also totally blind-bake fruit pies.

If you do have the baking chops to make your own pumpkin pie, or at least apply your own glaze to a store-bought one, you, too, can adopt Costco's apricot jelly trick if you like a nice, shiny pie.

For better pumpkin pie, refrigerate the filling overnight

To that end, we've found that refrigerating pumpkin pie filling overnight before using it not only enhances the spices' flavors, but also mellows them. Any “sharp edges” disappear, and you're left with a smooth meld of complementary flavors.

Blind Bake the Crust

One of the fool-proof ways to ensure a crisp bottom pie crust is to do what is called blind baking. This simply means that you bake the crust—either fully if you are adding a custard or cream that won't be cooked, or partially if the whole pie needs to bake—before adding the filling.

Any oven setting over 350 degrees F is likely overdoing it for a pumpkin pie. Baking in a too-hot oven makes the custard puff up like a soufflé and then fall when it cools.

Note that if your test determines an undercooked pumpkin pie, return it to the oven and bake a few minutes longer before testing it again.

Should pumpkin pie still jiggly in the middle? ›

The outer edges of the pie should be firm while the center will be a little jiggly, but not sloshy or unsteady. As the old adage goes, "It needs to jiggle like Jell-O but not wiggle like a wave." If the entire pie is wobbly, continue baking.

If you meant to purchase pumpkin pie filling but accidentally grabbed a can of plain pumpkin, it's easy to sweeten and season the puree. Follow a good pumpkin pie recipe (there's usually a recipe printed right on the label) and add sugar and spices to the puree along with other ingredients like eggs before baking.

Canned pumpkin and pumpkin puree are the same thing, and you'll often see the terms used interchangeably in recipes and cookbooks. Unlike pumpkin pie mix, canned pumpkin does not have any spices, sugars, or other additives. In many cases, the only ingredient is pumpkin.

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.

Try to use a good quality brand that is fairly smooth and thick. Also we would mention that you should not use pumpkin puree that has been previously frozen as foods should not be thawed and re-frozen without cooking and also defrosted pumpkin puree can sometimes turn a bit grainy.

This suggests the grittiness is lactose crystals (from the milk or from cooking at too high a temperature).

Curdling strikes a custard when the proteins in the eggs become denatured, the result of cooking the custard too fast or too hot. Pumpkin pie filling is a custard, and it, too, can have this issue, which is usually discovered once the pie is sliced, revealing filling that's lumpy with curds instead of nice and smooth.

The outer edges of the pie should be firm while the center will be a little jiggly, but not sloshy or unsteady. As the old adage goes, "It needs to jiggle like Jell-O but not wiggle like a wave." If the entire pie is wobbly, continue baking.