A Pumpkin Cream Pie

Made incidentally egg-free with a near-magic ingredient

I’m going to wax poetic about both a book and a product in the coming paragraphs, but this post was sponsored by nothing beyond my drive to procrastinate writing my own book. I took two days off of writing the recipes I genuinely need to be working on to bring you this instead. Doris, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry!

When I first got my copy of Nicole Rucker’s whip-smart new cookbook, Fat and Flour: The Art of the Simple Bake, I was struck by how Nicole isn’t married to one “right” way of developing a recipe. You should buy the book to learn more, but from her cold-butter cookie method to her cold-oven pound cake, Nicole is willing to elide convention in pursuit of a specific texture, flavor, or feel.

In the pie chapter of the book, I learned that Nicole relies on modified cornstarch, in the form of instant pudding mix, for many of her cream pies. Modified cornstarch is what allows instant pudding to thicken without the application of heat and without the presence of eggs. It’s marvelously stable and resistant to weeping. If you’ve ever made instant pudding (which I somehow had gone my entire life without ever doing), then you’ll also know it’s super fast to put together. When set, a pastry cream made with modified cornstarch doesn’t have the powdery flavor of similar custards made with too-much conventional cornstarch. The result is a sliceable custard that retains the delicate mouthfeel of soft cream, rather than the bouncy, firm feel of custards set with a lot of gelatin. I’ve also learned home bakers swear by it for setting fruit pies, or for stabilizing whipped cream. This blog post over on King Arthur Baking delves into more of those possibilities.

There are some that might feel that modified cornstarch is a sort of frankenfood, an unnatural ingredient born of science rather than tradition. But honestly, you could make a similar argument about white flour, sheet gelatin, or commercial pectin- all ingredients transformed beyond their natural state, all useful when bent towards a specific purpose. The real drawback, for me, is the fact that you have to mail-order it (and I haven’t given you a ton of time to procure it). The recipe below uses modified cornstarch under the brand name Instant ClearJel. You can buy it on King Arthur’s website for $1.24/ounce, or on Nuts.com for $.47/ounce (though you’ll have to buy a one pound bag). It’s also on Amazon in various prices and sizes.

As soon as I began fiddling with Instant ClearJel, I began dreaming of a pumpkin cream pie. My dark secret is that I don’t love a traditional pie crust with custard pies. I think a cookie crust is almost always more delicious! But I’ve never had much luck baking a very loose custard, like pumpkin pie filling, in a cookie crust without it invariably getting all sogged out. I’m not a pie expert! Keia or Nicole, if you’re reading this, feel free to school me.

Here, the only thing we have to bake is a graham cracker crust. The pumpkin custard is set with Instant ClearJel, chilled for a few hours in the fridge, and then topped with whipped cream. The crust stays crunchy for at least two days, so you could easily make this ahead (though I’d hold off on topping it with the cream until the day you plan to serve it). I didn’t see any need to stabilize the whipped cream here, though if you wanted to you could whip a little mascarpone into it to make it firmer for long-term storage (or use the Instant ClearJel, since you’ll already have it!).

I tinkered with the total amount of Instant ClearJel and ultimately settled on 30 grams so I could get a tidy slice from the pie. If you’re worried it will taste too “jellied” (though I didn’t find it so), you could begin with less starch - say, 20 grams. Since it works nearly instantly, you can get a good sense of the consistency of the pie filling straight away, and you can always add a little more if you feel it needs it.

Another nice thing about this recipe is you can taste the pumpkin custard and adjust the seasoning before you fill the shell. Technically you can do this with even a conventional pumpkin pie (and I always do), but it is nice to have a preview of the finished custard sans raw eggs. I used one teaspoon of Diaspora pumpkin pie spice for mine, and that felt plenty seasoned as far as warm spices go. Their spices are quite fresh and thus more potent (the tin of spice I used for this pie happened to be gifted, but I’ve been buying their spices on my own steam for years, and I’m not being otherwise compensated for saying how much I love them, which I do). I used the Burlap and Barrel Royal Cinnamon for the crust - also a wonderful, intensely aromatic product.

I used a (gifted) Row 7 koginut squash for one test and canned Libby’s pumpkin for another. They were both delicious. If you do choose to roast your own pumpkin, make sure it is deeply roasted. I like to halve mine with a little oil and roast them at 400°F for up to an hour. Then I let the squash cool and trim away any too-dark parts and peel off the skin. The underlying fresh should be velvety soft. Butternut squash would be tasty here, too!

I haven’t personally tested a vegan version of this pie, but I’m almost positive you could do a 1:1 swap of the dairy in the custard for their vegan counterparts and top it with a vegan whipped topping and have an extremely serviceable plant-based pumpkin cream pie. If you do so, let me know!

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Pumpkin Cream Pie

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Makes one 9-inch pie, about 8 servings

Graham Cracker Crust

This recipe makes rather a lot of cookie crust for a nice, thick layer in the pie, which is how I like it.

180 grams / 1 ¾ cup graham cracker crumbs

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon kosher salt

84 grams / 6 tablespoons butter, melted

Prepare a 9” pie tin by spraying it with pan spray.

Combine the crumbs, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the melted butter until evenly combined. Press the resulting sandy, damp mixture into the pie tin. I like to use the lightly greased 1-cup measure with a flat bottom to press the crumbs firmly into the bottom and sides of the pan. Place the crumb crust in the freezer for twenty minutes or so (or until you are ready to bake).

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the crumb crust for 12-15 minutes, or until it is aromatic and the edges begin to tinge a darker brown color. Let the pie crust cool completely before filling.

Pumpkin Custard

250 grams / 1 packed cup deeply roasted squash flesh, or canned pumpkin

240 grams / 1 cup heavy cream

120 grams / ½ cup whole milk

106 grams / ½ packed cup brown sugar, light or dark

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or choose your own spice adventure)

¼ teaspoon salt

30 grams / ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar

30 grams / ¼ cup Instant ClearJel

In a medium pot, combine the squash, heavy cream, whole milk, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Warm gently, whisking all the while, until the sugar has dissolved and the spice has infused the custard. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Remove from the heat and let cool to warm room temperature before blending it until very smooth (you could use a conventional or immersion blender).

In a medium bowl, combine the confectioner’s sugar and Instant ClearJel and whisk until thoroughly combined. Make a well in the center and pour in the blended pumpkin cream, whisking all the while. The mixture should thicken up almost immediately. Continue to whisk until it is relatively lump-free. If you think there are any bits of unincorporated starch mixture, you can press it through a strainer, though I didn’t find the need to do so for mine.

Scrape the pumpkin custard into the prepared pie shell, smooth the top with an offset spatula, and chill for around two hours before serving. Top it with a brown sugar whipped cream (recipe follows).

Brown Sugar Whipped Cream

240 grams / 1 cup heavy cream

40 grams / 3 tablespoons brown sugar, light or dark

A dash of vanilla bean paste

A pinch of salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a chilled bowl, taste, and adjust the seasoning to your preference. Whip (by hand or in a mixer) until you achieve soft peaks. Dollop it onto the pie and use an offset spatula to smooth the top into attractive swirls. Chill the pie in the fridge if you’re not planning to serve it straight away. Grate a little nutmeg on top if you like.