The Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe & It's Stunning too!

Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Dimitra's Dishes. Fall is here, Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and it's the perfect time for me to share with you my pumpkin pie recipe. I'm redoing this because I feel like people have missed it, and if you have missed it and you've never tried this pumpkin pie recipe, you have to give it a try. Even the biggest pumpkin pie critics, who don't usually like pumpkin pie, love this one because it's custardy, yet it has a little bit of a cheesecake consistency and taste to it, so it's rich and delicious, and instead of using a traditional pie crust, I like to make my crust with a shortbread cookie, so it's delicious, and if you stay till the end, I'll give you make-ahead freezer tips and tricks, so wait for that. Let's get started. Okay, so we're going to begin by making the shortbread cookie crust for our pumpkin pies. That's my favorite kind of crust to make for these pies. It's so much easier than a pie crust, and it tastes so much better too, so I'm using my tabletop mixer for this that's fitted with a paddle attachment. Makes life so much easier. I'll add three quarters of a pound of unsalted butter. You want to make sure it's nice and soft. Half a cup of granulated sugar, half a cup of confectioner's sugar, and half a teaspoon of salt. Mix this up on low speed until everything is combined, and then add two teaspoons of pure vanilla extract. Beat this now on high speed until it's nice and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then reduce the speed to low, and add three cups, one at a time, of all-purpose flour. And if it's looking a little bit sticky, you can add half a cup more of all-purpose flour until it is this consistency like I have here. We're going to divide this into two equal portions, and we'll press it into tart pans. I love using tart pans because they're just beautiful. I mean, it looks way better in a tart pan than a pie pan. Of course, you can definitely use a pie pan for this. If you don't want to go out and buy a special piece of kitchen equipment, I recommend using what you have. But if you do have one or two on hand, use them, and it's just going to come out so beautiful. So press the dough out with your fingers first until it covers the sides and the bottom of the pan. And then I like to use a measuring cup that's dipped in flour just to smooth everything out so that way everything is in an even layer, just like this. I also like to transfer the tart pans on baking trays. It just makes it so much easier to transport the pies later on in and out of the freezer and in and out of the oven. So we're going to chill these in the freezer for at least an hour. You can do this step two weeks ahead of time or even a month ahead of time. But if you're doing it more than one day ahead of time, once they're frozen solid, wrap them in plastic wrap so that way the tart shells don't absorb any freezer odors. Okay, so my oven is preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You want to make sure again that these are chilled and frozen solid so that way they hold their shape. This step prevents the cookie shell from sinking into the pan and that way you don't have to use pie weights or anything like that. It'll bake and it'll just be so easy and beautiful. So this is going to first bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You'll see that the crust will begin to form some air bubbles. So take it out of the oven after the 15-20 minutes and pierce it all around with a fork just to kind of release the air that's trapped in the crust. And then if it looks like the sides started to sink in a little, you can press them back up with a fork just to kind of reshape it. Put it back in the oven and let it bake for another 10 to 13 minutes or until it's lightly golden. In the meantime, you can make the pumpkin pie filling. So I rinsed out the mixing bowl and this time I attached the whisk attachment to my KitchenAid mixer. So in the mixing bowl goes 8 ounces of soft cream cheese, 2 ounces of unsalted butter that's also nice and soft, and 1 cup of granulated sugar. We're going to mix this until everything is incorporated. And then I'll add a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract into it and 3 egg yolks. You want to whisk this until everything is incorporated and smooth and fluffy. And then I'll go in with 1 can of pumpkin puree. You want to make sure you're using plain canned pumpkin. The only ingredient in here should be cooked pumpkin. Right next to canned pumpkin in the supermarket aisles, you might see pumpkin pie filling. You do not want to use that. We're just using plain cooked pumpkin puree for this. So it's going to go in with a heaping teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger. Mix it all up until it's combined. And then the final ingredient is 1 cup of whole milk that's either warm or at room temperature. You don't want it to be hot. Whisk it all up until it's combined. And this is the consistency you're looking for. Sometimes some canned pumpkin puree tends to be a little bit on the thinner side. It might not be as thick or as orange as this. The color will vary, but it will still be delicious because pumpkin pretty much has a very bland flavor, so you should be fine. So we're going to divide the filling between the two pans, and they're going to go back into the oven and bake on the center rack for about 30 minutes or until the sides are fully set and the center still has a little bit of jiggle to it. You're going to have to let these cool down at room temperature completely, and then carefully remove them from the tart pan. And the best thing to do is to chill these in the refrigerator until they're nice and cold. They taste best cold, in my opinion. If you like them room temperature, be my guest and serve them like that, but I think they taste best cold. Then you can transfer them onto serving platters and serve them as is, or you can pipe some homemade whipped cream on top and sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon, and they're ready to serve. Okay, so just like that, the pumpkin pies are ready. If you're going through all the work to make these, make extra tart shells and please them, especially if you have more tart pans. And just look at how beautiful it looks as it tarts. It looks so much more elegant than it would in a pie dish. But if you do want to make something more simple and laid back, you can try making my pumpkin bars. Those are baked in a 9 by 13 inch baking pan and they're a little more casual and so good. But look at how beautiful this looks. I love using the tart pans because it gives it that decorative edge and you really don't do any extra work and the pan does everything for you, beautifies it. The pumpkin pie filling is custardy, yet a little bit more creamy and dense than a traditional pumpkin pie filling is. Just delicious. Let's taste it. So good. The crust is crispy and buttery and delicious. The custard, of course, my favorite. And then the whipped cream on top lightens it up. So a few things to keep in mind. We do refrigerate this because it tastes better when it's cold. But as it sits, before you serve it to your guests, you want to take it out for about an hour so that way the cookie lightens up a little bit because the cookie is dense. Shortbread cookies are pretty dense and they're buttery and they're crispy. And when they're cold, they're kind of hard to cut into. So that's one thing to keep in mind. You can do a lot of the steps ahead of time. So you can make the crust a month ahead of time. If you're that organized and you want to, at the beginning of the season, make a bunch of crusts, not just for pumpkin pie, you can use these crusts for all different kinds of tarts. And I have a few recipes on my website, but you can assemble the tart and don't bake it. Freeze it. Once it's frozen solid, you can wrap it in plastic wrap so that way it doesn't absorb any freezer odors and it'll keep fresh in there for at least a month. You could do it two weeks ahead of time or even a day or two ahead of time. Just depends on how much time you have and how much you plan ahead. The custard can also be made a day ahead of time and can be stored in the refrigerator. And then you could bake it all the day before that you're serving it. If you're serving this for Thanksgiving or for a special event, I do recommend that you don't bake this the same day. There's too many steps and too much work and it just needs some time for cooling. So make this a day ahead of time, let it sit in your refrigerator. The crust will just be at the perfect consistency when you go to serve it. And that's it. And everybody will absolutely love it. A simple whipped cream topping is the way to go. And if you make my shortbread cookies that are in the shapes of leaves and they're decorated for fall, I do a winter variety as well. But they do look really pretty on top too and I'll show you pictures on the blog. I'll put the pictures with this blog post so you can get ideas on how to make this and serve it. I hope you guys give this recipe a try. If you do, let me know how it turns out in the comments section down below. And if you have any questions or need any help, let me know and I'll get to the comments as soon as I can. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I'll see you all next time. Yessas!