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Pumpkin Pie with Sweetened Condensed Milk

⏱ 4 h 45 min in total🔪 40 min prep🍳 1 h 35 min cooking🧊 2 h 30 min resting🍽 8 servingsMedium
Pumpkin pie with deep-orange filling, a cut slice and whipped cream

Pumpkin pie is the sweet pumpkin tart from the United States, the dessert for Thanksgiving and all of autumn: a shortcrust pastry with a filling of pumpkin puree, eggs, and milk that is baked until creamy, almost like a custard. What makes it recognizable is not the pumpkin, which has a mild flavor, but the spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves, the blend sold there as pumpkin spice. This version uses sweetened condensed milk, which is one of the two classic ways to make it and can be found in any grocery store. And it uses butternut squash: the canned puree used there does not come from the Halloween pumpkin, which is watery, but from varieties with dense pulp related to the butternut squash.

🔎 What is winter squash? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.

🔎 What is pumpkin spice? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.

Ingredients

Measurements
🍽 8 servings
  • 200 g all-purpose flour (for the dough)
  • 100 g cold butter, cubed
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 3-4 tablespoons ice water
  • 1 butternut squash of about 1 kg (for the filling, yields about 450 g of puree)
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk (395 g)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice (or 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1 pinch of ground cloves)
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • To serve (optional): whipped cream

Method

  1. 1

    Make the dough: mix the flour, sugar, and salt, add the cold butter, and rub with your fingertips until it looks like coarse sand. Add the ice water one tablespoon at a time and combine without kneading, just until a ball forms. The butter must remain cold and in small pieces: when baked, it leaves tender layers. Kneading develops the gluten and the dough comes out tough.

  2. 2

    Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and take it to the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

  3. 3

    Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 °C. Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, and bake the halves cut-side up for about 40 minutes, until they are very tender. This way they lose water: a watery puree prevents the filling from setting and makes the base soggy.

  4. 4

    Remove the pulp and process it until it is completely smooth, without strings. If it releases liquid while resting, drain it for 15 minutes in a colander. Measure 450 g of puree.

  5. 5

    Roll out the dough to 3 mm thickness and line a 24 cm mold (pan), bringing it well up the edges. Prick the base with a fork and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

  6. 6

    Increase the oven to 220 °C. Beat the puree with the condensed milk, eggs, pumpkin spice, and salt, just until smooth. Do not overbeat: the air that enters causes the filling to puff up in the oven and crack when it cools down.

  7. 7

    Pour the filling into the dough and bake for 15 minutes at 220 °C: the heat shock sets the dough before the filling makes it soggy. Then lower to 180 °C and bake for 35-40 minutes more.

  8. 8

    It is ready when the edges of the filling are firm and the center still wobbles slightly if you move the mold, like a custard. A knife inserted near the center should come out clean. If you leave it until the center is hard, it is overcooked and will crack.

  9. 9

    Let it cool at room temperature for at least 2 hours before cutting: it finishes setting with its own heat, and if cut hot, it will fall apart. Serve cold or at room temperature, with whipped cream. In the refrigerator, covered, it lasts 3 days.