Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust (store-bought or homemade)
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Fit the crust into a 9-inch pie dish and crimp the edges.
2. Whisk the filling ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth.
3. Pour the filling into the crust.
4. Bake for 45–55 minutes, until the edges are set and the center jiggles only slightly when the pan is nudged.
5. Cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate at least 2 hours before slicing.

The Tale of Pumpkin Pie

Story updated September 15, 2026

Pumpkins are native to North America, and their journey into pie form is a genuinely transatlantic story: after Spanish and other European explorers carried pumpkins back across the ocean, English cookbooks of the 1600s, including recipes by Hannah Woolley, were already frying and baking "pompion" into pastry with butter, sugar, and raisins, meaning pumpkin pie has English, not just American, roots. Early Plymouth colonists reportedly learned pumpkin-cooking techniques from Northeastern Indigenous peoples around 1621, though their own pumpkin dishes were more often savory soups stewed in the shell than sweet pies. The custardy, spiced pumpkin pie recognizable today first appeared in print in Amelia Simmons's 1796 American Cookery. By the early 1800s it had become linked to Thanksgiving, so strongly that by the Civil War era pumpkin pie was seen in parts of the South as a symbol of "Yankee" culture, where sweet potato pie was preferred instead. Today most American pumpkin pies use canned puree, led by Libby's, rather than fresh pumpkin.