Some people like to serve pie at Thanksgiving (like this pumpkin pie without evaporated milk or a maple bourbon sweet potato pie). Others prefer to bake a pumpkin cheesecake instead!

This is my version of baked pumpkin cheesecake. I always stick to the same ratio (roughly) for baked cheesecake fillings. As you may notice, this recipe is very similar to my baked vanilla cheesecake and the delicious coffee cheesecake with cardamom.

Ingredients To Make Baked Cheesecake With Pumpkin Purée

Here's what you need to make a pumpkin-flavoured cheesecake:

• pumpkin—you can use canned pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée (water removed). Do not use canned pumpkin pie filling which has spices and other additives that will affect the taste.
• sugar—I used white sugar in the crust and the filling, but light brown sugar would also work
• eggs—I bake with large eggs. If you use eggs of a different size, this may affect the texture and set of the pumpkin cheesecake filling
• cream cheese—use Philadelphia full-fat cream cheese sold in blocks. In Canada, each block is 250 grams. Do not use whipped cream cheese or spreadable cream cheese. Do not use low-fat cream cheese.
• pumpkin spice mix—this is also called pumpkin pie spice. You can make a homemade version by combining cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and/or allspice.
• butter—use unsalted butter for the crust. If using salted, you may want to add less salt to the crust.
• vanilla—you can use either vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste (equal amounts)
• graham cracker crumbs—use store-bought or homemade graham crackers for the crumb crust.

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

Here are a few ways you may want to change the recipe:

• Sweet potato - instead of pumpkin purée, you can try using sweet potato purée.
• Squash - you can use any mashed sweet squash for this cheesecake. I find kabocha squash is very flavourful. Make sure to strain the homemade purée through a cheesecloth to remove any excess moisture in the filling.
• Graham cracker cookie alternatives - the cookie crust can be made with social tea biscuits or chocolate wafers. You can also use speculoos.
• Sour cream - you can replace 250 grams (1 block) of cream cheese with 250 mL (1 cup) of full-fat sour cream (14 % fat)

With any substitution, you may have to do some testing and tweaking to get the dessert just right with your changes!

How To Make a Pumpkin-Flavoured Cheesecake

You can make the cheesecake filling in either a large food processor or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. The goal is to create a smooth filling without incorporating too much air so that the filling doesn't expand and crack as it bakes and cools. If you use a large food processor, the volume will likely exceed the maximum fill line, so beware of leaks. Use a stand mixer if you are worried about spills.

Step 1—Start by combining the blocks of cream cheese in either a food processor (image 1) or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Blend them together until smooth and creamy (image 2), scraping down the sides as needed with a spatula and adding the granulated sugar partway through. Add the pumpkin spice mix and vanilla (image 3) and the pumpkin purée (image 4) and mix until the filling is even and smooth.

Step 2—Mix in the eggs, one at a time (image 5), then strain the mixture into a bowl (image 6). Pour the pumpkin cheesecake filling over a baked 9-inch graham cracker crust in a springform pan (image 7).

Tip—Make a graham cracker crumb crust and bake it before making the filling. Wrap the springform pan in two layers of foil after baking the crust to prevent moisture from getting into the pan when we set it in a water bath to bake the filling.

Step 3—Place the foil-wrapped cheesecake pan in a roasting pan and fill it with boiling water carefully (image 8).

Step 4—Bake the cheesecake until the edges are set, but the centre jiggles ever so slightly (image 10). Cool the cheesecake for 2 hours in the oven, propping the door open with a wooden spoon (image 11).

The cheesecake should not have any cracks at this point (image 12) if you cooled it slowly. If you use a thermometer to monitor the baking, the hole created in the centre to check the temperature may result in a crack.

Cool the cheesecake in the fridge overnight.

Hint: If your cheesecake develops a crack, hide it under a thick layer of lightly sweetened whipped cream or, even better, maple whipped cream! Nobody will notice it!

Storage

Store cheesecake in the refrigerator, lightly covered. You can also freeze it, though I'd recommend freezing it without the whipped cream on top if you choose this.

You can make this pumpkin cheesecake a day or two ahead of serving it, which makes it a great Thanksgiving dessert because it doesn't require the oven on the big day!

Serving Suggestions

I love this pumpkin cheesecake topped with lightly-sweetened whipped cream, but you can also serve it plain or with some cardamom ice cream or spiced chai ice cream. It's also great with salted caramel sauce! Yum!

Other Pumpkin Recipes

If it's pumpkin spice season, here are a few pumpkin baking recipes to try:

If you tried this recipe for baked pumpkin cheesecake (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Baked Pumpkin Cheesecake

Learn how to make the best baked pumpkin cheesecake with this easy recipe. This is a classic pumpkin-flavoured cheesecake made with a graham cracker crumb crust, pumpkin purée and pumpkin spice mix, baked in a water bath to create a delicious flat, smooth cheesecake with no cracks.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Chill time 4 hours hours

Total Time 6 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 504kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 9-in springform
• roasting pan

Ingredients

Baked Graham Cracker Crust For 9-inch Cheesecakes

• 150 grams graham cracker crumbs
• 26 grams granulated sugar
• 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 58 grams unsalted butter melted

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Filling

• 1 kg Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat, regular) use the block kind (see note), softened
• 250 grams granulated sugar
• 426 grams pumpkin purée
• 12.5 mL pumpkin spice mix
• 10 mL vanilla extract
• 4 large egg(s)
• boiling water to create the water bath in the roasting pan
• sweetened whipped cream optional but makes a nice garnish

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Boil a whole kettle of water (1.75–2 L).
• In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, 26 grams of sugar (2 tbsp) and salt. Mix them together with a fork.
• Pour the melted over top and stir well until all the ingredients are moistened and the mixture begins to clump.
• Transfer the crust mixture to your prepared pan and spread it out from edge to edge in an even layer, flattening and pressing it out with a flat-bottomed glass to create a smooth, tight crust.
• Bake the crust until the edges just begin to brown (10–15 minutes). Take out of the oven and let cool.
• Drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C).
• Wrap the outside of the cheesecake pan in three layers of foil so that it is well protected.
• Prepare the cheesecake filling by creaming the blocks of cream cheese together until smooth and creamy, then mix in the sugar.
• Add the pumpkin purée, spices, and vanilla, and mix in.
• Mix in the eggs, one at a time, only adding the next egg when the previous one has been completely incorporated.
• Strain the filling to remove any lumps if necessary, then pour it over your baked cheesecake crust.
• Place the foil-wrapped cheesecake pan in the roasting pan and pour water in the roasting pan (making sure to avoid splashing the cheesecake filling!). Fill with enough water to come halfway up the cheesecake pan.
• Place the roasting pan in the oven, carefully, and bake the cheesecake until set but the centre remains a little jiggly (this takes about 75 minutes for me).
• Turn the oven off when the cheesecake is done baking and prop the oven door slightly to allow the oven to slowly cool down. Leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door propped open for about 2 hours to cool completely.
• Take the cheesecake out of the water bath and transfer it to the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours, if not overnight, before slicing and serving.

Notes

• For the crust, I prefer to use graham cracker crumbs but this will also work with speculoos cookies, chocolate wafer crumbs (Oreo crumbs), or even social tea biscuits. Use any dry cookies/biscuits for the crumbs.
• I bake with Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt. If using table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty. 
• For the cream cheese, use full-fat cream cheese sold in block form. Do not use whipped, light, or spreadable cream cheese as these products may have more water or fat.
• You can flavour the cheesecake filling with vanilla bean paste (preferred) or vanilla extract. You could also scrape a vanilla bean (or half a large bean) and add that to the filling instead.
• Use a water bath made from a roasting pan and boiling water to bake the cheesecake. Make sure to wrap the springform pan in three layers of aluminum foil to prevent water from seeping into the pan and to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Alternatively, you could use a 9-inch round cake pan with 3-inch sides, making sure to line the bottom with parchment paper. You will have to flip the cheesecake onto a parchment paper-lined board, upside-down, to get it out of the pan, which may ruin the smooth finish on top. 

Nutrition

Calories: 504kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 149mg | Sodium: 393mg | Potassium: 231mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 30g | Vitamin A: 6845IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 112mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Baked Pumpkin Cheesecake appeared first on The Bake School.

One of the best things to make when fall rolls around is a pumpkin loaf cake. You can serve them plain or top them with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting or white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

The traditional pumpkin loaf cake is made with all-purpose flour to lead to a tender bread that still holds up well. One common baking substitution would be to replace the all-purpose flour with whole wheat.

This works well in the recipe below. This recipe is a variation of my perfect pumpkin bread recipe but made with whole wheat flour.

Ingredients

Pumpkin breads are made from a simple list of ingredients, like most loaf cakes. Here's what you need to make this whole-wheat pumpkin bread:

• whole-wheat flour, preferably an all-purpose whole wheat or whole grain wheat flour that is good for cookies and muffins
• leavening agents—you will need both chemical leavening agents, baking powder and baking soda for this recipe
• spices—pumpkin pie spice mix works great here
• salt: preferably Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but if you are using regular table salt, halve the amount so the cake isn't too salty.
• butter, both melted to make the loaf cake and softened to make the frosting
• sugar—you can use either granulated sugar or brown sugar. Brown sugar will give the pumpkin bread more flavour
• eggs, specifically large eggs
• pure vanilla extract, either homemade or store-bought
• pumpkin purée, either canned or strained homemade pumpkin purée to remove excess water. Read about homemade pumpkin purée if you are unsure about how to remove the water and why
• icing sugar, also called powdered sugar, tends to clump and you may have to sift it before using
• cream cheese—I prefer to make cream cheese frosting with Philadelphia brand full-fat cream cheese (the kind sold in blocks)

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

With a simple recipe like this one, your options for making substitutions are limited. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind, depending on what you want to make:

• Flour - instead of whole wheat flour, you can use regular bleached all-purpose flour but, obviously, it won't be whole-wheat pumpkin bread anymore
• Butter - you can replace the butter in the cake recipe with canola oil (or another neutral-tasting vegetable oil). Use the same volume as the melted butter
• Eggs— if you'd like to bake pumpkin bread without the eggs, follow this healthier pumpkin bread, which has no eggs and less sugar and oil too and is vegan!
• Spices - if you don't have a pumpkin spice mix, you can use a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves
• Cranberries or raisins - if you'd like to incorporate dried fruit in this recipe, I recommend raisins, dried cranberries, or even chopped crystalized ginger would be great in this pumpkin cake recipe
• Chocolate chip—you can easily stir a cup (175 grams) of chocolate chips into the batter before transferring it to the pan to make chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

See this classic pumpkin loaf cake with cranberries for a version with all-purpose flour!

How to Make Pumpkin Bread with Whole Wheat Flour

The ingredients for this whole wheat pumpkin bread are mixed like muffins or other quick breads, where the wet and dry ingredients are whisked together in separate bowls before combining the two to make the batter. This is called the two-bowl mixing method.

Step 1: Mix together the wet ingredients in a large bowl. I like to first combine the melted butter and sugar (image 1), then add the eggs (image 2), then the pumpkin purée (image 3). Use a whisk to make sure the wet ingredients are smooth (image 4)

Step 2: Whisk the dry ingredients in a separate bowl (image 5), then add these to the bowl of wet ingredients (image 6). Stir the two mixtures together until combined (image 7).

Note: the batter will be thick because of the whole wheat flour's capacity to absorb moisture. You may need to switch to a wooden spoon, spatula, or even a Danish dough whisk to mix the ingredients (image 8) properly.

Step 3: Transfer the thick batter to a prepared loaf cake pan. I like to use the OXO 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan. Use a mini offset spatula or a small silicone spatula to spread the thick batter from edge to edge (image 9).

Step 4: The surface of the batter should be quite smooth (image 10). Bake the loaf cake for about an hour. The loaf cake will crack a little (image 11).

Step 5: Transfer the loaf cake to a wire rack to cool completely (image 12). Once the cake has completely cooled, you can spread the cream cheese frosting on top (image 13).

Tip: If you've struggled to make cream cheese frosting in the path, having to add too much sugar to get it to thicken, read about my trick to make thick cream cheese frosting with less sugar!

Top Tip

You may notice a gummy layer on the bottom of pumpkin bread and banana bread. That's because either there's too much pumpkin or mashed banana in the batter, not enough leavening, or the cake is underdone. To avoid the latter, use a cake tester inserted through the centre of the loaf cake to check that it's done baking.

Baking FAQs

More Pumpkin Recipes to Try

If you'd like to bake more recipes with pumpkin, you can make this maple pumpkin bread or a classic plain pumpkin loaf cake or pumpkin bread with cranberries. Looking for other pumpkin baking recipes like this? Try these:

If you tried this whole wheat pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting recipe (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

Learn how to make the best whole wheat pumpkin bread with this easy recipe. This pumpkin loaf cake is made with whole wheat flour and topped with thick cream cheese frosting, making it an excellent easy fall dessert and also great for afternoon tea.

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Calories 463kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 1-lb loaf pan
• Mini offset

Ingredients

• 250 grams whole wheat all-purpose flour
• 12.5 mL pumpkin spice
• 5 mL baking powder
• 5 mL baking soda
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 115 grams unsalted butter melted
• 200 grams light brown sugar
• 2 large egg(s)
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 350 grams pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée

Brown butter cream cheese frosting

• 78 grams unsalted butter softened
• 125 grams icing sugar
• 250 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat, regular) the kind sold in blocks or bricks (do not use the whipped, spreadable kind!)

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175 °C). Butter and flour a 1-pound loaf pan, either a 9x5-inch (23x12.5x7.5 cm) loaf pan (like this Nordic Ware pan on Amazon) or for a taller loaf, use an 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5x7 cm) loaf pan (like this Oxo pan on Amazon). Line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, spice mix, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside for later.
• In a separate large bowl, whisk the melted butter with the brown sugar.
• Add the eggs and the vanilla.
• Mix in the pumpkin purée.
• Add the whisked dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients. Mix until just blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. The batter will be thick
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for about 75 minutes, testing the loaf with a cake tester to verify it’s done.
• Let the loaf cool for 20 minutes before unmolding on a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

Cream cheese frosting

• To prepare the frosting, in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and the icing sugar, then incorporate the cream cheese. Mix just until you obtain a thick spreadable consistency.
• Spread the frosting generously over the top of the cooled loaf.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• To make the pumpkin bread, you will use the two-bowl mixing method just like for muffins and other quick breads.
• You can easily modify this recipe to include chocolate chips or dried cranberries (or raisins). Just add 1 cup of them to the batter before transferring to the loaf cake pan.
• The order you mix the ingredients for the frosting is key to getting the right texture without having to add more sugar. Please read about how to make thick cream cheese frosting if you are unsure.

Nutrition

Calories: 463kcal | Carbohydrates: 55g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 99mg | Sodium: 411mg | Potassium: 294mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 6316IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 93mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting appeared first on The Bake School.

Type of pumpkin

Pure pumpkin sold in cans at the grocery store is made with Dickinson pumpkins. Both E.D. Smith and Libby's use 100 % Dickinson pumpkins to make their canned pure pumpkin products. The fact that the Dickinson pumpkin doesn't look like what we in North America picture as a pumpkin tends to shock people, as many assume that the canned pumpkin would come from a carving pumpkin.

Let's not forget that all pumpkins are squashes, from the family of cucurbitaceae. But not all squashes are pumpkins because pumpkins are specifically cucurbitaceae pepo, while a butternut squash is a cucurbitaceae moschata. 

Fun fact: the French term for butternut squash is "courge musquée" so you can see where the word musquée in French would come from the moschata latin variety name. 

At home, you can make pumpkin purée from many types of pumpkin and squashes. The most common pumpkins and squashes for baking and making purées are:

1. the Sugar pumpkin, a.k.a. Sugar Pie pumpkin or Pie pumpkin, which is a small orange pumpkin that looks a lot like the "typical" pumpkin, but much smaller than the jack-o-lantern carving pumpkins. The flesh of this variety is quite sweet, though it can be a little watery. The flesh cooks into a light yellowy-orange
2. Kabocha squash (or Japanese pumpkin), which is a flatter squash, either green or a deep orange verging on red. The Kabocha squash has a dryer flesh so the purée is less watery than Sugar Pie pumpkins. Kabocha is very sweet and flavourful. The flesh cooks into a bright orange.

If you are looking to make a homemade pumpkin purée, but you don't have access to either the Sugar pie pumpkin or Kabocha, consider trying to make a purée from other types of squash, but choose wisely:

• choose a squash that bakes/cooks into a dry purée that isn't too wet. Hubbard squash make a very dry purée, as do Buttercup.
• use a squash that is flavourful and not too fibrous. Red Kuri squash, which is similar in colour to the red Kabocha, but the Red Kuri has a pointy top and a more bulbous shape. Butternut squash is a great option but they have a little more water than other types, so you may want to strain the purée to remove that water or cook down the purée to evaporate the water and concentrate the purée.

Colour may vary

Canned pumpkin can be quite a deep, dark orange colour and you'll notice that homemade pumpkin isn't the same colour (see photo). Homemade pumpkin is MUCH lighter in colour, verging on yellow, sometimes depending on which variety you use. And if you bake with homemade pumpkin purée or squash, you'll notice the colour of your baked goods will be quite different. In some cases, you might see little to no orange colour in the cakes you bake with homemade pumpkin. That's normal! 

If you make a pumpkin pie with homemade pumpkin or squash purées, you'll also notice that the colour of the pie filling will be lighter and more brown/beige than orange. This is also very normal. It will still taste great, so don't judge based on the colour!

Ways to make pumpkin purée at home

There are many ways to cook pumpkin or squash and you should pick the method that works best for you.

1. Roasting: Slice the pumpkin in half, remove the seeds, and roast the fruit. You want to roast until the halves are soft and collapse on themselves a little.
2. Boiling: Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds, and cut it into big pieces, then boil until tender. Drain well and pat until perfectly dry before blending in a food processor until smooth
3. Microwaving: Pierce the flesh through the skin to make air holes in the fruit, then place it in the microwave. Microwave it on high for several minutes, pausing to check on it every so often. If the pumpkin has a big wooden stem, snap it off before microwaving it. Microwave until soft, testing with a fork or the tip of a sharp knife.

Once your pumpkin (or squash) is cooked, all you have to do is transfer the soft flesh to a food processor and blend it until smooth. Alternatively, if you don't have a food processor, you can also try using a blender, or even just a potato masher by hand. Your pumpkin mash may be a little less smooth than if you had prepared it in the food processor, but it'll be good enough for baking! If you have a food mill, that would work great too to make a purée. 

If you find the pumpkin purée or mash seems very watery, you should either:

• strain the purée through a cheesecloth to remove some of the excess moisture
• cook down the purée in a saucepan or a fry pan to evaporate the excess water and concentrate the purée

Now that you know how to make pumpkin purée, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient and bake all sorts of delicious recipes with it!

Storing pumpkin purée

Pumpkin is considered a low acid fruit, with a pH above 4.6. Though technically, pumpkin is still acidic compared to a neutral pH of 7, pumpkin is not acidic enough for home canning processes. For this reason, when you make a batch of homemade pumpkin purée, you have to store it in the fridge for short periods, and for longer periods, in the freezer.

Freezing pumpkin

When you store pumpkin purée, whether canned pure pumpkin or homemade purée from roasted pumpkins, you will notice that the purée will slowly release water. That's normal. The same may happen when you freeze and thaw it.

You can freeze pumpkin purée, and when you defrost it to bake with, if you notice a lot of water has separated out, you can strain it out and cook it down, just like you do with frozen bananas for banana bread! This way you won't risk ending up with a soggy bottom or a gummy layer if you bake cakes with it, especially pumpkin bread or pumpkin cranberry bread. For these two recipes, you bake the cake batter in a loaf pan, which is much deeper than a regular round or square cake pan. This means, it's much more difficult to achieve the perfect bake and to get the cake to bake properly, especially at the bottom.

To freeze pumpkin, here are two tips for you to get started:

1. freeze it in portion sizes according the recipes that you are most likely to make. So for the pumpkin bread and pumpkin cranberry bread, I'd freeze it in 1.5 cup portions in an airtight container, choosing a container that is not too big for this amount, nor too small that there is too much air. I also recommend placing a round of parchment paper directly on the surface of the pumpkin to be frozen to protect it from freezer burn on the surface. You can also top it with a layer of plastic wrap fitted to the surface. Then close the lid tightly to freeze.
2. freeze the pumpkin in an ice cube tray, if you plan on making pumpkin pie shakes or pumpkin smoothies! All you have to do is transfer the canned pumpkin or pumpkin purée to an ice cube tray and place it in the freezer. Once frozen solid, transfer the cubes of pumpkin to a freezer bag to store for longer. Make sure to remove as much air from the bag as possible and to pack the cubes tightly. Then when you are ready to make a smoothie, take out a few cubes of frozen pumpkin.

Pumpkin substitutes

Pure pumpkin versus pumpkin filling

Pumpkin filling or pumpkin pie mix in the can is not a good baking substitution for pure pumpkin without making some adjustments to your recipe. Canned pure pumpkin is 100 % pure Dickinson pumpkin. Nothing else is added to this product. It is canned plain and it is not to be confused with pumpkin filling or pumpkin pie mix, which contains more ingredients than just pumpkin. Pumpkin pie filling or mix is used to simplify pumpkin pie-making because the spices are already in it. All you do is add eggs and milk, cream, or evaporated milk.

• Libby's canned pumpkin pie mix contains water, sugar, spices, dextrose, and natural flavours.
• E.D. Smith canned pumpkin filling is made with pumpkin, sugar, water, spices (contain wheat flour), salt, vegetable oil, caramel colour

For this reason, if you want to replace pure pumpkin with pumpkin filling, you will have to adjust the spices in your recipe, as well as the salt, and possibly the sugar. There's no direct equation for replacing one with the other. Sorry!

Other pumpkin substitutes that aren't pumpkin-based

If you can't find canned pure pumpkin and you can't find a sugar pumpkin, consider exploring other squashes which you can easily turn into purée and use interchangeably to replace canned pure pumpkin. Follow the recipe below and make sure to take the time to strain the purée for an hour through a cheesecloth to remove the excess moisture if you find your purée is very wet.

Otherwise, replace pure pumpkin with mashed sweet potato, cup-for-cup!

When you are baking and cooking with squash and pumpkin, don't forget to save the seeds so that you can make toasted pumpkin seeds (or squash seeds) to snack on!

If you tried this recipe for the homemade pumpkin purée (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Homemade Pumpkin Purée

Learn how to make homemade pumpkin purée from a fresh pumpkin with this easy recipe!

Course pantry staple

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings 375 mL

Calories 1kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Sheet pan
• Food processor

Ingredients

• 1 kg Sugar pumpkin also called Pie pumpkin

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400 ºF (200 °C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper (preferably a rimmed sheet pan to catch any juices).
• Cut the pumpkin in half, lengthwise.
• Scrape out the seeds and save them to make toasted pumpkin seeds.
• Place the pumpkin halves, cut-side down on the prepared sheet pan.
• Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until very tender.
• Let cool, then scrape out the flesh of the pumpkin and place it in the food processor.
• Process the pumpkin to form a smooth purée.
• If the pumpkin purée seems a little loose or watery, strain it through a cheesecloth for 1 hour or cook it down on the stove to concentrate it.
• Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze it.

Notes

If you can't find a Sugar pumpkin to make homemade pumpkin purée, you can use a Kabocha or a Red Kuri squash instead. You can also try butternut, but it may release more water, so make sure to take the time to strain the mash before baking with it, especially because that moisture could lead to a soggy bottom on cakes and pies.

Nutrition

Calories: 1kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 227IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 1mg

Now that you know how to make pumpkin purée at home, you can bake with it and make

• pumpkin bread
• pumpkin bread with cranberries
• pumpkin pie without evaporated milk
• pumpkin muffins
• pumpkin pie tarts
• baked pumpkin donuts

And if you have a little leftover, you can easily use it up in this recipe for a super easy pumpkin spice shake

The post How to make homemade pumpkin purée for baking appeared first on The Bake School.

I have been on the quest for the perfect pumpkin cranberry bread for a while. So many tests went into this recipe, even though, in the end, the recipe is very easy, straightforward, and downright simple. This moist pumpkin bread incorporates as much pumpkin as possible, without compromising the baking time and the texture/crumb of the final loaf! I've also written out what you can do differently next time you make a pumpkin bread to improve your loaf cakes!

If you love to bake with pumpkin, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient!

Ingredients

• flour—I tested this recipe with bleached all-purpose flour
• leavening agents—you will need both chemical leavening agents, baking powder and baking soda for this recipe. Please read about baking soda versus baking powder if you aren't sure the difference!
• spices—pumpkin pie spice mix works great here or a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves
• salt: preferably Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but if you are using regular table salt, halve the amount so the cake isn't too salty.
• oil—using canola oil enhances the vegetal flavour of the pumpkin
• sugar—you can use either granulated sugar or brown sugar. Brown sugar will give the pumpkin bread more flavour
• eggs, specifically large eggs
• pure vanilla extract, either homemade or store-bought
• pumpkin purée, either canned or strained homemade pumpkin purée to remove excess water. Read about homemade pumpkin purée if you are unsure about how to remove the water and why
• cranberries—I prefer to bake this pumpkin cake with dried cranberries

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

• Sugar: I've baked this recipe with all granulated sugar and a combination of light brown sugar and granulated sugar. Both work. If you are using a liquid sugar, like maple syrup, your batter might be wetter so you might have to either use less: replace only a portion of the sugar with maple syrup to avoid adding too much liquid to the recipe and throwing off the texture, or add a little more flour (this may require additional tests). If you want to try this recipe with honey, be careful: honey will lead to a darker quick bread and more browning
• Oil: replace the 125 mL (½ cup) of canola oil in the recipe with the same volume of another oil (perhaps a light-tasting olive oil or sunflower oil!) or you could replace the oil with the same amount or up to 170 mL (⅔ cup) of unsalted butter, melted and cooled before incorporating in the recipe. You would consider adding a little more butter than oil to the recipe because butter is only 80 % fat, whereas vegetable oils are 100 % fat. So to keep the amount of fat constant, you'd need slightly more butter than oil. 
• Cranberries: use dried cranberries, not fresh or frozen because the latter may lead to gummy areas around the fruit from the excess moisture. Not the end of the world, but not ideal. You can replace them with raisins or chocolate chips (same volume), or even chopped nuts like walnuts or pecans!

How to Make Pumpkin Bread with Cranberries

Step 1: Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (image 1) and whisk the wet ingredients in a separate large bowl (image 2). I like to use a Danish dough whisk but a balloon whisk will also work.

Step 2: Pour the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients (image 3) and stir them until just incorporated (image 4). Add the flour-coated dried cranberries to the pumpkin cake batter (image 5) and fold them in.

Tip: Don't overmix the cake batter because it may create a dry cake that may have bigger bubbles. Undermix the mixture of dry and wet ingredients before adding the cranberries. When you stir in the cranberries, you will finish mixing the batter!

Step 3: Transfer the pumpkin cranberry cake batter to a buttered and floured loaf pan lined with parchment paper on the bottom (image 6). Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean (try not to poke it through a cranberry which could skew the test!). Cool the cake 10–20 minutes to firm up before transferring onto a wire rack to completely before cutting and serving (image 7). It takes about 3 hours for pumpkin loaf cake to cool down completely.

Top Baking Tip

Be sure to toss fruit in flour to coat them, in this case, dried cranberries. The flour coating will anchor the cranberries in the batter and prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

You can strain off any extra flour by sifting the flour-coated cranberries in a fine-mesh sieve, which will remove any excess.

Pumpkin Cranberry Cake FAQs

Don't forget to save the seeds if you make your own pumpkin purée to bake with so that you can snack on toasted pumpkin seeds later. As for the canned pumpkin, my brands of choice are E.D. Smith in Canada and Libby's in the US. Both of these work well in this recipe and the canned pumpkin isn't watery or wet, which is perfect for making this recipe.

Other Pumpkin Bread Recipes

For other versions of pumpkin bread, try these:

• Classic pumpkin loaf cake, plain and simple
• Maple pumpkin bread
• Whole wheat pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting
• Healthier pumpkin bread, made without eggs or dairy so it's dairy-free and vegan-friendly!

If you tried this recipe for the best cranberry pumpkin bread (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

This pumpkin cranberry bread has a great texture: moist on the inside with a great crust. It's lightly spiced and slices well, without being too delicate. This recipe works with canola oil or melted butter.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 299kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Loaf pan
• OXO balloon whisk
• GIR spatula
• Cake tester

Ingredients

• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 5 mL baking powder
• 5 mL baking soda
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 2.5 mL ground ginger
• 1.25 mL ground nutmeg
• 0.625 mL ground cloves
• 375 mL pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
• 125 mL canola oil
• 150 grams granulated sugar
• 100 grams light brown sugar
• 2 large egg(s)
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 100 grams dried cranberries tossed in 5 mL (1 tsp) of flour to coat the berries

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175 °C). Butter and flour a 1-pound loaf pan, either a 9x5-inch (23x12.5x7.5 cm) loaf pan (like this Nordic Ware pan on Amazon) or for a taller loaf, use an 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5x7 cm) loaf pan (like this Oxo pan on Amazon). Line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin purée, oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
• Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients. Stir the ingredients just to combine them. Don't over mix. Fold in the flour-coated dried cranberries. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it out. Bang the pan on the counter to help remove any air pockets.
• Bake the pumpkin cake until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. This takes about 1 hour 15 minutes. Keep checking it every so often after an hour of baking.
• Place the pan of baked pumpkin bread on a cooling rack and let it cool for 15 minutes before unmolding it on the rack to cool completely.

Notes

• Most canned pumpkin purées are pretty dry, but some are watery. To be sure you aren't adding excess liquid to this pumpkin cake recipe, strain the pumpkin before measuring it. To do so:
  • Set a strainer over a deep bowl and line it with a couple layers of cheesecloth.
  • Place the pumpkin in the lined strainer and let drain for at least 30 minutes.
  • Occasionally, give the pumpkin a stir, a press, or a squeeze to help remove any excess liquid.
  • Once the pumpkin is thicker and less watery, you are ready to measure out the cup for this recipe.
• If you are using defrosted pumpkin purée, you may notice the water will separate upon defrosting. Again, this is a good reason to strain it before using.
• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• The baking times suggested are for a cake baked in a light coloured 9x5 inch loaf pan like this one on Amazon made by Nordic Ware. I have also tested the recipe in the OXO loaf pan from Amazon with similar results, yielding a taller loaf cake.

Nutrition

Calories: 299kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 27mg | Sodium: 291mg | Potassium: 153mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 4903IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Best Pumpkin Bread with Cranberries appeared first on The Bake School.

This spiced pumpkin loaf cake is an easy pumpkin bread recipe to make with canned pumpkin, flavoured with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, yielding a perfect moist pumpkin bread for fall baking. It's made with canola oil but you can use butter instead. Feel free to add dried cranberries to this recipe. 

If you love to bake with pumpkin, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient so you can go beyond the classic loaf cake!

Ingredients

• flour—I tested this recipe with bleached all-purpose flour
• leavening agents—you will need both chemical leavening agents, baking powder and baking soda for this recipe. Please read about baking soda versus baking powder if you aren't sure the difference!
• spices—pumpkin pie spice mix works great here or a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves
• salt: preferably Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but if you are using regular table salt, halve the amount so the cake isn't too salty.
• oil—using canola oil enhances the vegetal flavour of the pumpkin
• sugar—you can use either granulated sugar or brown sugar. Brown sugar will give the pumpkin bread more flavour
• eggs, specifically large eggs
• pure vanilla extract, either homemade or store-bought
• pumpkin purée, either canned or strained homemade pumpkin purée to remove excess water. Read about homemade pumpkin purée if you are unsure about how to remove the water and why

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

With a simple recipe like this one, your options for making substitutions are limited. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind, depending on what you want to make:

• Flour - instead of regular bleached all-purpose flour, you can use whole wheat flour but make sure it's a whole wheat all-purpose flour (and not a whole grain flour for making bread!) —check out this whole wheat pumpkin bread for inspiration
• Butter - you can replace the canola oil (or another neutral-tasting vegetable oil) in the cake recipe with butter. Use the same volume
• Eggs— if you'd like to bake pumpkin bread without the eggs, follow this healthier pumpkin bread, which has no eggs and less sugar and oil too and is vegan!
• Spices - you can use a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves or pumpkin spice mix. Apple pie spices would also work
• Cranberries, raisins, or crystallized ginger - if you'd like to incorporate dried fruit in this recipe, I recommend raisins, dried cranberries (stick to dried cranberries, otherwise with fresh or frozen cranberries, you will get some gumminess around the baked fruit, which I find unpleasant), or even chopped crystalized ginger would be great in this pumpkin cake recipe—check out this cranberry pumpkin loaf
• Chocolate chip—you can easily stir a cup (175 grams) of chocolate chips into the batter before transferring it to the pan to make chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

After years of testing and improving on that base recipe, the recipe you see here looks nothing like the original because it has more pumpkin, more flour, and different amounts of chemical leaveners. This is the best version of the pumpkin bread recipe yet.

How to Make Pumpkin Bread

Sometimes the easiest recipes are hard to get right. Loaf cakes fall into this category. Most of them are made with the easiest two-bowl mixing method, just like muffins, and yet it can be a real challenge to balance the wet and the dry ingredients properly for a loaf cake. While muffins are small and have a lot of edge to them, meaning a lot of contact with the hot baking pan, loaf cakes are thick, made with a lot of batter and baked in a deep pan. This can lead to problems achieving the perfect cake crumb that's not too dense, and not wet.

Step 1: Combine the wet ingredients in a large bowl (image 1) and whisk them until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together (image 2). I like to use a Danish dough whisk.

Step 2: Pour the dry ingredients over the wet (image 3) and stir them together (image 4). Don't overmix the batter and mix just until the dry ingredients disappear.

Step 3: Transfer the pumpkin cake batter to a buttered and floured loaf pan lined with parchment on the bottom (image 5) and use a mini offset spatula to smooth out the batter from edge-to-edge. Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the pan (image 6) and a cake tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

You'll notice a lot of slices of pumpkin cake and banana bread in photos and in cafés and bakeries have a dark line towards the bottom of the slice: that line is a layer of "gummy" batter where the heat of the oven didn't quite reach. It's a sign that the cake is under-baked and of cake collapse where the structure of the crumb wasn't set enough before taking the cake out of the oven to cool.

Tip: Let the cake cool in the pan for 10–20 minutes until firm enough to transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Top Pumpkin Bread Baking Tips

Your pumpkin bread will take over an hour to bake. Be patient: pumpkin is considered a "heavy" ingredient that can weigh down the batter. More pumpkin means it takes more time to evaporate/dry the crumb of the cake and set the structure. You don't want to end up with a gummy unbaked layer at the bottom of the loaf. Some people are okay with that, but to me, that is unacceptable.

Remember to use a few methods to check if your cake is done baking before you remove it from the oven. Otherwise, if the crumb is even a little under-baked, you will notice cake collapse, which is most obvious when you cut into the loaf: you will see a thin line of dark dense cake. That's under-baked moist cake batter that collapsed.

Also, if you are planning on adding cranberries, use dried cranberries because fresh and frozen cranberries causes pockets of gumminess in the cake surrounding the berries. Not good. 

Pumpkin Bread FAQs

Other Pumpkin Desserts

Everybody loves baking with pumpkin in the fall months. Here are more desserts you can make with pumpkin, including pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin muffins with streusel on top, and pumpkin pie without evaporated milk:

If you tried this recipe for the best pumpkin loaf cake (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Pumpkin Loaf Cake

This pumpkin bread has a great texture: moist on the inside with a great crust. It slices well and isn't overly delicate. This recipe works with canola oil or melted butter. You can also add dried cranberries (tossed in a spoonful of flour to coat them) for a fantastic pumpkin bread with cranberries.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Calories 328kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Loaf pan
• Danish dough whisk
• GIR spatula
• Mini offset
• Cake tester

Ingredients

• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 5 mL baking powder
• 5 mL baking soda
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 2.5 mL ground ginger
• 1.25 mL ground cloves
• 1.25 mL ground nutmeg
• 375 mL pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
• 150 grams light brown sugar
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 125 mL canola oil
• 2 large egg(s)
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175 °C). Butter and flour a 1-pound loaf pan, either a 9x5-inch (23x12.5 cm) loaf pan (like this Nordic Ware pan on Amazon) or for a taller loaf, use an 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5 cm) loaf pan (like this Oxo pan on Amazon). Line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin purée, brown sugar, granulated sugar, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla.
• Pour the dry mixture over the wet ingredients. Fold the ingredients with about 16-20 stirs just to combine them.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it out. Bang the pan on the counter to help remove any air pockets.
• Bake the pumpkin cake until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. This takes about 1 hour 15 minutes. Keep checking it every so often.
• Place the pan of baked pumpkin bread on a cooling rack and let it cool for 15 minutes before unmolding it on the rack to cool completely.

Notes

•  Recipe substitutions and variations:
  • Flour - instead of regular bleached all-purpose flour, you can use whole wheat flour but make sure it's a whole wheat all-purpose flour (and not a whole grain flour for making bread!) —check out this whole wheat pumpkin bread for inspiration
  • Butter - you can replace the canola oil (or another neutral-tasting vegetable oil) in the cake recipe with butter. Use the same volume
  • Eggs— if you'd like to bake pumpkin bread without the eggs, follow this healthier pumpkin bread, which has no eggs and less sugar and oil too and is vegan!
  • Spices - you can use a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves or pumpkin spice mix. Apple pie spices would also work
  • Cranberries, raisins, or crystallized ginger - if you'd like to incorporate dried fruit in this recipe, I recommend raisins, dried cranberries (stick to dried cranberries, otherwise with fresh or frozen cranberries, you will get some gumminess around the baked fruit, which I find unpleasant), or even chopped crystalized ginger would be great in this pumpkin cake recipe—check out this cranberry pumpkin loaf
  • Chocolate chip—you can easily stir a cup (175 grams) of chocolate chips into the batter before transferring it to the pan to make chocolate chip pumpkin bread.
  • Salt—This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Most canned pumpkin purées are pretty dry, but some are watery. To be sure you aren't adding excess liquid to this pumpkin cake recipe, strain the pumpkin before measuring it. To do so:
  • Set a strainer over a deep bowl and line it with a couple layers of cheesecloth.
  • Place the pumpkin in the lined strainer and let drain for at least 30 minutes.
  • Occasionally, give the pumpkin a stir, a press, or a squeeze to help remove any excess liquid.
  • Once the pumpkin is thicker and less watery, you are ready to measure out the cup for this recipe.
• If you are using defrosted pumpkin purée, you may notice the water will separate upon defrosting. Again, this is a good reason to strain it before using.
• The baking times suggested are for a cake baked in the OXO loaf pan from Amazon with similar results, yielding a taller loaf cake.

Nutrition

Calories: 328kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 351mg | Potassium: 187mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 5884IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 58mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Perfect Pumpkin Loaf Cake appeared first on The Bake School.

If you aren't into the traditional pumpkin spices and fall flavours of most pumpkin loaf cake recipes, this maple-flavoured pumpkin bread is for you! It's a variation of my classic pumpkin bread, which I also tweaked to make this whole wheat pumpkin cake and cranberry pumpkin bread.

This is the perfect recipe to make if you have a leftover cup of pumpkin purée and you don't know what to do with it. Recipes you can make with canned pumpkin include pumpkin tarts, pumpkin spice shake, baked pumpkin donuts, and even cute pumpkin whoopie pies. Some of these recipes take less than a can's-worth of pumpkin, so you might have some left over.

Ingredients

Pumpkin loaf cakes, including this maple pumpkin bread, are made with a simple list of ingredients. Here's what you need to make this:

• flour, specifically bleached all-purpose flour—do not substitute alternative flours unless you are prepared to do a few tests to tweak the quantities
• leavening agents, specifically both chemical leaveners baking powder and baking soda
• salt, specifically Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, though regular table salt will work (use less as it's saltier)
• pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée—if using
• eggs, specifically large eggs
• maple in the form of both pure maple syrup and maple sugar to provide as much flavour
• oil, specifically canola oil or a neutral-tasting oil
• pure vanilla extract
• optional garnishes include maple butter which works beautifully as icing on top and maple flakes to add more maple flavour and a lovely texture to the top.

See the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

With its simple list of ingredients, there are a limited number of substitutions and variations that you can make without messing with the balance of ingredients. Here are a few options:

• Oil—instead of canola oil, you can use 115 grams (½ cup) of melted butter
• Maple sugar—use regular granulated sugar or light brown sugar if you can't find maple sugar
• Pumpkin spice—if you like to add warm spices to your pumpkin bread, you can add pumpkin spice or a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg (at least 5 mL or 1 teaspoon should work here)
• For an eggless version of this recipe, try this healthier pumpkin bread, which is also low in sugar, dairy-free, and vegan.
• Pancake syrup—please do not replace the maple syrup with pancake syrup. It is a much sweeter product and won't provide the same flavour or texture.

Remember when you want to make a baking substitution where you are replacing a granular sugar product (either white sugar or brown sugar) with a liquid sugar, like honey or maple syrup, it's best only to replace a portion of the sugar and not all, to maintain the texture of the cake and also to avoid having to make other adjustments to the recipe. This is why we used a combination of maple sugar and maple syrup here.

Canned Pumpkin Versus Homemade Purée

For the pumpkin purée, you can use canned pumpkin or you can use homemade pumpkin purée, made by roasting a sugar pumpkin until the flesh is soft, then puréeing the flesh until smooth. If you do so, I highly recommend you strain the pumpkin purée through a few layers of cheesecloth to remove extra moisture. That moisture may lead to a gummy layer on the bottom, just like with banana bread, because the cake doesn't bake through.

If you are baking with store-bought canned pumpkin, ensure that you grab cans of plain pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling, which has additional ingredients like sugar and spices.

This recipe works well with Libby's canned pumpkin and E.D. Smith's canned pumpkin, but it may not work well with other brands, which are more watery. If you use an alternative brand to the two listed above, please strain the water or cook it off in a saucepan to dry it out before baking with it. Otherwise, your pumpkin bread may not bake properly inside and will collapse from too much moisture.

How to Make Pumpkin Bread with Maple Syrup

Pumpkin loaf cakes are quick breads made using a two-bowl mixing method, also known as the muffin method, where the wet ingredients are mixed separately from the dry ingredients before combining the two.

Step 1: combine the pumpkin, eggs, and maple sugar in a bowl (image 1) and whisk them to combine (image 2), then whisk in the oil, vanilla, and maple syrup (image 3). The wet ingredients should be quite smooth (image 4).

Step 2: whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda) until evenly combined (image 5), then pour the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients (image 6). Whisk the two components together until combined and thick but fairly smooth (image 7).

Step 3: Transfer the pumpkin batter to a prepared loaf pan and smooth it from edge to edge so that it's even (image 8). You can score down the middle of the batter in the pan using a greased bench scraper to ensure that the bread cracks down the middle when it bakes (image 9).

Step 4: bake the loaf cake until the edges begin to brown and pull away from the sides (image 11). Use a cake tester to check if the cake is done baking.

Step 5: Garnish the cooled pumpkin bread with maple butter and maple flakes to give it even more maple flavour (image 12).

Frosting Alternatives

The goal of this recipe was to provide the most pumpkin flavour, so using maple butter as a frosting here does exactly that. But if you want to try a different topping, try this thick cream cheese frosting or this white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Top Tip

Always take the time to check if your cake is done baking using visual cues, touching the surface of the loaf gently to make sure it bounces back and feels set, and poking a skewer or cake tester through the middle to make sure the loaf is baked in the centre. Take the time to use several methods to check if the cake is done before pulling it out of the oven, or you might find that your cake sinks as it cools.

Unmould the loaf cake onto a cooling rack to allow it to cool faster. This will also promote better air circulation on the edges, drying them out slightly so that the edges are firmer and not tacky or wet.

Pumpkin Bread FAQs

Cake collapse is the most common issue with pumpkin bread because there are a lot of wet ingredients in this type of loaf cake. Usually, it's a sign that the ratio of ingredients, specifically wet-to-dry ingredients, is off or that the cake is underbaked (read about how to check if your cake is done baking). Here are some other questions you might have when baking pumpkin bread recipes:

Other Maple-Flavoured Baking Recipes

I kept the flavourings in this cake very simple: it's all about the maple and the pumpkin. The cake is not overly sweet, but the topping of maple butter and maple flakes not only makes this loaf cake super pretty to look at but also adds an extra hit of real maple flavour that can sometimes get lost in the baking.

Looking for other maple recipes like this? Try these:

If you tried this maple pumpkin bread recipe (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Maple Pumpkin Bread

Learn how to make the best maple pumpkin bread with this easy recipe. This moist pumpkin cake is sweetened with maple sugar and maple syrup, and then iced with maple butter and sprinkled with maple flakes to get the most maple flavour.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 458kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 1-lb loaf pan
• OXO balloon whisk
• Cake tester

Ingredients

• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 7.5 mL baking powder
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 1.25 mL baking soda
• 250 mL pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
• 2 large egg(s)
• 150 grams maple sugar
• 125 mL canola oil
• 83 mL pure maple syrup
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract

Optional garnishes

• 125 mL maple butter
• 50 grams maple flakes

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
• Butter and flour a 1-pound loaf pan, either a 9x5-inch (23x12.5x7.5 cm) loaf pan (like this Nordic Ware pan on Amazon) or for a taller loaf, use an 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5x7 cm) loaf pan (like this Oxo pan on Amazon). Line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the pumpkin, eggs, maple sugar, oil, maple syrup, and vanilla.
• Pour the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
• Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.
• Bake for about 55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
• Let cool for about 15 minutes or so before unmolding.
• Cool completely before serving.

Optional garnishes

• Once the cake has cooled and before serving, you can ice the top of the loaf cake with a thick layer of maple butter and sprinkle with maple flakes

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• The maple sugar that I used was similar to this brand on Amazon. If you can't find maple sugar, use light brown sugar. Granulated sugar will also work, but it's less flavourful.
• The maple butter topping adds a lot of flavour to this cake and it's really key to reinforcing the maple flavour of the loaf. You can make maple butter at home from maple syrup.
• If you'd prefer to use butter in the cake recipe, replace the oil with 115 grams (½ cup) of melted unsalted butter.

Nutrition

Calories: 458kcal | Carbohydrates: 74g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 41mg | Sodium: 196mg | Potassium: 359mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 44g | Vitamin A: 5096IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 121mg | Iron: 3mg

The post Maple Pumpkin Bread appeared first on The Bake School.

The fall season is all about pumpkin desserts, but instead of the usual pumpkin loaf cake and pumpkin pie made with cream instead of evaporated milk, make pumpkin ice cream! If you love to bake with pumpkin, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can showcase this star ingredient!

What you need to make it

Pumpkin ice cream tastes just like pumpkin pie, actually! It's a real treat! Here is a rundown of the ingredients you will need to make it:

• milk and cream are important to add fat to the ice cream base so that it doesn't freeze too hard. Too much milk and not enough cream will lead to a less creamy taste and will also have an impact on texture
• sugar, either granulated sugar or brown sugar works in this recipe, but brown sugar will add more flavour. The sugar is very important to achieve the right texture so don't cut back on it
• egg yolks are needed to help emulsify the ice cream ingredients and also to thicken the custard and give it a richer texture and flavour
• pumpkin spice mix or a mixture of spices, store bought spice mix or a homemade blend will work here
• pumpkin purée, either homemade or canned will work in this recipe, but I prefer homemade
• salt, specifically Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt is a fine salt that isn't too salty. The salt is needed to balance out the sugar and bring out the flavours in this ice cream. If using table salt, add half the amount.

Incorporating pumpkin in ice cream

I am convinced that the best ice creams start with a crème anglaise. This ice cream starts with a custard base, also known as a crème anglaise. Once the custard sauce has thickened on the stove, it's combined with pumpkin purée to make a pumpkin crème anglaise.

You can use homemade pumpkin purée or canned. I prefer to use homemade pumpkin purée, which has a better flavour. Just don't use canned pumpkin filling for this recipe because it already has spices added and may even have sugar too. This would throw off the recipe completely so make sure to check the ingredients on the back of the can to make sure that the can only contains pumpkin.

Infusing ice cream with spices

Before heating the milk/cream to make the vanilla crème anglaise, the spices are added to the milk mixture to help infuse it with the flavours of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg. It's important to add the spices before heating the mixture to give enough time to extract the flavours into the milk. This way you get the most flavour out of them.

You'll notice this recipe is quite heavy on the spices. You could add less of them or smaller quantities, but I find with frozen desserts, the flavour needs to be bold in order to taste it because it's served very cold, which makes it very hard for flavours to come through.

Substitutions

If you want to modify this recipe or use it as a jumping off points, here are some suggestions:

• replace the spices with masala chai (the tea) and infuse the milk with masala tea, which contains black tea as well as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, etc. (spices depend on blend used)
• change the spices used, like remove the cinnamon and add cardamom instead
• skip the spices altogether to make a vanilla pumpkin ice cream
• replace the pumpkin purée with mashed sweet potato for a sweet potato ice cream. Use the same weight/volume as the pumpkin in the recipe

Really, there are so many ways to modify this recipe. Get creative!

Ice cream storage tips

I highly recommend investing in a freezer container for your ice cream. I have a Tovolo ice cream tub that has an elongated shape, giving you ample room to drag the ice cream scoop more easily! The base is non-slip, so you have more traction when scooping and it's double walled for better storage.

📖 Recipe

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Pumpkin Ice Cream

Make pumpkin ice cream, a fun ice cream flavour for fall that's easier to make than pumpkin pie! It's also a great way to use up leftover pumpkin purée!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Chill time 12 hours hours

Total Time 12 hours hours 45 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Calories 360kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• OXO balloon whisk
• Wooden spoon
• Ice cream maker

Ingredients

• 180 grams pumpkin purée
• 5 large egg yolk(s)
• 200 grams light brown sugar divided
• 440 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
• 310 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
• 5 mL vanilla bean paste
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 2.5 mL ground ginger
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 1.25 mL ground allspice
• 0.625 mL ground cloves
• 0.625 mL ground nutmeg

Metric - US

Instructions

• Freeze the ice cream drum in the freezer for at least 24 hours before attempting to make ice cream.
• Before you begin to cook the ice cream base, place the pumpkin purée in a 1 L (4 cup) measuring cup (or a big bowl preferably with a pouring spout). Set a strainer over top. Set aside
• In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with half the sugar until the mixture has lightened.
• In a medium saucepan, whisk the rest of the sugar with the milk, cream, vanilla bean paste, cinnamon, ginger, salt, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg. Heat the mixture until it is very hot and almost comes to a boil.
• Pour the hot milk mixture over the whisked yolks to temper the eggs. Whisk continuously until the mixture is homogenous, then transfer it back to the saucepan.
• Switch to a wooden spoon and, stirring constantly, heat the mixture on the stove over medium—low heat until the custard has thickened and has reached 83 °C (181 °F).
• Pour the mixture through the strainer, pressing the custard through gently, if needed.
• Stir the strained custard with the pumpkin purée at the bottom of the bowl (or measuring cup). Cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate the pumpkin custard base for several hours to cool completely (overnight is best!).
• Place the frozen drum on the ice cream maker, and churn the custard according to instructions. It can take about 15 to 20 minutes to churn the ice cream.
• When the ice cream has reached the desired consistency. Turn off the machine, disassemble, and transfer the ice cream to a container. Place in freezer for a few hours to finish chilling before serving.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Serve this pumpkin ice cream with pie crust cookies for a dessert that tastes just like pumpkin pie!

Nutrition

Calories: 360kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 228mg | Sodium: 222mg | Potassium: 232mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 964IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 166mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Pumpkin ice cream appeared first on The Bake School.

If you would like to explore more recipes for baking with pumpkin, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient!

Whoopie pies. It's about time! For months, I read about people's love for whoopie pies, all the while wondering what could possibly be so special about them.

What is a whoopie pie?

It turns out that whoopie pies are nothing but frosting sandwiched between two little cakes. In fact, whoopie pies used to be made to use up leftover cake batter so it wouldn't go to waste. The term whoopie pie comes from when kids would scream "whoopie!" whenever they were surprised with these little cake sandwiches in their lunches or after school. The most common whoopie pie is chocolate, but these pumpkin whoopie pies are gaining in popularity, especially around Thanksgiving and Halloween in North America.

Fillings For Whoopie Pies

Whoopie pies are really simple to make, and with the right filling, they are quite special and a lot of fun. The filling can be any thick frosting, like this cream cheese frosting, or in this case, a brown butter-flavoured cream cheese frosting, which adds pretty golden brown flecks to the filling. Around Christmas time, you can make a candy cane frosting and garnish with crushed mints. Really, any frosting made from butter and icing sugar will work. If you want a more sophisticated filling, you could even try an Italian meringue buttercream.

For pumpkin whoopie pies, you can either fill them with the frosting mentioned below or this white chocolate cream cheese frosting, which would also be delicious! It pairs well with pumpkin and also this moist gingerbread cake or this chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.

Since fall is here to stay, my first batch of whoopie pies was inspired by a Wilton "Harvest" whoopie pie pan (available on Amazon) and their easy recipe for pumpkin spice whoopie pies. I added some ground ginger to add a little more zip to the cake batter. If you want to make them with homemade pumpkin purée, make sure to strain out the excess water because homemade pumpkin tends to be more watery.

I changed the frosting recipe slightly, adding in a little extra powdered sugar and substituting some brown butter for some of the cream cheese. The nuttiness of the brown butter is great in a cream cheese frosting like this one and the nutty aroma and flavor really come through since the frosting is not too sweet. I am madly in love with this frosting.

For the frosting, be sure to use Philadelphia full-fat cream cheese because the no-name brands just don't compare. In fact, I made two batches of this cream cheese frosting, one with Philly cream cheese and the other with my local grocery store's brand of cream cheese. The Philadelphia cream cheese produced the tastiest filling, but what was most shocking was the texture: the grocery store brand had an almost powdery feel to it and gave the frosting an almost grainy (unpleasant!) texture. The frosting made with Philadelphia cream cheese was much, much creamier, and really quite dreamy! (NB: Kraft did not pay me to write that).

If you're on the fence about whoopie pies, you should give them a try. They are a welcome change in a cupcake-dominated world. But if you don't have a whoopie pie pan, don't let that stop you! Bake small scoop-fulls of the batter on a parchment-lined baking sheet or use a muffin pan (like this one on Amazon) for perfectly round little cakes.

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Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

These super cute pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese filling are made with little pumpkin spice cakes and filled with a brown butter cream cheese frosting. These whoopie pies make a great pumpkin dessert for Thanksgiving for people who don't like pumpkin pie!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 20 assembled whoopie pies

Calories 181kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

For the whoopie pies

• 188 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 5 mL baking soda
• 2.5 mL baking powder
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 1.25 mL ground nutmeg
• 1.25 mL ground ginger
• 0.625 mL ground cloves
• 58 grams unsalted butter
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 2 large egg(s) room temperature
• 125 mL pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
• 125 mL buttermilk (1 % fat)

For the brown butter cream cheese filling

• 58 grams unsalted butter
• 90 grams icing sugar sifted
• 200 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat, regular) 200 grams, almost an entire block, room temperature

Metric - US

Instructions

Make the whoopie pie cakes:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray the whoopie pie pan with cooking spray. Set aside for later.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugar for about 5 minutes.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed with a spatula.
• In another small bowl, combine the pumpkin and buttermilk.
• To the mixer, add the flour mixture and the pumpkin mixture, alternately, beginning and ending with the flour.
• Fill each whoopie pie mold no more than half full, spreading the mixture into all the nooks and crannies.
• Bake for 7 to 10 minutes (I baked some longer than others so that the whoopie pies were all different golden browns, just like fall leaves and pumpkins).
• Let the whoopie pies cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then tap them out onto a rack to cool completely before filling.

To make the filling:

• Begin by browning the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until the milk solids turn a nutty brown. Set aside to cool.
• Beat together the cream cheese and the cooled brown butter (be sure to add all those nutty brown bits!) in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
• With the mixer on low, slowly add the icing sugar. Beat until the desired consistency and level of sweetness is achieved.

To assemble

• Spread the filling on one cake and sandwich with another. Repeat to assemble remaining whoopie pies.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Please use full fat Philadelphia brand cream cheese. This brand has the best flavour and texture!
• For the whoopie pies, I used the Wilton Harvest whoopie pie pan (available on Amazon) but of course, a regular whoopie pie pan (from Amazon) would also work, as would a muffin tin.
• If you don't have buttermilk, a common baking substitution is to use regular milk with a splash of vinegar (7.5 mL (½ tablespoon) of vinegar per 125 mL (½ cup) of milk)

Nutrition

Calories: 181kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 40mg | Sodium: 140mg | Potassium: 68mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 1322IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies With Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting appeared first on The Bake School.

How to make a pumpkin bread recipe without eggs

A typical pumpkin loaf cake recipe would have eggs in it, but it turns out that canned pumpkin makes a great egg replacer, as do other fruit purées, like mashed banana in this eggless banana bread. So you can actually easily make eggless pumpkin bread without changing much of anything and without having to resort to egg replacers, like chia eggs or flax eggs, among others. That's great news if you are looking for dairy-free or vegan fall desserts or recipes made with canned pumpkin.

You may notice holes in your cake when you slice into it: these might form because the batter is thick and so gaps in the batter will occur as you fill the loaf pan. If you over-mix the batter, this could also cause larger holes in your cake, so please be sure to mix just enough to form a cohesive, even batter, but not so much that you develop too much gluten. You'll also want to make sure that you take the time to whisk together the dry ingredients so that the baking soda disperses evenly throughout the batter.

Canned pumpkin versus homemade pumpkin purée

Of course, if you feel like using your own homemade pumpkin purée, instead of canned pumpkin, you absolutely can in this recipe. However, I do have one recommendation for you: strain your homemade pumpkin purée through a few layers of cheesecloth in order to remove some of the water because sometimes homemade pumpkin purée may have an excess of water in it, and that can lead to a wet or gummy cake that might take a very long time to dry out properly. Feel free to keep that pumpkin water for other recipes, like for making smoothies, or you can also boil it down to a very thick syrup to remove the water so that you can add back to the pumpkin purée. This way, nothing is wasted! I use the technique of boiling down the liquid with defrosted bananas to avoid letting the banana juice go to waste. If you go this route, make sure to save the seeds so that you can make a batch of toasted pumpkin seeds to snack on later.

Because this pumpkin loaf cake is vegan, the recipe calls for canola oil (or your favourite neutral-tasting oil), which means the batter for this pumpkin bread can be mixed in a bowl with a whisk or a wooden spoon, instead of having to resort to the creaming mixing method. No mixer required here, which means this recipe is very easy to make because all you do is mix the ingredients together. Of course, if you prefer to bake with butter, a common baking substitution would be to replace the canola oil with the same amount of melted butter (which works out to 58 grams of melted butter). That would work just fine too!

This is a healthier pumpkin bread because it's made with less sugar than most loaf cakes of this size, which would have at least 200 grams (1 cup) of sugar. Reducing the sugar by 50 grams (¼ cup) allows us to make this recipe a little healthier, without impacting the texture of the bread or how moist it is. This is another example to show that baking with less sugar is possible, just like with these blueberry bran muffins and these hearty apple blackberry muffins.

This eggless pumpkin bread makes a flavourful loaf that makes great toast in the morning. I also like to slice the whole loaf and then freeze it. Then you can pull out a slice when you want it and toast it in your toaster. If you want to use maple syrup instead of the sugar, try this pumpkin bread with maple syrup.

If you like to explore more recipes for baking with pumpkin, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient!

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Eggless Pumpkin Bread

Here's a recipe for how to make healthier pumpkin bread. It's eggless, dairy-free, and vegan, and is also made with less sugar than other recipes!

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 273kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Loaf pan
• OXO balloon whisk
• GIR spatula

Ingredients

• 375 mL pumpkin purée or strained homemade pumpkin purée
• 60 mL canola oil or melted butter
• 150 grams granulated sugar or brown sugar or a mixture of both
• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 5 mL baking soda
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 2.5 mL ground allspice
• 2.5 mL ground nutmeg

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Grease and flour a 9x5-inch (23x12.5 cm) or 8.5x4.5-inch (21.5x11.5 cm) loaf cake pan, then line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment.
• In a large bowl, combine the canned pumpkin with the sugar. Whisk in the oil.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the baking soda, salt, and spices.
• Fold the dry ingredients in the bowl with the wet batter and stir everything together to incorporate it and form a thick batter. Don't overmix.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 60–65 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean.
• Let cool 10 minutes, then unmold onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!

Nutrition

Calories: 273kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 417mg | Potassium: 130mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 7295IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Healthier pumpkin bread (eggless, dairy-free, vegan, less sugar) appeared first on The Bake School.

If you want to take pumpkin a little further than the usual pumpkin loaf cake, this pumpkin pie without evaporated milk is a real treat! Most pumpkin pie recipes rely on canned milk for their creamy texture. This recipe makes the classic Thanksgiving pumpkin dessert that everybody knows and loves, but with cream instead of evaporated milk!

If you love to bake with pumpkin, order your copy of the e-book All About Pumpkin so you can celebrate this star ingredient!

What You Need to Make Pumpkin Pie Without Evaporated Milk

There are two major components to this recipe: the crust and the pumpkin pie filling. Here's what you will need to make this pumpkin dessert:

• all-purpose flour is the base ingredient for the crust to give it structure and to help the crust hold its shape as the pie bakes
• sugar—both granulated and brown sugar
• salt is really important to balance out the sweet flavour in the filling and also to balance out the sour notes. Don't skip it. I like to use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but table salt will work, though the pie dough will be saltier and you may want to halve the salt.
• butter, preferably unsalted butter because you add salt to the dough, but if you have salted, it will work. Just adjust the salt in the recipe accordingly, otherwise, your pie crust may be too salty
• large eggs to help set the custard filling so that it is smooth and slices cleanly
• pumpkin spice or a mixture of warm spices, specifically cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves.
• whipping cream or half-and-half which will add body and richness to the filling. I prefer using whipping cream for the filling with 35 % fat because fat is flavour
• vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste adds sweetness and depth to the filling, enhancing the flavour of the filling.

See recipe card for exact quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

• Crust: this recipe includes the ingredients and steps to make the pie crust using a food processor. If you are short on time (or don't want to do that), simply buy a ready-made all-butter pie crust from your local bakery. They are usually sold frozen so you will defrost it in the refrigerator overnight before using it.
• Pumpkin: you can use canned pumpkin, homemade pumpkin purée, or even mashed butternut or kabocha squash. Please read about how to make pumpkin purée because it's very important to cook down or strain the pumpkin before baking with it
• Spices: the homemade pumpkin pie filling is flavoured with a mixture of ground cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. This is essentially a homemade pumpkin spice blend. Feel free to omit all these spices and replace them with up to 15 mL (1 tablespoon) pumpkin spice blend.

Tip: Remember that pumpkin purée may contain a lot of water, so after you have roasted and puréed it, it's best to strain it through a cheesecloth to remove some of the water. Otherwise, your filling may end up watery from the excess moisture!

How To Make the Best Pumpkin Pie

Please refer back to this post about how to make pie crust in a food processor if you are making the pie crust and need more information and step-by-step photos!

Step 1: Par-bake the pie crust by first lining a metal pie pan with the crust, crimping the edges decoratively (image 1), then covering it with crumpled parchment paper and filling it with pie weights or dry beans (image 2). Bake the crust until set and dry (image 3) then brush the inside of the crust with an egg wash (image 4) to seal it before pouring the wet filling. This will help prevent a soggy pie bottom.

If making pie crust from scratch scares you, be sure to check out my pie crust masterclass, which includes video tutorials for making pie crust in the stand mixer, food processor, and by hand!

Step 2: Whisk the ingredients in a large bowl with a spout (image 5). The pumpkin pie filling should be completely smooth (image 6). Pour the filling in the par-baked crust (image 7).

Not sure what kind of pie pan to use? I prefer using a metal pie plate. Metal is a good heat conductor, which means it will help drive heat to the bottom crust in contact with the pan. This will help cook the bottom so that it isn't raw. For a deep-dive on metal versus glass, check out this guide to baking pans and bakeware.

Step 3: Smooth the top of the filling (image 8) and bake it until the filling edges are set but the centre still jiggles a little (image 9).

Once baked and cooled down to room temperature, you can store your pumpkin pie in the fridge until it's time to serve. Let it come to room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. Cover leftover pumpkin with aluminum foil and refrigerate.

Top Tip

Most recipes do not suggest blind-baking or par-baking the pie shell before filling and baking pumpkin pies, but over the years, I've discovered that I much prefer the results when I par-bake the pie shell before filling it. This ensures the crust is baked through and golden brown even on the bottom!

Decorating Pumpkin Pie

I top pumpkin pie with decorative pie cutouts, made from leftover pie dough. I bake the cutouts separately so that they are perfectly crispy and baked until golden brown. Not only do these pie cookies allow you to create a very festive decorated pumpkin pie, the cutouts allow you to hide any cracks that sometimes happen when the filling cools down and shrinks back slightly.

When you cut into a pie with decorative cutouts like this, be sure to lift off the cookies first to avoid them tearing through the rich, creamy custard.

Another option would be to stencil the top using a doily and powdered sugar as I did for this apple butter pie.

Pumpkin Pie FAQs

More Pumpkin Baking Recipes

If you tried this pumpkin pie recipe without evaporated milk (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Pumpkin Pie Without Evaporated Milk

Learn how to make pumpkin pie without evaporated milk or canned milk, using whipping cream instead. This is one of the easiest pie recipes you can make and the crust is made in the food processor.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, British

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Chill time 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours 40 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 522kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Food processor
• Rolling pin
• Metal pie plate
• Leaf cutter

Ingredients

Food processor all-butter pie dough for double crust

• 312 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 15 mL granulated sugar
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 173 grams unsalted butter cut into cubes, very cold, plus extra to butter the pie plate
• 100 mL cold water

Egg wash

• 1 large egg(s)
• 15 mL water
• 1 pinch Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Pumpkin pie filling

• 3 large egg(s)
• 150 grams light brown sugar
• 440 mL pumpkin purée canned or homemade
• 188 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
• 10 mL vanilla extract
• 7.5 mL ground cinnamon
• 2.5 mL ground ginger
• 1.25 mL ground nutmeg
• 1.25 mL ground allspice
• 0.625 mL ground cloves
• 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Pie crust cutouts

• 30 mL cinnamon sugar more or less

Metric - US

Instructions

Easy all-butter pie dough in the food processor

• In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the cold butter and pulse to form a coarse crumble.
• Add the water and pulse it in, then let the food processor run just until the dough comes together. I use my Cuisinart Food Processor from Amazon for this recipe.
• Divide the dough in two and transfer both pieces to your work surface. Shape each piece into a disk and wrap each in plastic wrap and chill for 30 hour.
• After 30 minutes of chilling, retrieve one disk of dough. Roll the disk to a 14" circle. Transfer to buttered metal pie plate and fit it in place.
• Trim and fold under the edges, then crimp the edge using your thumb and forefingers to create a wavy edge.
• Place the pie shell in the fridge for 30 minutes until the pie shell is cold and hard.
• Preheat the oven to 425 °F (220 °C). Move the oven rack to the lower ⅓ of the oven.
• Retrieve the pie shell from the fridge. Line with a big square of parchment and fill the pie with dry beans or pie weights, enough to fill the pie shell up to the top of the crimped edges.
• Par-bake the pie crust for 20 minutes.
• Remove the pie shell from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Carefully lift off the parchment with the pie weights. Set aside. Put the pie shell back in the oven and continue to bake for another 3–5 minutes until the bottom looks dry and set.
• Take the par-baked pie shell out of the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 375 °F (190 °C).

Egg wash

• Whisk together the egg, water, and a pinch of salt while the pie shell is baking.
• As soon as the par-baked pie crust comes out of the oven, brush the bottom and sides with egg wash but do not brush the edges! Let the pie shell cool completely while you make the filling. Save the leftover egg wash for the pie crust cutouts.

Pumpkin pie filling

• In a large bowl (preferably one with a pouring spout like this), whisk together the filling ingredients until thick, creamy, and homogenous.
• Once the par-baked pie shell has cooled, pour the filling in it.
• Bake the pumpkin pie until the edges are set but the centre still jiggles a little. This takes about 35–40 minutes.
• Take the pie out of the oven and place on a cooling wrack. Let the pie cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for several hours or overnight so that the pie sets properly before serving. 
• Decorate with pie cutouts before serving with whipped cream.

Pie crust cutouts

• Preheat the oven to 425 ºF (220 °C).
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the second disk of dough out until it's ¼–⅛" thick.
• Cut out leaf shapes (or whatever shape you want). Place them on parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving a little space between them for air circulation.
• Brush the cutouts with a thin layer of the leftover egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
• Bake the cutouts until evenly golden brown and baked through, about 15–20 minutes.
• Let the cutouts (and the pie) cool completely before decorating. You can store the leftover crust cutouts in an airtight container and eat them like cookies.

Notes

• If you are short on time, use a store-bought pie crust. I prefer to use frozen pie crust from my local bakery, made with butter.
• Use canned pumpkin purée, not canned pumpkin pie filling. If using homemade pumpkin purée (or even squash purée), make sure to strain it before measuring and using it to remove the excess water.
• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Par-bake the crust before filling to ensure that it will bake properly to a golden-brown crispy crust.
• Bake the filled pie until the filling is set around the edges but still jiggles slightly in the middle.
• I like to use the harvest cookie cutter set for creating decorative pie crust cookies to top fall pies and you can buy the set on Amazon.

Nutrition

Calories: 522kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 140mg | Sodium: 317mg | Potassium: 239mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 9539IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 78mg | Iron: 3mg

The post Pumpkin Pie Without Evaporated Milk appeared first on The Bake School.