Libby's® Famous Pumpkin Pie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is condensed milk or evaporated milk better for pumpkin pie? ›

As the name suggests, sweetened condensed milk makes the pie sweeter and gives it a denser, creamier texture. Evaporated milk, on the other hand, yields a lighter, airier result. Evaporated milk isn't sweetened either, which is why you can't simply swap one thickener for the other.

Combine and whisk LIBBY'S Easy Pumpkin Pie Mix, 2/3 cups CARNATION® Evaporated Milk and two eggs. Pour into an unbaked pie shell. Bake 425° F for 15 minutes, then reduce to 350° F and bake for 30-40 minutes or until until knife inserted near center comes out.

Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin

In this taste test, our Test Kitchen pros found that the biggest name in the pumpkin game does, in fact, make the best canned pumpkin on the market. Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin is a favorite among our culinary crew.

Is canned pumpkin cooked? Yes, it's already been cooked via steaming. It's safe to eat canned pumpkin straight from the can, but it's infinitely better baked into a pan of pumpkin bars.

Pies with too much evaporated milk formed blisters on top.

Though the interior of the filling had a great, creamy texture. The flavor was ever-so-slightly muted and had a hint of milkiness to it.

Don't Substitute One for the Other

Thus, using condensed milk in a recipe that requires evaporated milk will yield an overly sweet dish.

The Best Overall: Libby's 100% Pure Canned Pumpkin

The baked pie filling we made using this puree was creamy and soft, and we could actually taste the pumpkin itself along with the other spices the pie recipe called for.

They are the same product. Both canned pumpkin puree and pie filling are useful, shelf-stable ingredients that can help speed up your kitchen prep time. Just remember that puree is unsweetened, while pie filling contains sugar and spices. This will help you choose the right pumpkin product for your recipes.

No, if the pie is a baked pie. Pumpkin custard (the filling) takes a long time to bake, your pre-baked crust would be burned and not tasty. However if the pumpkin filling is more like pudding or a mousse with whipped cream and no raw eggs and after whipping the pie is refrigerated then yes, prebake the crust.

The heirloom breed of pumpkin is grown in Illinois and sold to Costco in canned form—the store goes through 1.2 million cans of said pumpkin in peak pie season.

Is Libby's 100 pure pumpkin the same as pumpkin puree? ›

Canned pumpkin (labeled as "100% pure pumpkin") is a purée of pumpkin that is sometimes mixed with other kinds of winter squash. It is unsweetened and does not contain any added spices. Canned pumpkin and pumpkin puree are the same thing, and you'll often see the terms used interchangeably in recipes and cookbooks.

Libby's, the quintessential canned pumpkin brand, uses a proprietary strain of the Dickinson pumpkin variety in their product, which is also often called a Dickinson squash. On Libby's website, it states that their product is 100 percent pumpkin.

Most shelf-stable foods are safe indefinitely. In fact, canned goods will last for years, as long as the can itself is in good condition (no rust, dents, or swelling). Packaged foods (cereal, pasta, cookies) will be safe past the 'best by' date, although they may eventually become stale or develop an off flavor.

Pumpkin pie filling shouldn't be used in place of pumpkin puree since the finished dish will be too sweet. You can always set the can aside to make a quick pumpkin pie another day.

The egg proteins in pumpkin pie filling form a loose net that traps moisture. As the egg proteins are heated, they begin to contract. Cook them hot enough, and they'll contract so much that they separate from each other into curds, giving your pie filling that grainy, wet texture.

Use: Sweetened condensed milk is used in drinks, baked goods, and sweets. Evaporated milk can also be used in baked goods where you want the richness but not added sweetness, or in savory recipes as a milk substitute.

I think if you added regular milk to pumpkin, you would not achieve the desired texture. My guess it that it wouldn't 'set' properly, giving it the firm texture you'd expect. Evaporated milk will be much thicker than regular milk, providing that rich, creamy texture without the unwanted water.

Evaporated milk and condensed milk are both shelf-stable canned milks that are easily found at most grocery stores. The main difference is that condensed milk is very sweet, and evaporated milk is unsweetened.

Although it may be tempting, because of the added sugar, you should generally avoid substituting sweetened condensed milk in any recipe that calls for evaporated. If you don't have evaporated milk available, it's possible to substitute a cup of light cream, or you can make your own.