Thickening Pumpkin Pie Filling

Everyone enjoys a tasty pie. This should go without saying. After all, there are several types of pies that individuals all throughout the nation, and perhaps the globe, like preparing.

There are also pies for almost every occasion. Some folks prefer a birthday pie over a conventional birthday cake. There are festive pies and then there are pies that are just a wonderful prepared dinner at the end of the day.

In the United States, pumpkin pie is one of the most popular forms of a holiday pie. This pie is often served throughout the Thanksgiving holiday season and, on occasion, during the Christmas holiday season as well.

Traditionally cooked using pumpkin, these pies may also be produced with other winter squash varieties that create a similar taste.

Even when utilizing store-bought pumpkin pie filling, a variety of complications might arise while making these pies. One of the most frequent issues that individuals have with their pies is that the filling isn’t thick enough to appreciate the flavor.

When dealing with store-bought filling, it might be difficult to think of ways to improve it.

Fortunately, there are several methods for thickening a pie’s filling. In fact, since pies are such a popular dish all over the globe, there are several methods for thickening pie filling.

The key thing you’ll need to find out is which pie thickening will work best with pumpkin pie in particular.

Nevertheless, before you can decide which pie thickening would work best with your pumpkin pie, you need first grasp what pie thickeners are, what function they serve, and what the differences between the different kinds of thickeners are.

What Are Pie Thickeners, and How Do They Work?

Pie thickeners are a group of substances that are widely used to assist repair watery pie fillings or pie fillings that do not satisfy one’s liking for thickness.

Pie thickeners are often classified as flours and starches. Flour, cornstarch, and arrowroot are the most often used thickeners.

It is vital to remember that, although all of these thickeners have the same effect of thickening a pie filling, they do so in various ways. This implies that you’ll need to use various thickeners based on the filling of your pie if you want the greatest results.

Starches, for example, operate in a different way than flour. As starch is baked in the oven with the other pie components, it starts to expand and absorb some water molecules.

Starch molecules have a strong structure and are difficult to break below a particular temperature; however, once that temperature is reached, the starchs structure begins to split, forming a net of bound starch and water.

This net will then prevent those water molecules from moving. When water molecules are unable to travel as freely as they would want, they move significantly slower.

This slow-moving combination will have a considerably thicker look and flavor, and the sauce will also begin to clarify somewhat as it transforms from a mixture of starch and pie filling into a meshwork held together by the trapped water molecules in the starch.

Flours, like other types of starch, help to thicken pie fillings in a similar way. Nevertheless, since they all have distinct qualities (as they are derived from different components), particular starches and flours will be more or less efficient at thickening specific pie filling material than others.

The next stage will be to choose which thickener to use and how much of it to use.

What to Do with Pumpkin Pie?

Pumpkin pies are distinct from regular fruit pies. After all, unlike most fruit pies, pumpkin puree does not grow clearer when thickened. As a result, the procedure for thickening the pie will be somewhat different.

In general, you’ll want to incorporate some cornstarch in your recipe. Cornstarch has the right characteristics to thicken the pie and give it a hard texture so it doesn’t break apart when sliced.

Cornstarch also works well with the thick and heavy pumpkin puree seen in most pumpkin pies. .

Yet, there are other things you can do to thicken pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is a particularly distinctive pie in the sense that it does not resemble regular pies seen elsewhere.

With this in mind, it also offers some unique ways for making it firmer and less liquid.

Fixing Your Pumpkin Pie

One of the most typical modifications to pumpkin pies is the addition of eggs. Pumpkin pie filling, whether canned or fresh, is far more like a custard than any other pie filling.

As a result, just as you would add additional eggs to properly thicken a custard, you will want to add more eggs to your pie to help it hold its form. If you don’t want to waste any egg whites, it’s the egg yolk that assists the most with the form.

It also makes a big difference whether you use fresh or canned pumpkin. Fresh pumpkins contain far more liquid than canned store-bought purees.

If you use fresh pumpkins and attempt to prepare pumpkin pie the same way you would if you were using canned puree, you will be disappointed.

You’ll need to strain a lot more with fresh pumpkins than you would normally. If your pumpkin is extremely juicy, you may even need to boil out some of the extra liquid.

Each of these things should be done before baking the pumpkin into the pie to help it maintain a harder texture, but you may still need to assist the pumpkin pie along to preserve its solid form.

Whichever technique you choose, you can be certain that your Christmas pie will be perfect by the time you take it out of the oven and serve it to your family.