There’s a good chance that you look forward to enjoying pumpkin pie during the holiday season, especially since it has become a traditional holiday dessert for many families.
You might be making your own this year. Perhaps you’re a young adult who is just getting used to baking.
Or you might be someone older who is finally trying to learn how to make homemade pumpkin pie. Baking it isn’t that difficult, but sometimes people encounter problems.
For example, there are times when people have issues with pumpkin pie turning out undercooked. What causes this to happen?
Read on to learn everything you need to know about this common problem. This should help you to enjoy better results and bake pumpkin pies that you can be proud of.
How Can You Tell If Your Pumpkin Pie Is Undercooked?
The easiest way to tell if your pumpkin pie is undercooked is to stick a knife in the middle of the pie. Typically, you’ll do this while baking the pie to see if it’s ready to come out of the oven.
Stick a knife or a toothpick directly into the center of the pie. When you pull the object out it shouldn’t have much on it.
The knife or toothpick will come out clean if the pumpkin pie is done. It might be okay for there to be just a little bit of pumpkin on the knife, but it should come out mostly clean.
When the knife or toothpick doesn’t come out clean, it indicates that your pie isn’t done cooking. You need to allow it to bake for several more minutes.
Try baking the pie for another five minutes and then check it again using the same method. This is a reliable way to ensure that your pie is baked properly.
What Causes Pumpkin Pie to Be Undercooked?
There are a few things that could be causing your pumpkin pie to turn out wrong. If your pie is undercooked it might be that you simply didn’t bake it long enough.
Above, you learned about the method for testing the pie to see if it’s finished baking or not. You need to stick a knife or a toothpick into the center of the pie to see if it comes out clean.
Failure to do this can lead to you undercooking the pumpkin pie. Aside from this problem, it could be that you’re baking the pie at the wrong temperature setting.
Are you following the pumpkin pie recipe that you chose to follow properly? Perhaps you set the oven to a lower temperature setting and that led to your pie being undercooked.
You should also consider whether there is an issue with your oven. If your oven is having problems it might not bake the pie correctly.
So it’s possible that your oven might need to be fixed. Of course, the most likely reason why your pie is coming out undercooked has to do with human error.
How to Fix Undercooked Pumpkin Pie
The most logical way to fix undercooked pumpkin pie is to bake it for a little while longer. If your pie comes out a bit undercooked even after baking it for the suggested amount of time, you can try to bake it for a little while longer.
Bake the pie in five- to ten-minute intervals. Check it regularly at these intervals using the toothpick method mentioned earlier.
When the pie is done the toothpick should come out clean. So long as you’re checking the pie often enough, it should be possible to fix things.
Note that runniness can be a sign of overcooking the pie, too. So you don’t want to bake the pie for way too long.
This means that checking the pie often enough is of paramount importance. Do your best and you should be able to fix things without it being a big deal.
Can You Eat Undercooked Pumpkin Pie?
What if you already took the pie out of the oven and the oven was turned off? If it has been an hour or so and you now know your pie is undercooked, you might be worried that you’ll have to throw it out.
Can you eat undercooked pumpkin pie? Or is this not going to be a good idea?
Generally, it’s not wise to eat undercooked pumpkin pie. This is because pumpkin pie contains ingredients such as eggs.
You’re not supposed to eat eggs raw. Granted, the pie was likely cooked for some time, and this means that it might be fine to eat the pie if it’s just a bit undercooked.
Can Undercooked Pumpkin Pie Make You Sick?
Undercooked pumpkin pie might make you sick. It depends on how undercooked it is.
If the pie is simply a little runny and not as hard as you want it to be, everything might be okay. It might not be as pleasant to eat the pie like this, but it probably won’t make you sick.
Pumpkin pie that is very undercooked will be unsafe to eat. This is because it’s not safe to eat raw eggs.
To be safe, it’s best to avoid eating undercooked pumpkin pie. You don’t want to get sick, and you certainly don’t want to get your friends or family members sick.
It’d likely be best to get more ingredients and try baking your pie again. Throw out the undercooked pumpkin pie to be safe.
Allow Your Pumpkin Pie to Cool
Be sure to allow your pumpkin pie to cool before serving it. Pumpkin pie needs time to cool and set up before you cut into it.
When you take the pie out of the oven, you’ll want to place it on a cooling rack or a safe counter where it can cool for a while. Let the pumpkin pie cool on the counter or cooling rack at room temperature for two hours.
After this amount of time has passed, you’re supposed to loosely wrap the pie in plastic and put it in the fridge. Let the pie cool for another couple of hours before serving it.
It should be perfectly ready to eat at this point. If pumpkin pie is your dessert for a big holiday party, it’s best to remember the cooling time.
You don’t want to start baking the pie too late in the day since it takes several hours for the pie to cool. Remember this and it’ll be easy to get good results.
How to Store Pumpkin Pie
Storing pumpkin pie the right way is important as well. You can’t just leave it out on the kitchen counter.
It’s best to let it sit on the counter or a cooling rack for two hours. After two hours have passed, the pie needs to be loosely wrapped and placed in the fridge.
Keeping the pie on the counter for too long will expose it to bacteria. It won’t be safe to eat if you don’t store it properly.
Pumpkin pie is meant to be stored in the fridge. You can store it in the fridge by wrapping it in plastic.
It should last for up to four days when storing it in this fashion. Do things right and it’ll be easy to eat all of your leftovers without having to throw anything out.
General Baking Tips
When baking pumpkin pie, it’s easiest when you find a recipe to follow. This is good when you don’t have a lot of experience with baking pies.
You should try to avoid distractions while baking. This means putting your phone on silent and trying to focus on the task at hand.
Do your best to measure the ingredients properly and avoid mistakes. Try to follow the recipe exactly and preheat your oven using the right temperature setting.
When baking your crust, it’s going to be best to go with a mealy dough pie crust. This pie crust style is perfect for pumpkin pies since it won’t get soggy on the bottom.
Make sure to blind-bake the crust to get the best results. So long as you follow this simple advice, it’ll be possible to make pumpkin pies that you can be proud of.
Final Thoughts
You have a much better understanding of why pumpkin pie turns out undercooked now. This can happen when you make certain mistakes, but sometimes it’s as simple as needing to bake the pie a little bit longer.
Exercise patience and try baking the pie for five or ten more minutes. Check the pie using a toothpick or knife to see if it comes out clean when you poke the middle of the pie.
Don’t eat undercooked pumpkin pie since it might make you sick. It’s not worth taking the risk of getting sick, and you should just go ahead and try to bake another pie if you have enough ingredients to do so.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.