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What Crust Is Best for Pumpkin Pie? (This Is What to Use)

What Crust Is Best for Pumpkin Pie? (This Is What to Use)

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Pumpkin pie is among the most popular desserts that people bake in the United States during the holiday season. It’s popular elsewhere as well, but it’s no secret that pumpkin pie has become associated with holiday meals for families.

If you’re making a big dinner for your family and need a dessert dish, you might be considering whether or not to make one. It can certainly be a fantastic pie to bake, but you might not know how to go about baking it.

Those who are new to baking pumpkin pie might wonder what type of crust they’re supposed to use. Are you meant to use a special type of crust or can you simply pick your favorite kind?

Below, you’ll get information about choosing the best crust. After reading the information below, you’ll feel properly informed and should have a good time baking your own pie for your family.

Can You Use Graham Cracker Crust for Pumpkin Pie?

If you like graham cracker crust, you’ll be glad to hear that you can use it for pumpkin pie. There are several pumpkin pie recipes that are designed to utilize graham cracker crusts.

There are a few options when going this route. You can make your own graham cracker crust using a recipe if you’d like to go to the effort.

It’s also possible to buy a pre-made graham cracker crust from a local grocery store. This can save you time, but you might want to go with a homemade crust if you want to give your pumpkin pie a truly homemade appeal.

Of course, some people don’t like the pairing of pumpkin pie and graham cracker crust. So it comes down to individual tastes.

Note that people often approach making pumpkin pie a bit differently when they plan to use graham cracker crusts. They use specific ingredients that will go well with that style of crust.

Try Mealy Pie Dough Crust

Mealy pie dough is widely considered to be the best pie crust style for pumpkin pie. This is the type of crust that you’ll see being used to bake pumpkin pies most often.

If you go buy a pumpkin pie from a local bakery, it will likely have a mealy dough pie crust. Some people make flaky pie dough crusts, but these crusts aren’t as well-suited for pumpkin pies.

Using a flaky dough crust will lead to issues with the crust getting soggy. Mealy dough crust does a better job when you’re baking pies with either a custard or liquid filling.

So mealy dough crusts are appropriate for pumpkin pie, apple pie, and various types of custard pies. The crust doesn’t get soggy easily due to having enough fat to avoid excess liquid issues.

Have you ever had a slice of pumpkin pie that was a bit gummy on the bottom? It’s likely that someone chose the wrong pie crust.

Making mealy dough pie crust is decidedly simple. Flour, butter, and salt can be mixed to create a mealy mixture.

Next, add cold water and eggs to the mix. This is done until the flour is moist enough.

Once everything looks good you can flatten the crust and form it into the proper shape. It’s just as easy to make this crust as it is to make any other type of pie crust that you might be familiar with.

Do I Need to Blind Bake a Pumpkin Pie Crust?

It’s best to blind-bake the pumpkin pie crust before baking the pie. This means baking the crust a bit ahead of time so that it has the time to dry out a little bit.

This is generally the recommended way to go about baking pumpkin pie. You mix your dough, form the crust, and then blind-bake it in the oven.

After this, you’ll add your pumpkin pie filling to the crust and bake it as you’d expect. Blind baking helps your pumpkin pie to turn out better.

That being said, some people don’t blind-bake the crust for pumpkin pie. You can potentially still get good results without blind baking, but it’s not recommended to do this.

It’s easier to blind-bake the crust because it makes it more likely that everything will turn out as planned. Typically, you’ll want to follow the advice of whatever recipe you’ve chosen to follow.

This allows you to get the expected results. So consider following a recipe if it’s your first time baking a pumpkin pie on your own.

Can Pumpkin Pie Have a Top Crust?

Yes, pumpkin pie can have a top crust, but this isn’t common. It’s usually not something that you’ll see people doing.

Some bakers have made pumpkin pies with top crusts, though. For example, there are recipes that tout using a lattice-top crust.

So you can give this type of pumpkin pie a shot if you want to. Pies with top crusts look very decorative and can be fun to bake for the holidays.

Why Does My Pumpkin Pie Separate From the Crust?

The pumpkin pie separates from the crust because of shrinkage that occurs during the cooling process. You can limit issues such as this by blind baking the pie crust.

Some shrinkage is normal for pumpkin pie, though. Don’t assume that you did things wrong if the filling separates from the crust a bit after the pie cools.

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