Name: Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar Meringue
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 80 min
Total time: 125 min
Yield: 6-8 Servings
Ingredients: For the Crust; 1 pie crust, at least 9-inch, Mary's favorite Crust (below), a pastry-lined pie, or 10-inch tart shell; 2 cups canned pumpkin, preferably Festal brand; 2 large eggs; ⅓ cup sugar; ¼ cup packed brown sugar; 1 cup heavy whipping cream; ½ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; ¾ cup (6 large) egg whites, room temperature; 1½ cups packed brown sugar; ⅓ cup water; ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Sweets

Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar Meringue

Author: Mary DiSomma

You can’t go wrong with this spectacular holiday pie. Not only do you have a creamy, spiced pumpkin base, but you also have TONS of fluffy brown sugar meringue mounded mile-high on top! For the pumpkin layer, I like to use Festal brand canned pumpkin. This golden pumpkin purée is made just for pumpkin pie and is specific to the Midwest. Seneca Foods purchased the brand in 2003, making it a bit difficult to find, but if you can locate a can or two, snatch it up. Otherwise just use your favorite brand of puréed pumpkin. For the top, there’s only one way to go: my Italian meringue with brown sugar!

Classic Pie Crust

Whatever you like to bake, it’s always handy to have an easy and delicious pie crust recipe in your back pocket. This one is easy to make, versatile for sweet and savory dishes, and easy to store.

Yield: 2 Pie Crusts
Prep Time: 1 hour 1 hr
Cook Time: 0 minutes0 min
Total Time: 1 hour 1 hr

Ingredients

For the Crust

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (for sweet pies only)
12 tablespoons (6 ounces) unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
6 to 8 tablespoons (about ½ cup) ice water

For the Blind Bake

9 inch pie pan
Parchment paper
Ceramic pie weights, raw dried beans (pinto or kidney), or raw rice

Instructions

For the Crust

Place the flour and salt into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. If you’re making a sweet pie, add the sugar now. Pulse a few times to combine. With the food processor on, add the butter through the feed tube, a few pieces at a time. Once the butter is incorporated, add the shortening, a little at a time. Pulse 8 to 10 times until the mixture forms pea-sized pieces.
With the food processor running, slowly add ice water through the feed tube, pulsing, until the dough begins to form a ball. Be careful not to get any actual ice into the mixture.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and divide it in half. Form two balls, then slightly flatten each ball with the palm of your hand. This will make rolling out the dough easier once it is chilled. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This dough can be refrigerated overnight.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out as needed for the pie you are preparing.

For Blind Baking

To blind bake a crust, chill your pastry-lined pie pan in the refrigerator to freezer for 30 minutes. Raw pastry that is cold will be less likely to shrink when it hits the heat of the oven.
preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Remove the pan from the freezer or refrigerator. Line the chilled pie crust with parchment paper. Evenly place ceramic pie weights, raw dried beans like pinto or kidney or raw rice in on the parchment paper. If you don’t have any of these items, you can even use sugar! Just make sure if you use dried beans or rice, you don’t use them for any other purpose. Just let them cool at room temperature and place them in a zip-lock bag to be used in a future blind bake. You can use them over and over!
For a fully blind baked pie shell, bake until the edges of the crust start to brown, about 15-16 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully lift the parchment paper (with the weights) out of the pie pan. Using a fork, make 6 light pricks in the bottom of the crust, being careful not to go all the way thru. Return pie crust to the oven and bake for 8 minutes or until the bottom of the crust is light brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack for 15 minutes before filling.

Ingredient Tips

This type of meringue is a bit more time-consuming to make and requires some tools like a candy thermometer, but it is well worth the effort. The egg whites actually get “cooked” by adding the hot sugar syrup to the whipped egg whites, making the meringue safe to consume without hours of baking like a French meringue. Plus it is a more stable meringue, so it can be mounded and toasted several hours prior to the arrival of that Thanksgiving crowd.

Preparation + Preservation Tips

You’ll need to chill the crust for 15 minutes before baking it. The key to a flaky crust is keeping the dough nice and cold. Chilling the dough stops the butter from melting too fast once it’s in the oven. The end result is a buttery and flavorful melt-in-your-mouth crust.

For this recipe, you’ll also be blind baking (AKA parbaking) the crust. That means the crust gets a little baking time before you add the filling. The reason we do this is so the crust cooks all the way through, including on the bottom. If you’ve made pies before and noticed that the middle of the crust comes out under-done sometimes, parbaking prevents that.