Pumpkin Feta Tart - Vegetarian Homemade Pie Recipe EASY Step by Step (2024)

FAQs

What is the best pumpkin to use for pumpkin pie? ›

For cooking, you'll want to use sugar pumpkins (also called pie or sweet pumpkins), which are small and round. Long Island Cheese pumpkins, which are more oblong and can look like a wheel of cheese, are also good to eat. Field pumpkin types are larger, have watery, stringy flesh, and are best for decorating.

Cheesecake is not a cake or a pie; it is actually a custard tart. Pumpkin pie is also actually a tart, which much like with cheesecake simply means an 'open-faced' pie (lacking the top crust), although some people do consider tarts to be a type of pies.

While pies look covered from all sides, tarts are open from the top and you can easily see the filling on top. Another difference lies in the base. While pies have a thin and smooth crust, tarts have a rather thick and crumbly crust which crumbles down when pieces are cut from the tart.

To make pumpkin pie straight from a pumpkin, start by cutting a round cap out of the top of the pumpkin and then scooping out the stringy insides and seeds. Then, cut the remaining pumpkin shell into small cubes or slices and boil them over medium heat until they're soft.

Pick a winner at the pumpkin patch

Make sure it has no cracks, splits or soft spots that are a sign of rot. Gently press a fingernail into the rind. If you can easily push through the surface, the pumpkin was probably picked too early and will rot. A mature pumpkin will not easily scratch.

Pie made in a metal pan

Of the three pies, the metal pan had the most even browning across the entire bottom crust. From the outer edge to the very center, the crust was golden brown and thoroughly baked. If I had my choice of pans, I'd go with an aluminum one like this.

While not traditional or really necessary due to the time pumpkin custard takes to cook, you can avoid a 'soggy' bottomed pumpkin pie, by laying down some parchment paper in the shell, fill it with pie weights or old beans, wrapping the edges with foil then par baking the crust for 10-15 minutes at 425ºF.

A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard.

While pie crusts are very flaky and light, tart crusts or pastry crusts, tend to be firm and crumbly and not at all flaky. A standard tart crust contains flour, sugar, salt, and a beaten egg, all incorporated together in a food processor and then chilled before use.

Store-bought pumpkin pie mix (sometimes labeled "pumpkin pie filling") is a shortcut for making homemade pumpkin pie. It contains puréed pumpkin plus added spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. It also contains sugar and other chemical additives.

What are most pumpkin pies made of? ›

Overview. Cooked and puréed pumpkin flesh is mixed with eggs, evaporated milk, sugar, and spices. The pie is then baked in a pie shell and sometimes topped with whipped cream.

Start with the right variety of pumpkins, sugar pumpkins. Large pumpkins that we traditionally think of as jack-o-lanterns aren't ideal for pie as they are very stringy and have a lot of seeds. There really isn't very much “meat” to the larger pumpkins. Sugar pumpkins, also known as pie pumpkins, are sweeter.

You should ask for a pie pumpkin or a sugar pumpkin. Pie pumpkins tend to have a thicker skin and more flesh on the inside than a carving pumpkin. The flesh is less stringy and the color is generally darker but not always.

Dickinson pumpkins are not the orange jack-o'-lantern canvas you're picturing; rather, they're beige with smooth sides. 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.

Pie pumpkins, also called sugar pumpkins, usually weigh 1 to 6 pounds. Their flesh is denser and sweeter that the bigger ones, which are called carving or jack-o'-lantern pumpkins. The biggies have a moister, softer interior with a bigger seed cavity, and the flesh tends to be stringier.

Ingredients - Pumpkin puree made from scratch contains only pumpkin, but canned puree may contain a preservative like salt. Pumpkin pie filling contains additional ingredients like sugar, spices, and thickeners. Flavor - Pure pumpkin puree has a slightly sweet, earthy taste.