For the life of me, I cannot imagine Halloween, Thanksgiving or just fall and harvest season in general without a good old-fashioned pumpkin pie. It doesn’t really matter what I make it with, from canned pumpkin pie filling and store bought pie crust or with fresh butternut pumpkins and crust made from scratch.

Pumpkin pie is an absolute must for me during the fall. With its delicious mix of spices and being not overly sweet, with a properly set filling and perfect crust, it’s definitely on my top five list of desserts, closer to the top.

Over the years I’ve accumulated quite a lot of tips on how to make pumpkin pies a blast. I’d love to share these tips with you.

Let’s talk about the crust first. There are plenty of good crust recipes out there and you can always use one from the grocery store. When I make pumpkin pie from scratch, I use mostly butter with a bit of shortening as the fatty base.

As for the filling, I like beating egg whites and yolks separately, then folding the whites into the filling as the last ingredient. Another thing that works is adding more yolks than whites and mixing a little flower into the filling. This way it will hold and you won’t have a pie with a crack through the center. Other than that, follow these instructions for a grand pumpkin pie and good luck!