Another Less-Egg Baking Success: This time a 1-egg pumpkin custard pie

Last week it was a reduced egg loaf of banana bread. This week I wanted to try using half the eggs in a pumpkin pie. 

This is a hybrid cornstarch pudding-baked egg custard pie. My thought was if I could combine a pumpkin pudding with some egg the pie might just work out with a single egg. I modified the recipe on the label for Libby's canned pumpkin. There's less milk, slightly more pumpkin, and less sugar, plus the tablespoon of cornstarch. 

The process to making the filling is two-step, cooking a milk and cornstarch pudding on the stove then combining with the rest of the filling ingredients.

just before baking

What I used:

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/4 cups milk or half and half (I used soy milk)
2 cups pumpkin puree (I used home-cooked and pureed pumpkin)

1 large egg
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked

In a medium saucepan, whisk together cornstarch and milk. Cook over Low-Med, stirring constantly, until thickened and has bubbled for 1 full minute (about 4-6 minutes total cook time). Remove from heat. Quickly mix in the pumpkin puree before the milk or cream mixture cools. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg, then mix in sugar, spices, and salt. With an electric mixer, combine the egg/sugar/spices with the pumpkin/milk/cornstarch puree. 

Pour into an unbaked pie shell.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425 (if a metal pie plate, 400 if glass). Reduce oven to 350 (if metal, 325 if glass). Bake an additional 35 minutes or so, or until crust edges are golden and center of pie looks set.

just out of the oven

As you can see, the top of the pie has those traditional cracks in the surface that an egg custard pumpkin pie customarily has when first removing from the oven.

Cool on the counter for 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill for 2 hours to finalize the set.

The cornstarch helps thicken and firm up the filling, so slices can have a more clean cut (like lemon meringue pie). When I've tried adding either flour or cornstarch directly to the uncooked filling, it has settled to the bottom of the pie, creating a thickened layer at the bottom. This new way with cooking the milk and cornstarch until thickened stabilized the cornstarch in the custard filling.

Here's a photo of a slice of pie after chilling 1 hour (I was impatient). The pie sliced nicely and came out of the pie plate intact. It's texture is soft and pudding to custard-like.

I think this is a success. The pie looks good and tastes delicious. The texture of the filling is great. And with eggs about 50 cents each right now, this is a money-saver to use one less egg.

Have you tried baking with fewer eggs than recipes call for? What has worked and what has not worked? Next, I will be trying to use half the eggs in a batch of brownies. I'm not sure how those will turn out. 

"Use It Up" Tip

This is how those plastic squeeze bottles of mustard work out for us. The first 98% of the mustard squirts out perfectly. With the last little bit, we slap the bottom of the upside down bottle while simultaneously squeezing. The result is a spray of mustard all over the plate as well as the sandwich, hot dog or burger. But I can't just throw the bottle out while containing a small amount of product still. So that almost empty bottle goes to the back of the fridge, and we get a new bottle out to use.

To salvage that last 1% or 2% of mustard, I pour in about 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice, put the lid on and shake it vigorously. I then take the lid back off and turn it upside down over a small dish or tiny canning jar. 

Why vinegar or lemon juice and not water? The primary flavor I taste in mustard is vinegar. (Vinegar is even the first ingredient on the label.) If I added water, I would be diluting that tangy taste and acidity. I use this salvaged mustard in homemade salad dressings, sandwich spreads, and marinades. So the vinegar or lemon juice is actually a plus in flavor and ability to break down meat fibers if used as a marinade.

Prepared mustard doesn't contain added emulsifiers, hence the need to shake the bottle before each use. Otherwise, the solids in mustard settle and leave a thin liquid at the top. In draining the salvaged mustard, this is much more obvious. The solids or thicker part sits in a mound surrounded by mustard-colored vinegar.

When I make a salad dressing or marinade with this, I try to pour off the liquid to use as the vinegar part of a mixture. I then use the thicker part in a mustard-mayo sandwich spread blend.

After draining the bottle for about an hour, I have about 2 tablespoons of useable product. I figure I've gotten near all of it out, and at that point I rinse the bottle with water to clean and recycle. And now, I've gotten rid of one more space-hogging item from our refrigerator.