Hi friends,

I'm just taking today away from my blog, as it's a holiday in the US. I'll be back tomorrow (Tuesday). Enjoy the rest of your evening!

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.