Ugly-Beautiful Miso Pumpkin Pie by Kat Lieu

My mother rarely baked. We never made cupcakes together, or cookies, but she did love baking two things: a simple NY-style cheesecake and a chiffon cake with a recipe my MaMa (paternal grandma) had passed down. My mom never made her own pie dough from scratch. She always used the store-bought version, and that was OK. Everyone loved her cheesecake with the store-bought pie crust. Today, I’m not ashamed to use a ready-made pie crust when I make my pumpkin pies. The holidays can be super stressful, especially during a never-ending pandemic. Why worry about the little things? Everyone will still love this pumpkin pie (unless they hate pumpkins and think pumpkin spice is anything but nice!). Stress less, and make an ugly-beautiful pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving. Change up the spices to call it your own, and impress all the kiddos and adults who are still kiddos with a gooey layer of burnt marshmallows. Dollop on whipped cream and serve chilled or warmed in the oven, with a nice cup of tea.

Happy holidays, fam and happy baking, and don’t sweat the little things. I even had a good laugh when someone mentioned my pumpkin pie looked like a petri dish! LOL.

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Ugly Beautiful Miso Pumpkin Pie by Kat Lieu

Yield

One 9-inch pumpkin pie

Author

Kat Lieu

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

45 Min

Total time

1 Hour

Here’s an easy pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. Yea the crust is slightly burnt and store-bought, and the marshmallow blisters look like clusters of amoeba, but guess what, I'm happy with it, and so thankful to be alive during a freaking pandemic, and have food on my table, and I am frankly a little tired of perfect-looking food on social media. It’s a little wasteful, no, to redo dishes over and over again just for that Instagram perfect shot. One time, someone said they made a cheesecake 7 times until it was perfect, that’s a few dozen eggs and lots of bars of cheesecake, liters of milk or cream, a pound of sugar, and y’all know there are still plenty of hungry people in the world.This ugly-beautiful delicious pumpkin pie recipe, subtly umamiful thanks to the addition of miso, and aromatic with a beautiful blend of spices. Make it your own by changing out the spice blend, like adding some fennel, ginger, or even pepper!Make this pie early, freeze it, and the night before Thanksgiving, thaw it. Toss on a few more mini marshmallows and burn them with a blow torch, serve with some whipped cream, and have a stress-free, carefree thanksgiving.Life’s too short, so don’t worry about things like Instagram and TikTok algorithms, post engagement, reactions, following, and views, and enjoy real life and the people around you. Enjoy, have fun, don’t worry take things too seriously, especially it’s something on social media. Have a slice of ugly-beautiful pumpkin pie.

Ingredients US Metric

For the pie crust

• 1 ready-to-use pie crust
• An egg for egg wash (optional, but if you do use an egg for egg wash, you can use the remaining egg as one of the eggs for the pumpkin filling)

For the pumpkin pie filling

• 1 can organic canned pumpkin
• 1/2 can sweeten condensed milk, adjust to taste, depending on how sweet you like your pumpkin pies
• 1 cup milk of choice (I used oat milk)
• 1 teaspoon miso (red or white)
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, adjust to taste
• 1 teaspoon cardamom, adjust to taste1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, adjust to taste
• 3 large eggs (about 150 g)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• A handful of small marshmallows (optional)

Instructions

To make the pumpkin pie

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) with a rack in the center. It's up to you if you want to beat one egg and use it to wash over the pre-made pie crust (skip the lip/upper rim of the pie crust, overwise it will get burnt a bit.) Bake the pie crust for 5 minutes and set aside.
2. Keep the oven running. (I recommend you make 2 or 3 of these pies at a time, if you need more pies, since later you will bake this pie for about 45 minutes. Just double or triple the ingredients.)
3. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the canned pumpkin, condensed milk, milk of choice, miso, and spices. I recommend you always cook your canned pumpkin as the heat will help get rid of the subtle tinny can taste. Occasionally stir the mixture and remove from heat once bubbles form around the edges. Cool for a few minutes before mixing in the eggs, one by one, and the vanilla extract, until combined and homogenous.
4. Transfer the pumpkin pie filling to the pie crust. I like to fill it up. This pie will not rise much while baking. Add some marshmallows if you'd like. They'll bake nicely in the oven and add a pop of sweetness. Bake the pie for about 45 minutes until the center is wobbly but set and the pie crust edges have darkened slightly.
5. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter for about 15 minutes before refrigerating for at least 4 hours.
6. Slice the pie and enjoy with whipped cream or a layer of toasted marshmallows (add a layer of mini marshmallows and burn them with a blow torch).

Notes:

To make simple pie dough, use 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat (butter), and 1 part water. I highly recommend you check out Michael Ruhlman's book, Ratio. You'll learn how to make anything like pie dough, tart crusts, cookies, and cakes using simple ratios and techniques. Alternatively, you can pulse graham crackers in a food processor, mix it with melted butter, and make a pie crust that way. But to keep things this simplest during a high-stress holiday, no one will fault you for using a pre-made pie crust. In fact, my mother made simple cheesecake for decades using pre-made pie crust, and everyone loved her cheesecakes!

Recommended Products:

Modern Asian Baking at Home Cookbook

Ratio by Michael Ruhlman

Ceramic Pie Weights

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super easy pumpkin pie

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About the Baker

Kat Lieu is the founder of Subtle Asian Baking and this website modernasianbaking.com, and she is the author of Modern Asian Baking at Home. Currently, Kat is a full-time author and recipe developer. Follow her on instagram and check out her blog Phil and Mama.

I wrote a cookbook, Modern Asian Baking at Home, preorder it today!

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