How Many Pumpkins Do You Need For A Pie?

Pumpkin pie season has rolled around again, whether the pumpkin pie spices are on your dinner table or in your latte, it's time to snuggle up and think of pumpkins. Store-bought pumpkin pies are rarely going to scratch that itch in just the right way. But there are plenty of great, easy pumpkin pie recipes out there for you to make at home. A lot of those will call for canned pumpkin purée, usually one can, which is about 15 ounces. That's all well and good, but what if you want to go the extra mile and make your own pumpkin pie purée and really get into the spirit of it?

Pumpkins come in different shapes and sizes, and while they're all beautiful that can make it difficult to know how to sub out the canned goods and replace it with real, fresh pumpkin. That 15 ounce can of pumpkin is going to be roughly 2 cups worth of purée. Each pumpkin will be a little different and have its own ratio of seeds to flesh, but if you're looking to roast enough pumpkin for 2 cups of purée, you want a pie pumpkin that is about 3 pounds or more. While it might be tempting to grab the biggest pumpkin you can find, be careful with that. Larger pumpkins often aren't pie pumpkins (the sweeter, most flavorful option), and while there will be more flesh, they might be more woody and the seed to flesh ratio will be further towards the seeds side.

Using fresh pumpkin in your pumpkin pie is undeniably more work than just using a can of 100% pumpkin purée. You have to go to the store and find one (which can be hard as the season wears on). You have to cut your way into it and scoop out the seeds. And then you have to roast it, scoop out the flesh, and purée it. And at the end of it, you won't have that exact 15 ounce amount that your recipe calls for. So, is all of this worth it for your pumpkin pie?

Yes! Nine times out of 10, a pumpkin pie filled with homemade purée is going to be notably better than one made from the can. Surprisingly, the big reason for this is that the can of pumpkin might not actually contain all that much pumpkin, even if it says "100% pumpkin" and only lists a single ingredient. The USDA is fairly relaxed about what can be considered "pumpkin" when listing it for sale. A lot of canned pumpkin also contains other similar vegetables, such as butternut squash. While that's not necessarily bad, it won't give you that pure pumpkin flavor you're after in your pie. Also, if you roast your own pumpkin, you can season and roast the seeds for a delicious snack.

If you're puréeing up your own pumpkin from scratch, the chances that you have exactly 15 ounces at the end of it are next to zero. But that's a feature, not a bug. There are plenty of other uses for pumpkin purée. If you're roasting up a pumpkin, it's often just as easy to roast two as it is to do one, so make a spare and get that extra purée. You can then portion the pumpkin into freezer bags in 1 or 2 cup increments and freeze it.

While there might be some negative effects from the freezing, pumpkin freezes fairly well and when you next want to make something pumpkin-based, you will know that the contents are 100% pumpkin for certain. Besides just making more pumpkin pies, you can use a cup of pumpkin purée to make pumpkin pancakes, or experiment with a world of other delicious pumpkin baked goods like pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, or even pumpkin cornbread.