If you are looking for a special pie for the holidays, this is it — a light pumpkin pie with beaten egg whites folded into the pumpkin custard, spiked with rum, set in a gingersnap cookie crust, and covered with whipped cream.
Have you ever had a chiffon pie? They first made an appearance in the 1920s. They are called “chiffon” because of how light and airy they are. Typically they involve folding beaten egg whites or meringue into a custard base that has been stabilized with gelatin. Then the pie is chilled until firm.
This Pumpkin Chiffon Pie recipe is adapted from one my friend Heidi pulled from the Boston Globe many years ago. The original recipe called for including a half cup of rum! Needless to say, that made a pie a bit too boozy to be family friendly.
For this recipe I’m using only 2 Tbsp of rum, for flavor, which you could certainly omit if you wanted to.
The pie has a gingersnap crust and a classic pumpkin pie custard filling with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger spices, that has been lightened up with egg whites that have been whipped to stiff peaks. It’s topped with whipped cream and crushed gingersnaps.
As they say in New England, it’s wicked good!
Note that this classic chiffon recipe requires using beaten raw egg whites. Many people avoid eating raw eggs, especially those who are very young, old, or have compromised immune systems.
If eating raw eggs gives you pause, use pasteurized egg whites. You can either buy pasteurized eggs at the store, or use our guide to How to Pasteurize Eggs at Home.
More delicious Pumpkin Dessert Recipes
Chiffon Pumpkin Pie Recipe
PrintUse a food processor to finely grind the gingersnap cookies, or put in a large freezer bag and roll over several times with a rolling pin.
If you want to make pumpkin purée from scratch, instead of using a can, cut a sugar pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, lie face down on a tin-foil lined baking pan. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour.
Cool, scoop out the flesh and run through a food processor or blender to purée. Freeze whatever you don't use for future use.
You'll need a 9-inch deep dish (about 1 3/4 inch high) pie plate for this pie. A 10-inch pie dish may also work.
Ingredients
Crust:
- 2 cups finely ground gingersnap cookie crumbs (from about 10 ounces of gingersnaps)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 6 Tbsp butter, melted
Filling:
- 1 envelope gelatin
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 eggs, separated (or 3 egg yolks and enough egg white substitute for 3 egg whites)
- 2 Tbsp rum (note original recipe called for 1/2 cup of rum, but I and several others think it's a bit much)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 3/4 cups pumpkin purée (one 15-ounce can of pumpkin purée)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, softly whipped (for topping)
- Extra crushed gingersnaps (for garnish)
Method
1 Pre-bake the crust: Set the oven at 325°F. Have on hand a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan. Butter it lightly.
In a bowl, combine the crushed gingersnaps, sugar, and butter. Press the mixture into the pie plate with the back of a spoon or metal measuring cup, making the top edge even all around.
Bake the crust for 10 minutes at 325°F. Remove from oven and let cool.
2 Make the custard base: In a heavy-based saucepan, combine the gelatin, brown sugar, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, milk, and egg yolks. Stir thoroughly.
Set the pan over medium heat and cook gently, stirring constantly, until the mixture just begins to thicken, then immediately remove it from the heat.
Do not let it boil! If the mixture comes close to boiling the egg yolks will curdle. (If this happens strain the mixture through a sieve or purée in a blender.)
Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool.
3 Add pumpkin purée, rum, then refrigerate: Add the pumpkin purée and the rum. Refrigerate the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it thickens enough to form mounds.
4 Beat egg whites and fold into filling mixture: In an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and granulated sugar until the form stiff peaks. Stir a few spoonfuls of the egg whites into the pumpkin mixture, then fold in the remaining whites.
(If you are concerned about eating raw egg whites, use egg white substitute, dried egg whites, that you can find in the grocery store.)
5 Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Refrigerate for several hours. Refrigerate the pie for several hours for the gelatin to set.
6 Top with whipped cream and gingersnap crumbs: Just before serving, spoon the whipped cream onto the filling and sprinkle with crushed gingersnaps. Cut the pie into wedges to serve.
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PrintRecipe adapted from the Boston Globe, which got it originally from the granddaughter of Sarah Mazick of Newton, Mass.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
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Very good and will make again.will use 1/8 tsp of cloves.
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Most of this ingredients is what I use in mine. I’m surprised I found this recipe he almost exactly like mine. I’m going to give you a few more pinpointers so what you can do to make it better. I’m from Ohio and there we have many different varieties of pumpkins. I use on this is a long with the sugar pumpkins at least three other types of pumpkins all different types so I use around for maybe five different types at least four different types of pumpkins and mix them all together and you create a flavor that will really astonish your friends and family. Cuz he’s pumpkin has its own unique flavor so when you mix the sugar pumpkins with three different types of pumpkins on top of it you’re creating something very unique and different. I have wor baking contest by doing it this way in different areas I have entered it in. I have won three years in a row with this recipe by using different pumpkins VS 1 pumpkin. now the good news is I buy gallon baggies freezer baggies. Because I make enough mixture to where I put them in the baggies put them in the freezer and freeze them this way I can have pumpkin pie anytime throughout the year that I want all I do is make my pie shells took my mixture out of the freezer thought poured into my shell and bake it just that fast just that simple and you got pumpkin pie anytime you want throughout the year. I usually have about four or five bags in the freezer and usually carries me over to the next following year of Thanksgiving and Christmas. So why not be prepared and have it all ready to go or something different you can have that homemade pumpkin pie from scratch.
What is the equivalent of the powder gelatine to gelatine sheets in the recipe? Thank you.
How far in advance can you make the pie?
I made this for Thanksgiving dinner for a potluck. While the filling was good, it tasted more like a pudding than pie filling.
Also, since I used Nabisco gingersnaps (very hard out of the box) the crust was also very hard – sort of like ginger brittle.
I think a different brand of gingersnaps would work better.