Pumpkin Pie With a Vodka Crust Recipe (2025)

Since I used this crust with an apple pie I can't comment on the filling here, but I will say that the vodka crust is now my go-to crust for all baked pies; the vodka evaporates more quickly than the water leaving a flakier crust behind. My other advice would be to use good quality European butter (which has a higher fat content), meaning there's less water in the butter which, like the vodka, keeps the crust incredibly flakey.

The folks at Cook's Illustrated say that the vodka pie crust recipe is better for pies like apple or blueberry, in which the crust is not partially cooked ahead of time. They recommend a pate brisee for pumpkin and sweet potatoe pies, in which the crust is partially pre-baked.

This crust is perfect; I will never make a pumpkin pie without it.

This is, hands down, the best crust I’ve ever made. There was no pie crust recipe with the lemon meringue pie from Alice Waters (and by the way, run don’t walk over to that recipe too!). Crust flaked beautifully and was flavorful. It’s also pretty fast with the food processor technique and only 45 minutes to chill in the fridge. Next time I would double the recipe and make an extra to freeze. If there was a 6th star I’d give it!

Your pie crust dough was too warm when you placed it in oven resulting in the goop you describe. You need to refrigerate it twice at 15 minutes each time before baking it and make sure to use pie weights or pennies.

Why, oh why do recipes for blind baking say to use foil? Never use foil, chances are good the dough will stick and you’ll lose your crust. Use parchment!Learned this the hard way.

Simply the best pumpkin pie! Have been making it for years and will make no other. I use the crust for other pies, too!

Change seasonings to:1 tsp cinnamon1/2 tsp ginger1/4 tsp nutmeg or allspice1/8 tsp cloves. Adjust to taste

So close to perfect, but wish I'd tweaked flavors more. I used 1/4 C of brown sugar, cut white sugar to 1/4 C, and increased maple syrup to 1/2 C. Used an immersion blender after cooking filling, which was so much easier than straining, and created a very smooth texture. Added 1/8 tsp ground cloves, and subbed Bourbon for Vanilla. Recipe's 1 tsp of salt made it saltier than we like, and I wish I'd increased the spices so they popped more. Baked 85 mins to slight jiggle - perfect texture!

Why, oh why do recipes for blind baking say to use foil? Never use foil, chances are good the dough will stick and you’ll lose your crust. Use parchment!Learned this the hard way.

This pie and crust are amazing. The pie filling does not crack like most pumpkin pies, and the straining process makes it the smoothest, creamiest pumpkin pie you can imagine. The downside is that this pie/crust takes a long time to make, including multiple bakings of the crust, and the straining is not easy. But I believe it’s worth it!

Used for crust

Super yum!! Excellent crust but pretty time consuming. Will say while adding the vodka and cold water, I was skeptical, as the dough if one follows the amounts of fluid to be added, would yield a very wet initial crust. I used a little over half of the recommended fluid. I let it sweat for a few minutes before wrapping w plastic. But the several stages of chilling after rolling the dough with lots of additional flour, resulted in a beautiful golden crust. Avoid any more than negligible handling.

This is one of my favorite pies. I was not able to get any candied yams so I replaced it with a second can of pumpkin, and it still turned out great. I did have some issues with the amount of time it took to bake, as it took about an hour altogether. I ended up increasing the temperature to 350 and baked for an addition half hour. Would definitely make this again!

What size pie pan is this for?

Has anyone had a problem with this crust falling apart in the oven? Mine just did. It looked perfect going in, but within 5 minutes, a huge chunk of the pinched trim fell off into the bottom of the oven. Sad, so sad.

This pumpkin pie was a lot more work than what I saw my grandma do, but worth every minute. My family asked that I never lose this recipe! I used canned sweet potatos and because I 2.5x the recipe I used 2c heavy wipping cream and a half cup of evaporated milk. I wanted to make sure I had enough filling for 2 pies and 2.5x was the only mistake I made - I filled all the ramekins in my house and then some! I also used ground ginger instead of fresh because I ran out. This is a super recipe.

I tried this recipe but had neither vodka nor canned yams, so used whiskey and some fresh sweet potatoes that I candied before adding into the mix. I also used all butter instead of part shortening. When I opened my can of pumpkin I realized it was a pie filling, not just fruit. This made me really sad , but there was no going back! So I omitted the sugar.The result was still delicious, but if I make it again I’ll use fresh pumpkin and I might actually replace the yam with more pumpkin too!

This seems like more liquids (milk, yams) than usual for a pumpkin pie. I don't want my pie to overflow on the crust, burning the pastry edge. What size pie plate should be used?

This pie was absolutely delicious. I was skeptical about whether putting the filling through a strainer was worth the effort, but it made the filling velvety smooth. I followed the crust recipe to a T and it came out perfectly. My only quibble is I wasn't sure whether the pie, once filled, should still be baked on the lowest rack or moved to the middle rack. I moved it around while baking and that's probably why it took longer than the recipe states to set.

The finished crust is wonderfully crisp and tender, but I found it much harder to work with than my usual pâte sucrée recipe. I live in a very dry part of the country and needed to double the amount of liquid to make the mixture come together. The filling is rich in flavor and worth the effort.