Anyone had this happen before?!

[SodiumPentathol]

So, I had a pumpkin sitting on my counter that my aunt had given me. And decided that it needed using. I made some pumpkin spice cupcakes. and used the rest of the puree I got from this pumpkin to make a pie.

Well, I intended to make a pie, but had enough filling for two. I had only preheated one pie shell, so I just poured the filling for the second pie into a cold shell. And cooked them both. The preheated pie was done right when it was supposed to be, no problems. But. A good 45 minutes later the un preheated one hadn't even BEGUN to set properly. Remember, this was one batch split into two. The only difference being that one pie shell wasn't preheated, I couldn't believe that that would make SUCH a huge difference!

 

[Claire]

this is the reason I don't bake! I'm not a mathmetition (see, can't even spell it, and I'm good at that!), but getting things to "set" is a mystery to me. I buy pies or delegate making them to friends for holidays, and they usually buy them! I've even had store-bought frozen pumpkin pies not set! So I'm curious to find the experts answering this one!

 

[jabbur]

While I am not Alton Brown (I LOVE his good eats show) My guess is that the extra moisture in the unbaked crust kept the filling from setting. Perhaps as the unbaked crust heated up, it ended up steaming the filling from the bottom which changed the structure of the filling as it baked and thus it never got the chance to "solidify." Not sure if this is the correct answer. Just my best guess.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Is the pie done yet, or are you still baking it?

 

[jabbur]

Question - does your recipe bake times and temps account for a prebaked crust? My recipe uses an uncooked pie crust but the temp starts out high for like 15 mins then lowers for 45 mins. I assume the initial high temp is to set up the crust well which then aids the custard filling to bake properly. I know some recipes call for a prebaked crust and then the baking times are shorter and at a slightly lower temp. I'll be interested to see what other suggestions are out there.

 

[SodiumPentathol]

It actually called for an unbaked crust. But I've always prebaked pumpkin pie shells... So I just do it without thinking. It took a good extra hour but the second pie did eventually set.

I normally don't have a problem with pumpkin pie setting! Which is why I was so surprised it happened this time.