Pumpkin Pie Mix: Freeze Dried and Rehydrated

pumpkin pieIt’s so easy to buy extra ingredients while you are shopping for Thanksgiving dinner and just double or triple your recipe. Freeze dry and enjoy fresh pumpkin pie in a few months, next Thanksgiving, or even 10 years from now. We asked one of our customers, Allyson S., to share her Pumpkin Pie Mix recipe that she made using her Harvest Right Freeze Dryer and she happily obliged.

“This time last year I was stocking up on canned pumpkin and evaporated milk. I made pumpkin pie filling and freeze dried it. Today I wanted pumpkin pie and just pulled out a Mylar bag from storage. I weighed it before and after and had written on the bag how many oz. of water to add to properly rehydrate. I just put 2 pies in the oven. Can’t wait to enjoy fresh made pie!”

Pumpkin Pie Mix

¾ c sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz) 100% pure pumpkin
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

Combine dry ingredients, set aside. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar and spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk until fully incorporated. Spread pumpkin pie mixture on to freeze dryer tray. Weigh and record the wet weight. Process in freeze dryer. Weigh the finished product and subtract the freeze-dried weight from the wet weight. Process freeze-dried pumpkin mixture in blender to achieve a powder.  Package pumpkin pie powder in mylar bag with 02 absorber and write the water weight needed to reconstitute the pie mixture.

To reconstitute, add the water weight to a blender, empty mylar bag into blender and process on pulse for 10-15 seconds. Pour finished product into unbaked 9 inch pie shell.

Bake in preheated 425 F oven for 15 minutes and reduce the temperature to 350. Bake 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool 1 hour and serve or store in fridge. Serves 8.

Thanks for sharing, Allyson!

Comments

When do you put the dry ingredients in? Do you add them to the pumpkin powder that you have after you put it in the blender? Or do you keep keep the dry ingredients separate until you reconstitute the pumpkin powder?

The dry ingredients are the Spice Mixture referred to in the instructions when it says, ‘ Stir in pumpkin and sugar and Spice Mixture.’

It appears to me that the dry ingredients are the “sugar and spice mixture” and should be added to the beaten eggs along with the pumpkin.

Hope that helps. Blessings.

Yes!! But do it in bite sized pieces because reconstituted might be mushy with pie crust. I would just enjoy it freezedried like little candies!!!

Hi Mary Ferreter,
Great question, I noticed the same discrepancy.
Breakdown of the recipe:
1. Combine dry ingredients, set aside.
2. Beat eggs in large bowl.
*3. Stir in pumpkin and sugar and spice mixture. *

Step 3 is where you complete the full mix, wet and dry, prior to FD processing.

It’s not particularly clear as the “dry ingredients” and the “sugar and spice mixture” are actually the same thing but called different things in the same line.

Allyson, I look forward to trying this soon. Thanks for sharing.

I freeze dry raw pumpkin from fresh pumpkin’s by pureeing the pumpkin then run it through the dryer. I now have dozens of pumpkins ready to go when I’m ready. I have always rehydrated by trial and error and will now go buy a kitchen scale to weigh the water loss, great tip.

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