How common baking mistakes can change the way pumpkin pie looks and tastes

This was my first ever attempt to make pumpkin pie.

I have never made — and seldom have I eaten — pumpkin pie. While I enjoy cooking at home, I also find it difficult to bake well. Merely measuring, math, or the precise nature of the activity are not for me.

After making a mess with banana bread, chocolate-chip cookies and pancakes, I was intrigued to see what would happen if this classic autumn dessert fell apart. So I made eight mistakes while making the pie. I kept track of all the results.

For consistency, I used a similar recipe I found on the back label of Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin.You can also find the recipe on the brand’s siteTo make each batch, you will need to follow the instructions. I used premade Keebler pie crusts to ensure that the filling was perfect.

My pies went wrong from adding too much evaporated cream to using pumpkin pie spice instead, rather than the four-spice combination that was called for.

Sugar can sweeten the pie but not too much.

In this batch, I used twice as much sugar as the recipe called for. While mixing the batter I noticed how liquidy and thin it was. The batter was enough to fill 12 mini pie tins.

I discovered that the crusts had developed a thin, glossy coating on the top of this particular variety when I removed them from the oven. While it was not sticky, it looked almost like an orange skin on my pie’s top. However, the middle was lighter.

Apart from the filmy layer, this pie tasted fantastic. It was quite sweet but I expected it to be less overwhelming.

The flip side is that you can leave out most of the sugar to create a wonderful flavor profile.

A pumpkin-forward taste was achieved by using only one-third the amount of sugar called for. The pie was not sweetened with much sugar, but it still had a slight sweetness.

The batter was also more viscous than the one with too much sugar, and I only managed to fill eight pie tins.

This pie’s thin, layered top was less shiny than it looked and was more wrinkled that smooth. It also had a darker color than the rest.

I ended up with a soupy pie because I forgot all about eggs.

The egg is what holds the filling together.

The batter was similar to canned pumpkin consistency and it filled eight pie tins.

My oven timer went off. When I opened the pies, the filling was still dripping from the knife I had inserted. I removed two mini pies and let them cook for five more minutes.

It was nearly impossible to cut the first two in half and take them out of their tins. It was almost like cutting through a bowl full of melted ice-cream. It was easier to separate the pies that were cooked for five more minutes, but they still had a lot of filling. Both had a thick layer on the top of bright-orange skin.

The absence of egg did not seem to have any effect on the pie’s taste. They were still delicious and perfectly balanced in terms of spices. It just gave the pie a more soupy texture, which was closer to pumpkin pie soup.

Overextracted milk can cause blisters on the top of pies.

For this batch, I used half of the can of evaporated dairy milk. The batter was very thin and filled 15 mini pie tins.

When the pies were cooled, I discovered that each one had brown blisters on top their plastic-looking skin. The filling was creamy and had a wonderful interior. The flavor was slightly muted with a hint milkiness.

Although the crusts from the other batches were different in color, the one that was added to this batch seemed to absorb more milk and develop a toffee texture.

The pie that I made with evaporated milk was clunky, but it tasted great.

This batter had the consistency of pumpkin purée and only filled five tins.

The pies felt heavier and more dense when I cut them in half. The top layer of filling was a little shiny, but not super thick. It was also consistent in color with the interior.

This pie is smooth and consistent from the moment I first took a bite.

The flavor was slightly different from the rest. I could taste the cinnamon, ginger, clove and ginger.

The pie was topped with sweetened condensed milk, which formed a thick layer of plastic-like material.

It is easy to confuse a can sweetened condensed milk with an evaporated milk can at the grocery store. It won’t ruin your pie’s flavor or texture, even though it will make a thicker top layer.

Mixing the condensed milk with the pumpkin, sugar and spices created a sticky, thick pie batter. It was enough to fill nine mini tins.

As I was placing the pies onto a cooling rack (also known my stovetop), the top layer that looked plastic-like had bubbled up. It was the same color as bright-orange leaves, and it separated from the middle of my filling when I cut into the pie.

Even though I couldn’t discern the difference in flavor between condensed or evaporated milks, the textures were definitely different.

Using pumpkin pie spice made almost no difference in flavor.

I was curious if pumpkin spice could be evenly substituted for the mixture of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves that Libby’s recipe calls.

The pumpkin pie spice that I purchased was a mixture of allspice and ginger. I used the exact same amount of combination spice that I would have used if I used the other three spices together, so the batter did not take on a strange texture.

The pie was orange throughout when cut into. Each slice held together well and the texture was soft but not too wet. It had a thicker skin than I expected, which was quite sticky. However, it was beautiful.

This pie tastes just like a regular pumpkin pie.

The pies were all delicious, but the texture of some pies was a problem.

I have made eight batches of pumpkin pie and found that the main changes in the recipe led to texture changes rather than changes in the flavor.

The only thing that made a pie different from the other was its sweetness. It was the moisture and top-layer texture that were the most important.

I was surprised that none of these pies actually tasted bad — especially the one without any milk at all. I really enjoyed the pie with too much sugar. It was so good that I’ve eaten it twice in the past two days.

Even though each batch looked different, I can tell you that it’s not easy to change the flavor of a pumpkin cake.