Give your pumpkin pie recipe a Southwest touch with dulce de leche. The Latin-style milk caramel adds a rich, smooth, depth of flavor to everyone’s favorite pie.
They say opposites attract. That is certainly true when it comes to pie. Pumpkin pie is my favorite holiday dessert. In fact, I wait all year for pumpkin pie and no, I can’t make it any other month of the year. Anticipation is half of the flavor.
For some odd reason, I am never hungry for dessert on Thanksgiving. Strange, you would think that cooking and shopping for days, mashing bushels of potatoes, racing to get everything on the table and hot at the same time might make a person hungry. But, not me.
I prefer to have my dessert a day or two later. Then, when I see the first Christmas lights in the neighborhood, I go on a dessert making marathon for the entire month of December that would put an Olympian under the table. Holiday cookies, pastries and pies… lots of pies… pumpkin pies.
My husband, on the other hand, loves cream pies; any kind of cream pie.
He is not amused with the many variations of pumpkin pie that seem to magically appear and then multiply while he is at work (I must admit an impish grin appears as I watch him eat his piece of pumpkin pie and try to find a way to compliment it. No greater words of love have been ever spoken).
So, how have we survived so long together? Two people… separated by pie? I guess it’s the stuff that romance is made of.
One thing my husband does love is dulce de leche—the sweet, creamy Mexican carmel sauce made from reducing condensed milk. Every year, to “get in the mood” of the holidays, I dress up a few of my pumpkin pies with dulce de leche and we have one of those,
“Hey! You got pumpkin pie on my dulce de leche!” moments.
And then, for just an instant, he thinks he likes pumpkin pie.
For some reason, making dulce de leche seems to intimidate a lot of cooks (something about boiling cans of unopened milk for hours… nightmares of exploding carmel sauce).
Luckily, you can find it in almost any grocery store. Just look in the aisle with Mexican specialty foods.
Dulce de leche is a softer, creamy carmel sauce that doesn’t have that “stick to your teeth and rip out your filling” texture of regular carmel. I use it in a lot of my holiday recipes just about anywhere that calls out for a mild, carmel-y flavor.
This Pumpkin Pie with Dulce de Leche Recipe is a good way to add some depth of flavor and creaminess to your regular pumpkin recipe. The flavor is subtle, but it takes the “too sweet” taste away and bubbles up into the pumpkin custard just a little to make the texture smoother.
Be careful to follow the baking temperature and turn the heat down to 350 degrees or the dulce de leche will boil and curdle the custard.
Pumpkin pies are a little plain to look at so, I like to use tiny cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the scrapes of dough to embellish the edges with.
My “baking diva” friends, Barbara and Frieda, have great pie crust recipes with easy to follow instructions on their blogs so, check them out if you are looking for a new pie crust recipe.
Give this Pumpkin Pie with Dulce de Leche recipe a try and let me know how you like it.
- 1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust
- 1 egg white, beaten
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice or clove
- 2 cups cooked pumpkin, fresh pureed or canned (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1½ cup milk, light cream or evaporated milk
- 1 6 ounce can of dulce de leche
- 8 ounces whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar (may use powdered sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Roll out pie crust and place in a 9 inch pie pan. Brush the inside of the pie crust with beaten egg white. Set aside.
- Beat eggs with sugar, molasses, salt and spices until well blended. Add the pumpkin and milk; mix well. Adjust seasoning to taste.
- Spread dulce de leche in a layer on the bottom of the pie crust.
- Sprinkle sea salt over the dulce de leche.
- Gently spoon pumpkin filling over dulce de leche trying not to unsettle the sea salt. Slowly pour the rest of the filling into pie crust.
- Place the pie on the lower rack of the oven. Immediately lower the temperature to 350 degrees and cook for 50 to 60 minutes or until done. The center of the pie should still "giggle" a little. Don't over cook the pie or it will crack and separate from the crust at the sides of the pie. Remember, it will continue to cook for a few minutes when you remove it from the oven.
- Resist the urge to raise the temperature of the oven or the custard type filling will bubble and boil. The dulce de leche will also bubble and mix in with the pumpkin layer.
- Set pie on a wire rack to cool.
- Whip the cream and sugar together. Add the vanilla and whip lightly until mixed.
- Serve pie with a dollop of whipped cream.
Try this recipe and let us know what you think. Share on twitter and subscribe for future recipes delivered right to your inbox.
-posted by Sandy
Sandy is a former elementary educator whose love for cooking has gone out of control. She has completed a degree in culinary arts and is now a food writer, photographer, cookbook author and co-creator of the popular website Everyday Southwest. 
What a gorgeous pie! Sounds like a a great way to change up pumpkin pie. Thanks for the link love.
Too cute to cut! The decorative edge on your pie is almost enough to send me to the kitchen… almost. Pie crust is a continuing challenge.
so pretty and sounds D-licious!
Mmmmm Dulce de Leche – definitely improves pumkin pie! Love the way you’ve done the crust. Pretty as a picture!
I have a feeling this flavor combination could convince any pumpkin pie naysayer that they may be wrong. Wonderful!
Pumpkin pie is my most favorite in the world as well and I only make it around the holidays. I’m also a HUGE fan of caramel…in any form (even the rip out the fillings kind). This looks AMAZING. Compromise is the key to all good relationships and we’ve definitely benefited from yours!
This pie is gorgeous! And the dulce de leche sounds like a great addition!
I love how you put dulce de leche with a pumpkin pie! Must taste amazing!! Your pie is beautiful!
very nice..super
What an amazing flavor combination!
This sound very rich, but I bet it is absolutely tasty! I think I still have some cans of pumpkin from fall laying around here 🙂
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Hi Bev, The thing I like about this dish is that it makes gives the pumpkin pie more depth of flavor without making it sweeter. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
I was thinking of making dulce de leche tomorrow to use in a tart! Question for you-does the dulce de leche make the pie crust soggy or anything? Is it better to bake the tart with the dulce de leche, or blind bake the crust first? Thanks so much, love your blog!
Hi Jane, I did not blind bake the crust and it came out just as nicely as it usually does with a pumpkin pie. I think the dulce de leche is thicker and has less liquid than my pie filling so, it may have kept the crust a little drier. I do roll my crust for the bottom a little thinner than when I roll out a top crust. So, I’m sure either way will work, it will depend on your tart filling.
Just remember to drop the temperature a little to about 350 so that the dulce de leche does not boil into your filling.
Hope this helps. Happy Thanksgiving!
Sandy
Such a gorgeous pie. Love the way you changed it up!
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You have so many great recipes. I have seen many sites, but you have such a great collection, and they sound so amazing. I have taken down several to make at home. Thank you for sharing.
Can I bake this is a deep
dish pie plate? Should make .5 more to make sure it is full? Let me know whatcha think! Looks AMAZING and found this just in time for Thanksgiving 🙂
What a delightful combination. Usually I find dulce de leche too sweet, but with pumpkin it would be fabulous. I’m all set with desserts for this Thanksgiving – hope I can remember this one for next year:)
This pie looks amazing and really anything with caramel flavors is on my EAT NOW list!
Unbelievably delicious. Really kicks an old favorite up a notch!
I’ve never heard of adding dulce de leche. Personally, I’m iffy on caramel. However, this sounds really good!
HI Pam, It’s good to hear from you! I think caramel is a little sweet for me as well, dulce de leche is not as sweet. Its just adds a bit of richness to the taste and depth of flavor without overwhelming the pie with sweetness or sticky caramel.
This is a fantastic recipe for pumpkin pie! For Thanksgiving I was searching for a great homemade recipe that was a bit different than the one I normally make. So delicious!
I just had to return and give this fantastic recipe the 5-star rating it deserves!
I love the addition of dulce de leche! What a great twist!