Substituting pumpkin puree for pumpkin pie mix (recipe in progress!)

November 10, 2014 3:56 PM

Help! I just started making a recipe for pumpkin bran muffins - I found the recipe at our grocery store, which has a samples kitchen at the back and has lots of recipe handouts. I just realized, part way through mixing the ingredients, that the recipe actually calls for one cup pumpkin pie mix. I wasn't paying attention and added one cup pumpkin puree. Can I just add pumpkin pie spice? Do I need to add more sugar? The recipe already calls for 2/3 cup packed brown sugar. Thanks for the help!
posted by skycrashesdown to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

Pumpkin pie filling has added sugar, so you might need to add a little more sugar as well as the spices.
posted by essexjan at 4:00 PM on November 10, 2014

A quick search for "pumpkin pie mix" recipes vs "pumpkin pie" recipes suggests that the difference is some quantity of sugar, and spices. I'm not much on too sweet, so I'd suspect that your sugar is sufficient (though if you wanted the original sweetness, it looks like between 3/4 and 1 cup(!) of brown sugar per 16 oz of pumpkin.

Spice-wise, different recipes are all over the place, I'd randomly toss in nutmeg, ginger, a pinch of clove, and some cinnamon. Somewhere between ¼ tsp and 1 tsp depending on how much you like each of those. I'd also toss in some cardamom because, really, what isn't better with cardmom?
posted by straw at 4:06 PM on November 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Google suggests substituting 3/4 cup of sugar+15 ounces pumpkin puree for 15 ounces of pumpkin pie filling. So for a cup of puree, I'd add about 1/3 cup of sugar, if I wanted to match the recipe's sweetness. Then add 1-1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice OR 1-1/2 teaspoons of a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove.

Personally, I'd skip the additional sugar, and I'd add at least 3 teaspoons of seasoning. But that's me.
posted by OrangeDisk at 4:11 PM on November 10, 2014

Response by poster: Okay, I added two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, and I think I'm going to leave the sugar content as is. I like my muffins on the less sweet side, and my usual muffin recipe only uses 1/3 cup sugar. I mixed the batter and it seems like a typical texture/thickness for a muffin batter. *crosses fingers* Thanks everyone, I'll let you know how they come out!
posted by skycrashesdown at 4:34 PM on November 10, 2014

Response by poster: They came out just fine, although they don't taste as pumpkin-y as I'd hoped. Thanks, all!
posted by skycrashesdown at 5:37 PM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]