Two traditional favorites create one delicious dessert: Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

Homemade apple butter makes pumpkin pie creamier and subtly sweeter. Recipe below.

WHEN TERRY MADE CHRIS SCOTT’S LOVELY JOHNNYCAKES AND APPLE BUTTER a couple weeks back, the apple butter recipe was small compared to most, but it was still a lot of apple butter for a two-person household. We heroically slathered it on waffles and toast and pork sandwiches, but there was still some left. That was when I stumbled across this recipe for apple butter pumpkin pie.

This tasty pie was invented by a home baker named Sherry Little, of Sherwood, Arkansas, and it is wonderful. It combines two traditional favorites, homemade apple butter and pumpkin pie, into a new thing that nods at both. Others have made their own versions of this pie, but the recipe below is pretty similar to her original, with a couple of little Blue Kitchen tweaks (like the five-spice powder).

The apple butter, with its cinnamon and nutmeg, makes the pumpkin pie creamier and adds a little nuanced sweetness. If you love pumpkin pie, which we do, you will love this too.

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Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

Apple butter makes traditional pumpkin pie creamier and subtly sweeter.

Course Dessert

Servings 1 pie

Ingredients

• 1 9-inch pie crust, store-bought or homemade (your own recipe or find a recipe here)

For the filling

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup apple butter (recipe here)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2/3 cup dark grown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 cup evaporated milk

Instructions

• Prepare the pie crust and refrigerate it while you are mixing the filling.
• Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Break the eggs into a large bowl and beat them lightly. Then add the apple butter, pumpkin, brown sugar, spices and salt, and stir until everything is evenly blended. Stir in the evaporated milk, mixing until everything is uniform.
• When the oven is hot, pour the filling into the crust and slide the pie into a lower rack of the oven. After ten minutes, lower the heat to 350ºF and rotate the pie 90 degrees.
• Bake until the filling is nearly set—that should be about 30 minutes or so.
• Cool on a rack. Once it is cool, if you aren’t serving this within two or three hours, refrigerate it.
• Finally, I am not a lover of whipped cream, but this fruity, sweet, slightly tangy pie is complemented beautifully with a cloud of sweetened whipped cream, or a little scoop of vanilla ice cream.