Recently in Berlin, I meant to make a pumpkin pie. Or at least some pumpkin soup. It did not happen, for whatever reason, but in the meantime, I did stumble on a recipe I used a few months ago when I made a last-minute, kind of makeshift pumpkin pie.

My normal pumpkin pie recipe calls for cream, for example, and brown sugar. This time, I was in my kitchen and had opened a can of sweetened condensed milk to make some other recipe… and then realized I did not have all the needed ingredients to make that recipe. I thought about what I could do instead and decided to have a go at a condensed-milk version of the pumpkin pie.

I whipped up a pie crust (recipe below) and then made the following filling, which actually comes out more smooth and delicate than my standard recipe:

15 ounces pumpkin puree (canned)
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk (most standard cans are 14 ounces)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 425F. Whisk all filling ingredients together and pour into unbaked, prepared pie crust. Bake 15 minutes and then reduce oven temperature to 350F and continue to bake for another 35 minutes.

Refrigerate a few hours or overnight and enjoy.

Pie crust
CRUST: 1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chilled butter
3 tablespoons cold water

Stir together flour and salt in large bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in enough water, with fork, just until flour is moistened. Shape dough into ball, flatten ball. Roll ball on lightly floured surface into 12 inch circle. Place in 9 inch pie pan. Crimp edge. Set aside.