My Cantonese Mom's 1-Ingredient Upgrade for Better Pumpkin Pie

Whenever I make pumpkin pie, I use canned pumpkin for the filling. To eliminate the tinny flavor, I heat and mix the pumpkin puree in a saucepan with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg. Once, I asked my mother to grab the spices from the pantry. Instead, she grabbed the jar of Chinese five-spice and dropped a pinch into the pumpkin filling.

“I’m trying something new,” she said in Cantonese. In the kitchen, my entire family is experimental with flavors. My son adds tobiko (flying fish roe) to his pasta, and my mom adds pork floss to her oatmeal. It helps me, as a cookbook author and recipe developer, when my family is excited to play with food.

When I tasted the filling, boy, did my tastebuds sing! The flavor was incredible! The five-spice powder added cozy, layered flavor to the dessert. Five-spice powder is a classic Chinese spice blend that typically includes a mix of five aromatic spices: cinnamon, star anise, cloves, fennel, and Sichuan pepper. While usually incorporated in savory cooking, lately I’ve been using five-spice in my baking. Five-spice snickerdoodles and banana bread? Yum. My mom’s spur-of-the-moment experiment was a definite win.

How To Add Five-Spice to Pumpkin Pie

“It needs more,” she said, mixing a full teaspoon of the five-spice into the 15-ounce can's worth of canned pumpkin in the saucepan. If you’re new to five-spice, I recommend adding just a few pinches to the pumpkin puree at first. The different flavors in five-spice can hit you all at once. You get a hint of warmth from cinnamon, slight licorice sweetness from star anise, depth from cloves, nuttiness from fennel seeds, and a mild heat and tingle from Sichuan pepper.

By the way, the five spices I listed are commonly blended together to make five-spice; however, other spices sometimes find their way into the mix, including ginger, turmeric, and cardamom.

The next time you make your favorite pumpkin pie recipe, add the five-spice powder to the pumpkin puree at the same time as you would add other spices. You won’t need to add other spices, like extra ground cinnamon or pumpkin spice, when using five-spice. Simple, right?

Try adding a dab of miso to the pumpkin filling to further bring out the flavor of the five-spice. It’s a final touch that connects all the flavors. Miso will add a mild umami punch and a hint of saltiness while accentuating the layered flavors of the five-spice. Your pumpkin pie will be perfectly balanced and not too sweet, just the way my Cantonese mother likes her desserts.

Also, when serving, top each slice with a dollop of whipped cream and a light dusting of five-spice powder. The aroma from the powder hits the nose immediately, giving the ones you serve the pie to a preview of what they’re about to enjoy, turning your pumpkin pie into something truly memorable and even a little magical.