I Spent 3 Days Making the Viral Milk Bar Pumpkin Pie—Here’s How It Turned Out

For the past few years, I’ve noticed that the classic pumpkin pie has been traded in for an elevated version on Thanksgiving Day. Everything from mascarpone pumpkin pie to creme brulee pumpkin pie has graced my social feeds. As the person in charge of the Thanksgiving dessert table every year, even I shifted from a traditional pie to Claire Saffitz’s caramelized honey pumpkin pie. I haven’t looked back.

But no other pie has stopped me in my scrolling tracks quite like the Milk Bar pumpkin pie, and I’m not alone. This pie seems to go viral every November because of its stunning presentation and complex, multi-day baking process. The recipe is quite the challenge, and home cooks are keen on trying it in their kitchens for the holidays.

After years of watching the pie go viral on social media, with many crowning it the best pumpkin pie they’ve ever had, I finally set aside time to make it. It looked like a lot of work, but that’s my idea of fun!

What is the Milk Bar Pumpkin Pie?

This Milk Bar pumpkin caramel pie recipe comes from the mind of chef Christina Tosi. I first heard about Tosi while working toward my Baking and Pastry Arts degree in culinary school. You might know her from another one of her viral recipes: the Milk Bar birthday cake. Tosi creates playful recipes by elevating nostalgic flavors from her childhood. This pumpkin pie is no different.

It’s a five-component dessert comprised of a laminated cornmeal pie crust that’s filled with a layer of salted caramel, a roasted pumpkin and white chocolate ganache, freshly whipped cream and a cardamom oat streusel. It takes at least two days to prepare. I split the work into three manageable days, which is exactly how I would prepare this pie if I were making it for Thanksgiving Day, since there’s so much else to do.

Day one:

I made the pie dough, cooked the caramel and baked the streusel.

Day two:

I blind-baked the pie crust, filled it with the caramel, whipped up the pumpkin ganache, poured it into the pie and let it all chill and set up overnight.

Day three:

I topped the pie with the whipped cream and streusel just before digging in. You can combine the work from day one and day two into one day, but it’ll be pretty chaotic, and I’m sure you have other make-ahead Thanksgiving recipes to prep.

How to Assemble the Milk Bar Pumpkin Pie

To start the Milk Bar pumpkin pie, you’ll need to make and then blind-bake a cornmeal pie crust. Once cooled, fill the crust with homemade salted caramel. Let the caramel layer firm up in the fridge for 20 to 25 minutes.

Once firm, pour the roasted pumpkin white chocolate ganache over the salted caramel layer. Let it all set up overnight in the fridge.

Top the pie with homemade whipped cream and the cardamom oat streusel before serving.

Here’s What I Thought

After three days of work, a few high-level techniques and much anticipation, I thought the Milk Bar pumpkin pie tasted…good! But I think after all the effort (and a lot of social media hype), I was hoping for this pie to truly blow my mind, and it didn’t.

It was still a very good pie and a lot of fun to make. I’m so glad I finally tried it! The pie crust is layered and flaky thanks to the lamination. The pumpkin ganache is well-spiced, thick and fudgy; not mousse-like as I thought it would be. The salted caramel is a nice touch.

I thought the streusel got lost in the whipped cream—I never detected this component while eating. Next time, I would probably either not make the streusel, not make the whipped cream or forgo both for a sprinkle of flaky sea salt to deepen the flavors of everything else.

It was certainly a Thanksgiving-worthy pie, but I didn’t find that it had an explosion of flavor that mirrored days of work.

I checked Reddit to see what other people thought. Many people loved it, and a few said it was too sweet. I disagree; I think it’s well-balanced. One person recommended caramelizing the white chocolate first, which is genius, and I would totally try that next time. Another person said that the pie tastes best after 24 hours, not just after the eight-hour/overnight chill. I put that theory to the test, and I did think it was better, but still lacking a bit.

My favorite component was the pie crust. I even had to make it gluten-free, and it still turned out incredibly tender with gorgeous, flaky layers. The cornmeal added a toothsome bite that gave a lot of nice texture to an otherwise very soft pie.

With a few tweaks suited to my taste buds, I would make the Milk Bar pumpkin pie again if I were attending an elevated Thanksgiving. It’s a really fun, updated-but-unstuffy spin on the classic and would fit in well with other modern Thanksgiving recipes, like pickle-brined turkey and everything bagel stuffing.