The Asian Spice You Never Thought To Add To Pumpkin Pie

There's a reason folks go nuts for all things pumpkin come fall. The warm, rustic taste and aroma of pumpkin spice have us dreaming of fires in the fireplace, falling leaves, and warm cups of things. It also signals the beginning of the holiday season, and the autumnal birthing of pumpkins leads to one of the holidays' favorite desserts: pumpkin pie. Traditional pumpkin spice is a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves. Cinnamon does the driving, and the other spices lend a kick of heat and a pinch of earthiness. There's another spice mix that just might be a secret ingredient for your pumpkin pie that will baffle and delight your holiday guests: Chinese five-spice.

Chinese five-spice is a blend meant to represent the five elements of water, fire, wood, earth, and metal with salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and pungent tastes. Typically used in savory dishes, chefs have worked five-spice into sweets because of its depth of flavor. Chinese-American chef Shirley Chung likes to use Chinese-five spice in desserts. "It's ultimately a collection of warm spices. I use it for pumpkin pie all the time," she tells Tasting Table. Those warm spices couldn't be a better match for something like pumpkin pie, where the sweet, delicate flavor of pumpkin is the showstopper.

The spice blend shares two ingredients with pumpkin pie spice: cinnamon and cloves. The other three ingredients are fennel seeds, star anise, and white peppercorns. Chinese five-spice has distinguishing characteristics that add major depth to pumpkin pie. Fennel seeds and star anise are slightly sweet spices with distinctive licorice flavors. Star anise bears a slightly stronger licorice flavor than fennel, but both complement a sweet pumpkin pie.

The spice blend would even work well in a heavier, richer pie recipe like our buttery deep dish pumpkin pie. The Chinese five-spice is an excellent substitute for pumpkin pie spice and you can replace the whole tablespoon. This deep dish pie is so rich and delicious that it comes with a caramel streusel topping of brown sugar, butter, cream, flour, and vanilla. Sneak a pinch of Chinese five-spice in, and as the topping crisps while baking, the spices will warm and mix with the brown sugar and butter to develop a beautiful, earthy flavor.

Another way to incorporate Chinese five-spice without eliminating the flavors of clove, ginger, and allspice, is to split the difference and use half of each. This works well for a classic pumpkin pie where you would be using a premixed pumpkin pie spice. If you're mixing your own pumpkin pie spice, try replacing allspice with Chinese five-spice. Because both have similar flavor profiles, this will result in a more subtle taste while lending a slightly nutty warmth that still has some kick.