3 Smart Substitutes For Evaporated Milk In Pumpkin Pie

There are few pies out there that are as iconic as pumpkin. This sweet pie, which graces many Thanksgiving tables every year, is made with ingredients like pumpkin puree, spices, and eggs, all set into a classic pie crust. But pumpkin pie truly wouldn't be pumpkin pie without one key ingredient: evaporated milk.

Evaporated milk is often sold by the can. As its name suggests, it's made by heating up milk until about 60% of the water content evaporates. What you're left with is a very thick dairy product with a more pronounced milky flavor than the normal milk that you'd buy by the gallon. Evaporated milk is added to pumpkin pie specifically to increase the fat content and thicken it, which in turn imparts a very rich mouthfeel to the dessert. 

If you can't track down a can of evaporated milk from your grocery store, you can try one of these quick, simple substitutes. The main thing that all of these options have in common is that they contain enough fat to offer that decadent texture, but don't have so much moisture that they will make the rest of your pie soggy.

Heavy cream is an essential item to have in your baking arsenal. Not only does it boast a milky flavor, but its high fat content also makes it a rich addition to a variety of baked goods. Heavy cream can be an excellent substitute for evaporated milk because it can offer both the creaminess and the mouthfeel of a classic pumpkin pie. You can use about a cup of heavy cream for every 12-ounce can (1½ cups) of condensed milk. Some folks will also add cornstarch to their heavy cream to help thicken it, but this isn't always necessary, as the heavy cream is thick enough where it shouldn't make your bottom crust soggy. 

Half-and-half is similar to heavy cream, but it cannot be substituted for evaporated milk with the same ratio. It doesn't have nearly the same fat content as the latter, which is why you would need to add a little bit of a thickening agent to a half-and-half-based pumpkin pie help prevent a soggy bottom. You would also need to use slightly more of the half-and-half in your recipe (about a 1-to-1 ratio) to account for the fact that it has less fat. 

If you're whipping up a dairy-free pumpkin pie, you may want to turn to coconut milk as a suitable replacement for the evaporated milk. The key here is to use full-fat coconut milk in a can — not the half-gallon carton that you'll find with the other milks nor the reduced-fat version. Coconut milk contains slightly more water than evaporated milk, so you'll need to add in a little bit of cornstarch to get it up to the same texture as evaporated milk. 

When you crack open the can of coconut milk, you may notice a layer of fat on the top. This is the coconut cream — and it's where a ton of the fat from the milk sits. You'll want to stir this fat back into the coconut milk to ensure that there is a good distribution of fat throughout the liquid. If you were to just pour in the liquid, you would be left with a very wet and thin pie filling. It's also important to note that coconut milk has a more assertive flavor than evaporated milk, which may affect the overall flavor of your pie. 

Sweetened condensed milk is often confused with evaporated milk, but the two are definitely not the same. The former is, as its name suggests, sweetened, though it also contains a similar water content to evaporated milk. As a result, the two share a very similar texture and can offer the same milky flavor in your pumpkin pie. It's worth noting, though, that sweetened condensed milk can be a little more syrupy and sticky because it contains sugar, whereas evaporated milk does not.  

Although cans of sweetened condensed milk are slightly larger than evaporated milk cans, you can easily swap one can for the other. In terms of texture and flavor, not all cans of sweetened condensed milk are the same, so we recommend selecting a reputable brand before you start baking.

Most importantly, you're going to want to make sure that you don't use any sugar in a recipe where you're substituting in condensed milk for evaporated milk. Otherwise, you'll be left with a pie that's too sweet — and the high sugar content may also put your pumpkin pie more at risk of burning.