Enjoy Creamier Pie Filling With This Sweet Canned Staple

If you're hosting Thanksgiving this year, you're probably going to set out some kind of pie for dessert. Whether that's pumpkin pie (which you can make and freeze in advance), cherry pie, or pecan pie, you'd better have something ready for the table at the end of a long day of football, parades, and trying very hard not to argue about politics. Well, if you're not sure where to start, here's a good tip for you: According to Vivian Villa, chef and founder of UnButter, you can mix in some condensed milk to add sweetness and creaminess to your pie filling.

"Using condensed milk in place of sugar provides a shortcut to rich, creamy sweetness to pie filling when combined with sliced fruit," says Villa. If you've ever looked at the pie recipe on the side of a can of pumpkin puree, you'll see it asks for deliciously versatile evaporated milk — and condensed milk is basically just evaporated milk with sugar added to it. In fact, Villa says that you also don't have to add much extra sugar. "Evaporated milk that has been thickened with starch combined with fruit is a less sweet alternative to condensed milk," she notes. "Adding an egg yolk with vanilla adds richness and depth of flavor."

So what pies would benefit from a splash of condensed milk, and how would you incorporate the ingredient best? According to Vivian Villa, "Fillings that are tart (cherry or apple) or require body to set properly (pumpkin) are excellent when combined with condensed milk for use as a pie filling." A pumpkin pie needs something dense to make sure its filling is properly custard-y, so condensed milk works wonderfully in it; meanwhile, the flavors of certain kinds of fruit interact with the rich sweetness of the condensed milk very nicely indeed.

As for assembly, VIlla helps us out there, too. "For no bake pies, fresh fruit can be combined with condensed milk and left to set before going into a prebaked shell," she says. "For baked pies, combine fruit that has been gently cooked with condensed milk and left to cool before going into the unbaked shell." Once you've picked the right apples for your apple pie, or indulged in a bit of culinary destruction to make the most out of those apples, you can follow those steps and end up with something truly tasty.