Make Costco’s Giant Pumpkin Pie Look Homemade With These Upgrades

As far as seasonal holiday flavors go, there’s nothing that has really taken off in the past couple of years to the same degree as pumpkin spice has. It’s become an integral part of pop culture, far beyond just the simple pumpkin spice latte. But, we think it’s time that we give a little extra attention to the source of inspiration for this phenomenon: the humble pumpkin pie.

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This year, there’s one company doing pumpkin pie to a grader scale than anyone else. And by grand, we need grand. It’s the largest pumpkin pie we’ve been able to find coming in at around 58 ounces, and it is, of course, from Costco. But, we’ve got to admit that it doesn’t really look holiday ready. 

For $5.99, it gives us a good head start on holiday prep. But it needs a little bit of work to be ready to serve for all the holiday gatherings ahead. So, here are the three things we recommend doing to your Costco pumpkin pie to make it look absolutely irresistible.

Give It Some Crunch

Now, we want to make sure that anything we recommend for you to do your pumpkin pie still remains manageable. Generally, if you’re someone who would prefer to outsource the pie-making to begin with, you probably don’t want to have to fuss with it much in the end. So we’re gonna keep it simple with our little modifications. All of this said, this pumpkin pie deeply lacks some variation in texture — and it’s an easy fix.

As is the case with a lot of grocery store pies in general, the crust is where you can really tell that it is not homemade. In part, that is because you would generally expect a bite of pie to have some crispness it from the crust. You will still get that from the very edge of the crust that is exposed, but the same can’t be said for the bottom layer. So, we would recommend adding some sort of crunch through the form of toppings to elevate this pie.

Whether or not you go down the candied pecan or seasonally appropriate cookie route is entirely up to you. If you did want to pursue the latter though, we would recommend something along the lines of the Pumpkin Spice Batons from Trader Joe’s, or even taking some store-bought pie dough and using cookie cutters to cut and bake seasonal shapes.

Make It Pretty… And Managable

I think a pretty big giveaway for this pie being store-bought would to be seeing it served up whole, purely due to its size. No one is reasonably making pies that big in their own homes, nor does it look particularly appetizing whole as a result. So, if you do choose to use this pie for any of your holiday celebrations, then we would recommend a serving the pie already cut into slices. From there, you could line them up in a different pattern on some sort of platter for people to serve themselves, or you can have them already dished on individual plates with all your toppings.

Always Go For Fresh

Genuinely, the easiest way you can elevate a pumpkin pie is by topping it with fresh whipped cream. Not only can you control the sweetness so that it balances more delicately with the pie itself, but the flavor of real, fresh dairy cannot be understated. Plus, you don’t have to get all fussy with it and pipe it to look like anything. Even a rough spoonful dolloped on top with your crunchy topping of choice and a warm spice sprinkled on top makes a beautiful and absolutely delicious experience that’s entirely elevated from the pie you bought originally.