1cupgranulated sugaror use ½ cup brown and ½ cup granulated
1 ½tablespoonspumpkin pie spice
1boxyellow cake mix (15.25 oz)Or you can use other flavors
1 ½sticksunsalted or salted butter, softened (170 grams)
1cupchopped pecans (pie is good without them too!)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9 inch pie plates generously with some butter. You can use cooking spray, but butter will give the crust even more flavor. if using a store bought crust, just set them on a rimmed baking sheet and get ready!
Whisk together pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl. Pour into greased pie plates or graham shells distributing evenly.
Put the cake mix in a bowl and pour in melted butter, stirring until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the pumpkin mixture, then drizzle on the remaining butter. Alternatively, mix the cake mix with SOFTENED butter to make a very soft and crumbly dough. Sprinkle over top of the pumpkin mixture, then sprinkle pecans on top.
Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool to room temperature and then chill until ready to serve. To serve, bring back to room temperature.
Slice and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Notes
If using a graham cracker crust such as the ones from Aldi (or possibly Keebler deep dish), you'll need two. You might also have what seems like a lot of pie filling even for two pie dishes. I was able to use it all, but I put the pie dishes on a rimmed baking dish to catch drips.
Don't get too fixated on distributing the butter evenly through the cake crumb mixture. It will all work out! You can mix the cake mix with softened butter and sprinkle it on as clumps, in which case it will sink more, or you can mix melted butter into the cake mix, sprinkle it on, then pour over the remaining melted butter.
If you use the melted butter technique and don't mix it all with the cake mix, it will puff up more and look ridiculous when you pull it from the oven. It sinks and sets up nicely, so don't worries.