Crustless Butternut Squash Pie Recipe

Even if you've never baked a pie in your life this recipe is a great place to start. You can put this pie together in just a few minutes and have it baking in the oven. The best part is that no crust is needed.

You will need a nine-inch deep pie dish, measuring spoons and a few basic ingredients from the pantry to get started.

We just call it Squash Pie.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of canned, frozen, or fresh-cooked butternut squash
• 1 can of evaporated milk (13 oz.)
• 4 fresh eggs
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 stick of butter or margarine
• 1 Tablespoon of flour
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
• a dash of salt
• 1 Tablespoon of vegetable shortening to grease the pie pan

How to make fresh butternut squash.

https://vespertinewriter.blogspot.com/2025/08/how-to-bake-butternut-squash.html

Or, canned squash works for this recipe, too. One 15 ounce can is enough.

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (f)
2. Grease a 9-inch pie dish with a thin coating of vegetable shortening or non-stick spray.
3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cut the butter into small pieces and let it soften to room temperature.
4. Mix the sugar and softened butter together until it's creamy.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg
6. Mix a tablespoon of flour with the cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and blend these into the egg mixture.
7. Stir in the cooked squash using either canned, frozen (left in the refrigerator overnight to thaw) or 2 cups of cooled, baked squash.
8. Add the vanilla extract.
9. Slowly stir in the evaporated milk. The mixture will be watery with loose, floating bits of butter after it is poured into the baking dish.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

If you have an electric mixer, it saves time but the pie will come out fine if you use a whisk or a hand beater to mix the ingredients.

Frozen squash works fine as well. Allow the squash to defrost in the box for 24 hours in your refrigerator before adding it to the recipe.

Carefully remove the pie from the oven and cool on a wire rack before serving. The pie starts out looking rather puffy, but as it cools, it settles down to look more like pumpkin pie.

Cut the cooled pie into eight (8) slices and add a dash of whipped cream or Cool Whip topping before serving.

The pie may be served either warm or cold.

Store any leftover pie in the refrigerator and use it within seven days.

Once you've made this easy no-crust pie recipe, you'll want to make it again and again. That spicy aroma of the pie while it bakes will bring family members into the kitchen to see what's cooking.

Come try this nutritious dessert that your kids will love. They won't even know it is a vegetable unless you tell them.

Topped with whipped cream it's delicious. It tastes like spicy custard.

My six-year-old asked me the same question during dinner until it became a ritual.

"Will you be passing out dessert tonight, Mommy?" My answer was always the same.

"Only if you eat your vegetables." He would laugh and shovel in whatever was left on his dinner plate. He loved this nutritious pie and always asked for seconds.

How To Bake Butternut Squash

When harvest brings in the butternut squash, it's time to fire up the oven and bake this delicious vegetable to use in pies or served as a simple, nutritious side dish.  

When the weather cools down and fall is in the air, butternut squash makes an appearance in the produce departments of Texas, the southern states, and other markets like Australia and New Zealand where it's known as butternut pumpkin.

This pumpkin-like fruit was first developed in Stow, Massachusetts, and it's wonderful when used in baking breads and pies or even as a side dish. It's a member of the Cucurbita moschata family.

My family likes butternut squash in a no-crust pie recipe that I've adapted that uses canned, frozen, or fresh-baked butternut squash. Having baked this pie for many years, I never tried it using fresh squash until recently. The difference in texture and taste is amazing.

After years of using the frozen kind of winter squash, I finally embraced my fears of strange and unusual vegetables, picked out a firm, uniform specimen at the produce department, and took it home. Then I began to search for instructions on how to prepare it. Should I peel it? Cube it? What about the seeds?

Inside an old Mirro Ware Cookbook from 1954, I found a recipe for acorn squash, which I adapted and it came out delicious. I was pleased at how easy it was to prepare even on my first attempt.

Here's the Easy Way to Prepare the Squash

1) Line a baking pan (13x9 inches) with aluminum foil. It makes cleanup easier.

2) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

3) Wash the squash to remove any debris. Use a cutting board and a sharp knife to carefully cut the stem off the squash.

4) Firmly grasp the squash and cut it in half lengthwise, starting at the bulbous end using a serrated knife. Use care. It's hard to make both sides exactly even as the vegetable is very tough when raw.

5) Just like a cantaloupe or melon, scoop out the seeds using a spoon and set them aside. These can be washed and saved for planting or baked and eaten.

6) Drop the seeds into a small bowl with a little water and the membrane will wash off and drop to the bowl bottom and the seeds will float. Spread them out to dry on a paper towel.

Spray the bottom of the pan with Pam or lightly grease with vegetable shortening.

• 2 Tablespoons of butter (melted in the microwave for 10 seconds

• Brush the cut surfaces of the squash with the butter

Mix the spices together and sprinkle onto the cut side of the squash.

• 1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Put the brown sugar into the cup of the cut squash.

• 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar (optional)

Add one cup of water to the pan.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil

Make small cuts in the top for the steam to escape.

Bake at 350 degrees (f) for 45 minutes to an hour, until a fork can easily be inserted into the squash.

Once tender, use a spoon to scoop out each shell and transfer the squash into a serving dish or covered container and refrigerate the cooked squash until needed.

Fresh-cooked squash improves the texture of my butternut squash pie and adds to its holding power in the refrigerator.

Here's a recipe for crustless butternut squash pie. 

https://vespertinewriter.blogspot.com/2025/08/crustless-butternut-squash-pie-recipe.html

It's delicious topped with whipped cream or Cool Whip. Even Kids will love it.