What Is The Shiny Glaze On Costco's Pumpkin Pies?

Pumpkin may be one of the simpler kinds of pie to make since there's no peeling, chopping, or fiddling with fruit unless you opt to do things the hard way and start with fresh pumpkin instead of the canned kind. Still, as numerous non-bakers will attest, "easy as pie" is a bit of an oxymoron, which explains why Costco sells so many of its pumpkin pies year after year.

Even if you're willing to shell out the price of a pie and cover the cost of a membership to boot (not everyone wants to pay to shop at Costco), you may be somewhat hesitant to purchase one of these popular pumpkin pies for one particular reason: that suspicious sheen on top. Don't let this deter you if that's all that's standing in your way. Sure, the glaze may look a bit suspicious, but it's obviously edible and several commenters on a TikTok video (including one self-proclaimed Costco employee) have declared it to be made of apricot jelly. While you can wipe away the goop if you find it off-putting (which is exactly what the video creator chose to do), there's no need to do this since, if anything, it probably just makes the pie taste a little sweeter and look all shiny.

If you do have the baking chops to make your own pumpkin pie, or at least apply your own glaze to a store-bought one, you, too, can adopt Costco's apricot jelly trick if you like a nice, shiny pie. For a more matte finish, though, as well as an extra flavor boost, there are several glaze alternatives you may wish to apply.

One idea that combines two Thanksgiving favorites into one is to use a cranberry-flavored glaze. If you want to make this from scratch, you could simmer the cranberries in liquid (orange juice would be tasty) that's been sweetened with sugar and thickened with a little cornstarch. If you prefer doing things the easy way, though, you could always just opt for using canned cranberry sauce instead, either jellied or whole berry. You can also make a caramel-type glaze, either from scratch or by using caramel sauce from a jar, or opt for a chocolate one made of homemade ganache or store-bought hot fudge sauce. If you use any of these tasty glazes, we doubt anyone will want to wipe them away.