Do you love pumpkin pie? Do you love things in miniature? If so, today's post is for you! These mini pumpkin pies are made in muffin tins, They bake up quickly and are sure to impress at your next gathering, if you can resist not eating them all, first!
To make 24 mini pies you'll need one pie's worth of filling, and two pie's worth of crusts. Trust me. I thought I would need three times the pie filling and three pie crusts. Well I was able to make an extra regular pie to take to work, and another casserole dish full of pie filling baked as a pumpkin pudding - a great use for leftover filling!
DIRECTIONS:
Crust - Makes 2
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 tablespoons ice water
Add flour, salt, and sugar in bowl of stand mixer. Blend until mixed. Add pieces of butter. The smaller they are the easier the next step, but remember it needs to be cold! This makes the crust flaky and delicious. Blend until the butter is incorporated throughout dry mixture. Remove the bowl from the stand, and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry mixture until the largest crumbles are about the size of a pea. A food processor can also be used to combine the cold butter into the dry ingredients. Add the ice water to the dough and continue to work with the pastry blender just until uniform - don't overdo it or the crust will get tough. The crust should stick together when smashed into itself. If it's too crumbly, add a bit more ice water.
Divide in half and wrap dough in plastic wrap, making a flat disc. This will help it chill faster and will be easier to roll out. Chill in the refrigerator about an hour.
Pie Filling - Makes 1
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground clove
1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
1 12 oz can of evaporated milk
LIghtly beat eggs in stand mixer. Add Sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove. Blend until combined. Stir in pumpkin puree until uniform, then add evaporated milk and again mix until uniform. Scrape sides of bowl and do a short blend to incorporate.
DIRECTIONS:
Crust - Makes 2
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 tablespoons ice water
Add flour, salt, and sugar in bowl of stand mixer. Blend until mixed. Add pieces of butter. The smaller they are the easier the next step, but remember it needs to be cold! This makes the crust flaky and delicious. Blend until the butter is incorporated throughout dry mixture. Remove the bowl from the stand, and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the dry mixture until the largest crumbles are about the size of a pea. A food processor can also be used to combine the cold butter into the dry ingredients. Add the ice water to the dough and continue to work with the pastry blender just until uniform - don't overdo it or the crust will get tough. The crust should stick together when smashed into itself. If it's too crumbly, add a bit more ice water.
Divide in half and wrap dough in plastic wrap, making a flat disc. This will help it chill faster and will be easier to roll out. Chill in the refrigerator about an hour.
Pie Filling - Makes 1
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground clove
1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
1 12 oz can of evaporated milk
LIghtly beat eggs in stand mixer. Add Sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove. Blend until combined. Stir in pumpkin puree until uniform, then add evaporated milk and again mix until uniform. Scrape sides of bowl and do a short blend to incorporate.
Assembly!
Preheat the oven to 425*F. Roll out dough onto lightly floured surface until about 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Select a round cutter - my water bottle lid was about 3 3/4" in diameter, but one with a diameter of about 4" or more will give you more of a top crust sticking up. It ended up being pretty handy as I could push the circles out through the hole in the top. Cut as many circles out in one pass as you can, because each time you recombine the dough it gets just a bit less flaky.
Preheat the oven to 425*F. Roll out dough onto lightly floured surface until about 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Select a round cutter - my water bottle lid was about 3 3/4" in diameter, but one with a diameter of about 4" or more will give you more of a top crust sticking up. It ended up being pretty handy as I could push the circles out through the hole in the top. Cut as many circles out in one pass as you can, because each time you recombine the dough it gets just a bit less flaky.
Grease a muffin tin with cooking spray. Press each circle gently down into muffin tin. Some crinkling will occur, but that's part of the cuteness! Prick the bottom of each mini crust with a fork to prevent the crust from bubbling up.
Fill each crust to the top, but without spilling outside of the crust. For me this was a little less than a 1/4 cup of filling in each pie. If you have more crust, you'll be able to use more filling per pie.
I also wanted to make a little decoration for the tops of each pie. With the remaining crust, I cut out little hearts. How cute are they?!? A little leaf, letter, or other embellishment would be adorable, too! Have fun with it!
Brush these with an egg wash (beat an egg with a little bit of water) and sprinkle with crystal sugar (I like Wilton's). Place on parchment paper, and put these in the 425* oven for 6 minutes until golden brown. When done baking, put the parchment paper on a cooling rack and set aside.
Bake the pies at 425*F for 15 minutes, and then reduce the temperature to 350*F for 25 minutes. When baking, they will puff up - don't freak out! They'll fall back down and will look like regular pies. After baking let cool in tins for about 10 minutes, then use toothpicks to pull out of tins and place on cooling racks. Add your miniature decorations, and voila! Mini pumpkin pies!! Enjoy!!