The kids and I made these cuties for Luke’s class thanksgiving party which happened this morning. I love how they came out but truth be told, I have such an intimidation factor with pies! I also don’t have the best baking/cooking with kids track record. Room to grow people, room to grow 🙂 Thus is a great one with little hands that want to help.
I wanted to try using a muffin tin and making individual pies since it seemed easier with the buffet style. I did a lot of store bought pie crust research and Trader Joe’s came around the top every time so we did their $3.99 frozen crusts and they really are great; buttery, flaky but not too much so as not to crossover to pastry pumpkin pie. In general, the only pre-made crusts that came in front of them were pie doughs you can find at your local bakery, so nice work TJs! We also grabbed our organic pumpkin purĂ©e there, and mostly everything else was on hand (cream, milk, eggs, brown sugar, spices). This really is a delicious and easy pumpkin pie!
Mini Pumpkin Pies (makes 12)
1 package Trader Joe’s pie crust (= 2 reg pkgs of pie dough)
2 cans organic pumpkin purée
4 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 tsp each of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, allspice and salt (although I did some extra cinnamon)
Muffin tin, coconut oil spray
Simply defrost the pie crusts per the instructions on the box. Once defrosted, coat your muffin tin with coconut spray.
Use a small bowl or regular sized cup to cut circles into the dough. If dough is malleable, ball it up and form/squish it into the muffin tin. I found that just to the top had a nicer look but some of them I let curl a bit and that has a thicker bite if you like that.
Once dough is in, set in fridge and whisk together your purée, milk, cream, eggs, spices. Pour into your muffin tins one at a time!
Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes and longer if needed. I tested this a couple times. In my opinion, taking them out with a little caramelized around the edges puts them over the top.
Enjoy!
mrscaseyann 