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 purée 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 