Pumpkin Pie Bites

Okay, so when I mentioned the canned pumpkin buying binge yesterday, I wasn’t completely honest. I didn’t buy all of that pumpkin in a panic. I actually had plans for at least a few cans of it…

And yes, in fact, they were plans that involved butter. And a pastry blender.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. About a month ago, I had a total aww moment while reading my google reader, compliments of the queen of cute herself, Bakerella. Don’t you love her blog? Everything is just so cute, it’s like Cute Overload for baking!

So for me, this aww moment really took the cake–or should I say pie–since it was a creation that seemed both cute AND delicious! Pumpkin Pie Bites shaped like mini pumpkins!! What could be more perfect for a finger food at Halloween or Thanksgiving? I knew immediately that I needed to make these as soon as possible, so I hopped on over to Amazon to order the necessary supplies–a mini muffin pan and a pumpkin cookie cutter.

After a few false starts, I finally got around to making the little pumpkin lovelies last weekend, just in time for Halloween. And they didn’t disappoint, on either the cute or the taste front.

Pumpkin Pie Bites
Adapted from Bakerella

In her original post, Bakerella went on about how easy she thought these were. Now I don’t think they were hard per say, but they certainly weren’t the easiest thing I’ve ever made, or even the easiest pumpkin recipe on this website. I didn’t help the fact any by making my own pie dough (but I really love making pie dough–especially the recipe from the Baked cookbook, it’s simply the best!) but I think the taste of homemade pie dough more than makes up for the effort. Other than that, the only alterations I made were to up the spices a little bit–I didn’t think the pie mix had enough kick. And if I were to make these again I would definitely use the stand mixer instead of doing these by hand. I didn’t realize quite how hard it would be to whisk cream cheese.

Ingredients:

For Pie Dough:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
• 3/4 cup ice water (use a couple of ice cubes to get that water really cold–just take them out before you use the water!)

For Pie Filling:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• fresh ground cinnamon for dusting the tops of the pies
• Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut the butter into slices, then add into the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the combination resembles coarse meal. Add the ice water, and using your hand, combine the dough until it just comes together. Separate dough into two equal sized balls, flatten to 1 inch disks, and wrap the disks in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour before using.

Remove the dough from the fridge, and roll one disc to about 1/4 inch thick. Using the pumpkin cookie cutter, cut 12 pumpkin shapes. Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other. Use the white from one of the eggs to brush the edges of the pumpkins.

In a stand mixer, mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pie crusts, filling all the way to the top. Place into preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until pies are set. Remove pies immediately onto a cooling rack so you can reuse the pan to make more pies using the second disk of dough! Bakerella recommends using the freezer to cool the pan down quickly, and I found that this worked great.

Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated until you devour. Prior to serving, dust with fresh cinnamon. Yumlish.

Everyone loves pumpkin pie, so you really can’t go wrong with this crowd pleasing fall recipe. And don’t forget to check back tomorrow for another pumpkin flavored treat!

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