Mini pumpkin pies are a miniature version, perfect for serving, of my spiced pumpkin pie. I’m not a huge pumpkin person but I love a richly spiced pumpkin pie, and this is that in a cute little personal size pie. These would be beautiful for serving or putting a pie on everyone’s plate with no mess.
Why are things better when they are mini? I don’t know but that’s just one of the rules of life. I have Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies, and mini Brownie Bites, and both are also pretty popular as well.
If I’m being honest, these mini pumpkin pies ARE a little more work on the front end for making a pie. But, when it comes to bake time, it’s much quicker and serving is a breeze because you don’t have to do anything.
Baking Tips
Pie crust is not always the most fun to work with. It can be finnicky and it’s sensitive to temperature, etc. If you want to use a store bought pie crust, you definitely can skip the step of making your own dough. Just start at the step of rolling out and cutting the dough rounds for the mini pumpkin pies. I also found these mini crusts at my local grocery store which makes it even easier. Now, will it taste as good? Maybe not, but it will save you some time and effort.
If you don’t want to use the blend of spices, you can also substitute them all for about 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. It won’t be exactly the same, but it will of course still taste great as pumpkin pie spice was designed for pumpkin pie.
In my recipe, you will cook the filling on the stovetop for a few minutes to help try to reduce the amount of water in the pumpkin. This is to help firm up the filling and make it less likely to bleed into the crust. In a regular size pumpkin pie I’d blind bake the crust, but in the mini pumpkin pies we don’t. You don’t want to cook it too long on the the stovetop though as it will overcook the filling. It will taste fine, but the filling won’t be quite as creamy/smooth.
Mini Pumpkin Pie Key Ingredients
- Pastry Flour – If you are making your own crust, I’d recommend using a low protein flour like pastry flour as it creates a better texture in pastry. You can definitely use all purpose, and it will work just fine however pastry flour often lends itself to a flakier pie crust.
- Pumpkin Puree – Make sure to use canned pumpkin puree. I love making my own but for this recipe you want minimal water for the filling. Homemade puree is much waterier than canned and could lead to Mary Berry’s least favorite thing.. a soggy bottom.
- Spices – This is a sort of a dark and spicy version of pumpkin pie, so it’s a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. You can use pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have all of these, but it will taste slightly different.
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 84 g Unsalted butter 6 tbsp, cold
- 180 g Pastry flour 1½ cups
- 4 g Sea salt ¾ tsp
- 24 g Shortening 2 tbsp, cold
- 4 tbsp Cold water
Pie Filling
- 244 g Pumpkin puree 1 cup
- 135 g Dark brown sugar ⅔ cup
- ¼ tsp Sea salt
- 1¼ tsp Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- ½ tsp Ginger
- ⅛ tsp /Pinch of cloves
- 1 large Egg + 1 yolk
- ¼ cup Heavy whipping cream
- 2 tbsp Whole or 2% milk
Instructions
Make the Pie Crust
- Measure out your butter and cut into small pieces about ½ inch wide. Place in a small bowl into the freezer and let chill for about 30 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, add your flour and salt, and mix.
- Add your shortening and chilled butter, and using a pastry cutter, cut the butter and shortening into the dry ingredients. The flour should look a little sandy with chunks of butter and shortening pea size or smaller.
- Add 4 tablespoons of ice cold water into your flour. Use a rubber spatula to begin to work the dough together.
- Once larger chunks have started to form, use your hands and press and form the dough into a ball shape. If the dough feels particularly dry, wet your hands while you work the dough.
- Place your ball of dough onto parchment or plastic wrap and press down into a rectangle like shape – it does not need to be perfect.
- Wrap your dough and chill for 1-2 hours, or up to 24 hours. If chilling for longer than 1-2 hours, make sure to wrap your dough well to avoid it drying out.
- Take a 12 count muffin tin and grease 10 of the cavities with butter. I also cut strips of parchment and pressed them into each after greasing to help me pull the pies out of the tin after baking. Set aside.
- After your dough has chilled, roll out your dough on a floured surface to about ⅛ inch thick. Using a 3¾-4 inch cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out 10 rounds. If you cannot do this in one roll out that's okay but try to get as many in the first roll out as possible. I used a scalloped edge biscuit cutter to provide a decorative edge to the pie crust.
- Gently press your dough rounds into your buttered muffin tin.
- Place your muffin tin with pie crusts into the fridge to chill.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Make pumpkin filling
- In a small saucepan, add pumpkin puree, brown sugar, spices, egg and egg yolk, cream and milk and stir.
- Place over medium heat, frequently stirring until the mixture begins to sputter and steam (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat.
- Remove your pie crusts from the fridge and fill with pumpkin filling leaving just a small edge at the top.
- Bake on the center rack of your oven for about 45 minutes, or until the edges of the pie crusts are lightly brown. If you are using a store bought pie crust, you will likely need to reduce your bake time by about 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to sit in the tin for about 15 more minutes before removing and transferring to a wire cooling rack.
- Let cool completely, and serve with a dollop of whipped cream on each. Enjoy!
