Mini-Pie

First off, I would like to apologize for sadder than usual photos of food.  I was super unimpressed with these tiny pies at first and didn't even think I'd share.  Bakerella herself may have come in the night to fix them, because by game time on Saturday these bad boys had gone from Longhorn losers to Wildcat winners. 

Tiny Pie = Big Hit

Pumpkin Pie Bites by Bakerella
Ingredients

• 2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature 
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1 cup canned pumpkin 
• 3 eggs 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 
• Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter (I don't have one so I used a flower-shaped cookie cutter.  Not my best move.)
• 1/2 cup chocolate morsels
• vegetable oil
• re-sealable plastic bags (I use a candy making squeezy bottle guy.  Available at Hobby Lobby)

 Method

•  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin (or flower!) shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box.
• Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray.  (I only have one 12-mini muffin tin, so I just did two batches) 
• Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie.
• Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.
• Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped (or flower-shaped!) pie crust.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes (or like an hour)
• Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. 
• Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated. (Mine made closer to 36... and I must have missed this part about keeping them refrigerated... hope no one got sick!)
• To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off (or just pour into your squeezy bottle).  Decorate as you please!  

 

Add whipped cream!

 I was so flippin' frustrated when I was making these on Friday night.  They came together very easy, and the pie crust was pretty simple to work with.  But they would not cook.  I put them in the oven for more than 30 minutes.  They were like jello jigglers in there.  And the crust didn't get that pretty golden brown color either.  I'm not sure if my oven temperature was off or what.  But I almost just tossed them.  I'm glad I didn't though.  They set up nicely overnight and ended up tasting great.

 

Bryan doesn't seem to be affected by food borne illness.

I think I will definitely make these again.  They would be perfect for any kind of holiday get together.  I just need to figure out the oven I guess.  Especially because cheesecake time is upon us!  And cheesecake is very particular about precise oven temps.