Pumpkin Pie Bites

Fall is really here! In Southern California, fall usually means pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks coupled with 90+ degree weather. However, my favorite season finally made its wonderful appearance this week as temperatures cooled down to a much more bearable 70 degrees during the day (absolutely freezing, I know). This new + improved – and decidedly more seasonally appropriate – temperature has already made me start craving all things pumpkin and Thanksgiving themed. I blame the weather for the many pumpkin recipes that I will be posting this week. Prepare your stomachs.

To satisfy my pumpkin craving, we started out by hosting our annual pumpkin carving extravaganza last week. Every year I always take hours to lovingly separate the pumpkin seeds from the rest of the discarded innards to make a crunchy snack for later, but this year I took it one step further. I set aside all the leftover pumpkin bits (the weird mushy stuff went straight to the compost) and decided to make my own homemade pumpkin pie filling. Now that my freezer is full of the stuff, I needed a way to use some up before the actual feasting holiday began. Making baby-sized pumpkin pies seemed like the natural choice.

Ingredients:

• 2 pie crusts
• 2 cups pumpkin puree –> recipe
• 15 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 2 eggs
• whipped cream (optional)

Kitchen Tools: 2 muffin tins, whisk, nonstick spray

Prep Work: 

Preheat oven to 425*F. Spray muffin tin with nonstick spray. Roll out each pie crust and cut into 12 more or less equal sized squares (about 3.5″ x 3.5″) per crust, for a total of 24 squares. Press squares into muffin tins. The 4 corners of the crust should be poking out above the edge of each mold.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients until fully combined.

Cooking:

Bake pie crust for 10-12 minutes until just beginning to brown. Lower oven temp to 375*F.

Spoon pumpkin mixture into each crust. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the filling is set. Let cool. Dollop on some whipped cream before serving if desired.