Deconstructed Reconstructed Mini Pumpkin Hand Pies

 Canned pumpkin pie filling on the left, pumpkin pastry cream on the right.

I was commissioned to make some mini pumpkin pies for a birthday. Previously I had made apple and peach hand pies. The pies were all baked and cooling on the rack. I tried one and thought it tasted like crust despite the filling oozing out when I made them. I can't serve these I thought. I'll make them better. Luckily I had some extra milk, eggs and canned pumpkin pie filling. I whipped up some pumpkin pastry cream, cut open the pies, piped some in, and tasted them. Now they were creamy and slightly pumpkin flavored but lacked some punch. I mixed together some spices from the cupboard- allspice, powdered ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. I mixed them into the pastry cream which was no longer orange but brown. "Oh no!" I thought I had put too much in. August tasted it and deemed it delicious. You will not find these on another site. I think they are a cross between hand pies and cream puffs.

Deconstructed Reconstructed Mini Pumpkin Pies
Makes 12

Pie Crust- Makes 2 Crusts (You can use any pie crust recipe)

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, (151.2 g) chilled and cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk ( save the egg white to use for a wash)
ice water

Whisk together flour and salt. Add the butter and use pastry blender, two knives, or a fork to blend into coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with 3 Tbsp. of ice water. Sprinkle the egg mixture over the flour mixture. Sprinkle more ice water one Tbsp. at a time over the flour mixture until it begins to form a ball. Knead the dough on a floured board. Shape into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator.

Pumpkin Pie Filling- I bought mine from the store in a can. You can make your own by adding plain pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and sugar. If adding milk or cream, only add a little or your filling will be runny.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Pastry Cream

1 cup whole milk
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp. nutmeg
1/2 Tbsp. ground ginger

1/2 Tbsp. allspice
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Prepare an ice bath. Steam the milk in a small saucepan.   In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, pumpkin, sugar, flour, spices, and cornstarch until smooth.
Slowly add half of the steaming milk to the pumpkin mixture, whisk constantly.  Add the rest of the milk and stir. Pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan.  Heat it for a minute or two stirring constantly with a rubber spatula until the custard reaches 170F on a digital thermometer and is very thick. Remove from the heat and put the saucepan into the ice bath.  Stir in the vanilla extract. Let it cool for 30 minutes in the ice bath. Strain through a sieve. Transfer pastry cream to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap pressing it onto the cream so skin doesn't form. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Making the Mini Pies

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Take the chilled pie dough out of the refrigerator. Roll out on floured surface. The thinner you roll it out, the better it will taste. Use circle cutters to cut out 3 inch circles from the dough. Place the circles on the cookie sheet.

3. Spoon some pumpkin pie filling onto each circle. Cover the filling with another pie dough circle. Use the end of a lollipop stick or a fork and press down on edges of the mini pies to seal the dough.

4. Brush lightly with egg wash. Sprinkle with ginger sugar or coarse sugar. Bake in oven for about 30-45 minutes. They are done when you see the crust turning golden brown.

5. Cool on rack for 5 minutes then remove from baking sheet to cool on wire rack.

6. Split open mini pies with a sharp knife. Fill a piping bag with pumpkin spice pastry cream. Pipe cream into mini pies. Replace tops. Refrigerate. Take out of refrigerator 30 minutes before serving to warm to room temperature.