Mini pumpkin pies: how to hack your way to adorable for your Thanksgiving feast

Mini pumpkin pies on your Thanksgiving table are guaranteed to bring a chorus of, “AWWW” sounds. Filled with simple perfect homemade pumpkin pie filling with chai spices, baked in incredibly flaky and delicious cream cheese pastry, these are so so tasty.

I don’t always go for a whole slice of pumpkin pie, but there’s literally always room for mini pumpkin pies. These little guys are so adorable, so poppable, and just so good. In a couple bites you get everything you get from a perfect pie without feeling like it’s too much.

Have you ever eaten pumpkin pie with soggy crust? I certainly have, and there is no love lost between me and that kind of pie. Those are the times I happily eat the filling alone and throw away the crust. Blech. This will not happen here with these mini pies. Do a scrape test, dragging your fork across the bottom of a pumpkin mini pie, and you’ll find that these pies make that delightful sound that crisp pastry makes. Friends don’t let friends make soggy pie.

The nice thing about these cute little pies is that you can make the pastry and the filling ahead of time and then put them together when you have a little bit of time. Top them with stabilized whipped cream up to a couple days ahead of time, and they’ll be a centerpiece of your Thanksgiving dessert spread that everyone will love.

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Mini Pumpkin Pies

Why you’ll love these adorable tiny pumpkin mini pies

1. Cuteness: These are ridiculously cute. If you don’t believe me, cut one in tiny pieces and tell me I’m wrong. A tiny wedge is like a feast for a Calico Critter.
2. Perfect size: I love being able to sample different desserts at Thanksgiving, and this smaller size gives you the chance to do so without feeling like you’re gonna need a nap in 3-2-1…
3. Such good textures: because the proportion of crust to filling is much higher than in a whole pumpkin pie, the filling and the crust cook at similar rates. As such, you’ll get crispy crust just as the custard sets. There’s no monkeying around having to blind bake your crust or shield the crust from overbrowning the last minutes of baking. Everything comes together without a fuss.
4. Taste!!: I love the chai spices with the pumpkin. Throw some whipped cream on these tiny pies and you’ll have something that tastes truly memorable.

What you’ll need to make pumpkin mini pies

• Cream cheese pastry: takes about 20 minutes from taking the butter out of the freezer to getting it into the fridge to chill for another 20 minutes.
• Pumpkin Pie Filling: takes 1 minute to make.
• Heavy cream if you’d like to make whipped cream frosting to go on top.
• Sprinkles or sanding sugar for decorating the top
• A little milk to help glue the sugar on the pastry decorations.

Equipment for making mini pumpkin pies

1. Rolling pin
2. Parchment
3. Muffin tin
4. Scalloped round cutters or plain round cutters: The scalloped cutters give you a pretty edge with no extra work, though the plain cutters look nice as well.
5. Mini Fall cookie cutters: optional

Tips for making the best tiny pumpkin pies

1. Line the muffin tins with a strip of parchment: cut small strips to fit under the crusts to make it easy to pop the pies out of the tin. After baking, simply pull on the tabs to release the pies. This keeps the sides from being damaged by a tool you might use to pop them out or from tapping them out on the counter (nervewracking!).
2. Cut decorations: It’s not necessary, but it adds to the cute factor to cut little pumpkins or leaves from the scraps of dough. If you don’t have cutters, you can easily freehand cut small leaves.
3. Add whipped cream: If you’d like, serve your pies with whipped cream. I would highly recommend my whipped cream frosting–it’s super easy, and you can make it ahead of time.

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