Apple Pumpkin Pie Bites

Happy Wednesday! This recipe was definitely a learning experience. I wanted to make pumpkin hand pies. So I used the recipe for the filling off of the pumpkin pie can and I bought two refrigerated pie crusts (cause I still have never made a pie crust... i know, how lame of me... but I WILL do it some day....). I figured I would just cut circles out of the refrigerated pie crust, add the filling, and top with another circle of pie crust, easy peasy. The problem turned out to be that the pie filling I made was waaay too liquidy, and I ended up with A LOT of it. A BUNCH more than I needed!

I am solution oriented though, so I added some flour to thicken it up, and used the extra filling to make these bars from picky palate. At the last minute, I was inspired to dice up an apple and add it to the pies. I had an extra one left over after making this cake, so I ended up with pumpkin apple pocket pies! They are delightful, flaky little bites of fall. The apple adds a great texture and flavor to the creamy pumpkin filling. The crust is nice and flaky, I'm sure homemade would be better but Pillsbury worked for me. I have posted the recipe I used (the one that makes a ton of filling), if you don't want extra pumpkin pie filling, just halve the filling recipe and that will make about the right amount of filling for 12 pie bites.

Apple Pumpkin Pie Bites

Ingredients

Original Ingredients

Plus...

Last Minute Add-Ins

1 can pumpkin

1 12 oz can nonfat evaporated milk

3/4 cup white sugar

9 tablespoons flour

2 eggs

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 small apple, diced

2 refrigerated pie crust doughs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a small tart pan (you could also use a muffin pan or a muffin top pan) and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, sugar, flour, eggs, salt, and spices.

Set aside.

Roll out pie crusts, and using a three inch circle cookie cutter, cut out 12 circles from each crust (you will need to bundle up the scraps and re-roll them).

Place 12 of the crusts in the prepared tart pan.

Sprinkle on a few pieces of diced apple, cover with a scant tablespoon of pumpkin filling. Brush the edges of each bottom crust with a bit of water and top with another circle of crust.

Pinch the two crust edges together (make sure they seal or else you will get filling seeping out the sides). Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min or until lightly golden brown.

Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1-2 tablespoons milk

Whisk together sugar and milk making sure to break up any lumps. Drizzle over mini-pies before serving.

Yay Fall!!