Mini Pumpkin Pies

I made these sweet treats for the hubs to take with him to work before Thanksgiving.  I love sending him in with treats and knew these bite sized sweets would be a hit.  I didn't use a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter.  I had the exact one she used but felt like it was too much work getting the crust into the pumpkin shape.  I just made sure to fill the mini muffin tin with enough crust to hold pumpkin pie filling inside. I ended up using the lid to a spice mix to cut the crust into circles.  It worked out fine.  After the dough was into the mini cups, the recipe was a cinch.  I filled the crusts, put them in the oven, and when I took them out I had mini pumpkin pies! I decided to drizzle a little melted chocolate over the top to finish them off.  From what hubs told me, they were a hit at work and gone in minutes.  Success! 

Pumpkin Pie Bites

Courtesy of Bakerella

Pumpkin Pie Bites

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

Optional
1/2 cup chocolate morsels
vegetable oil
re-sealable plastic bags

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin 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. (Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other.)
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 pie crust.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.

Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated.

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. Drizzle or draw faces on pies.