Thursday, December 5, 2013

Pumpkin Pie Cookies


I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! While making a few different pies for the holidays, I stumbled upon this cute idea: pie cookies! While I love pie as much as the next person, sometimes it's not so easy to transport and a "bite size" pie would be ideal. Well, here it is - a little pie filling sandwiched between two dough disks.

This recipe isn't very different from the Traditional Pumpkin Pie I made recently (double the crust and 1/2 the filling). The main difference is a little extra sugar in the pie crust and filling because people usually expect cookies to be a bit sweeter. While it is a little more time consuming than making one large pie, it's well worth the effort because the pie cookies turn out wonderfully!

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

(Yields about 16 cookies using a 3-inch cookie cutter)

Ingredients:
For Pie Crust:
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 6 Tbsp. white sugar
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1/4-1/2 cup ice water
For Filling:
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
  • 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
For Topping:
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 2 Tbsp. white sugar

Directions:
For Pie Crust:
  1. Place flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and process until combined
  2. Add cubed butter and process until the mixture is crumbly (about 15 seconds)
  3. Slowly add about 1/4 cup of water through the top of the food processor, just until the dough holds together when pinched. Add remaining water as necessary
  4. Gather dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a disk. Cover each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before using (or the day before)
For Filling:
  1. In a large bowl, lightly whisk the egg
  2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir or gently whisk to combine
For Topping:
  1. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg; set aside
  2. In another small bowl, stir together cinnamon and sugar; set aside
For Assembly:
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
  2. Remove one dough disk from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature
  3. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out until dough is about 1/4-inch thick
  4. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut circle out of the pie dough.
    **I did 8 cookies at a time to keep things under control, so I cut 16 circles in my first batch
  5. Place 8 pie crust circles on your parchment-lined cookie sheet, evenly spaced. Cut small slits onto the 8 remaining top pie crusts
  6. Spoon 1-2 Tbsp. of filling into the center of each bottom pie crust. Wet the edge of the bottom pie crust with water, then place each top crust on top (sandwiching the pumpkin filling)
  7. Press down on the edges with the top of fork (or you can use a lollipop stick to make individual marks). Clean off any filling that may have oozed out during the process
    **Make sure you press down very hard to prevent the top and bottom crust from separating while baking!
  8. Brush the top of each cookie with egg, then sprinkle with the cinnamon/sugar mixture
  9. Bake for 25-30 minute or until the cookies are lightly browned on the bottom
  10. Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool 
  11. Repeat with another batch, using the remaining pie crust and filling

Bottom pie crust with filling (step 6):

Ready to go into the oven (step 7-8):

Yum - the finished cookies:

Enjoy and thanks for reading!
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