Mini pumpkin pies with gingerbread graham cracker crust
On Sunday I celebrated . And what鈥檚 Thanksgiving without desserts? I am聽all about聽Thanksgiving desserts (of course). At home, we usually take a break between dinner and dessert, maybe go for a walk to let the聽聽and stuffing settle and make room for pies and fudge and聽.听(Oh my!)
I wanted to make a play on聽聽pie鈥� something good for a buffet table鈥� thus, mini pumpkin pies!
The problem with pie is聽聽(dun dun dunnn) 鈥� it鈥檚 kind of a throwaway component. When we were little, my sisters and I always left the pie crust on our plates. But聽crust is something else entirely. Is there a single person out there who doesn鈥檛 love graham cracker crust? No, no there is not. Because it is聽fantastic聽and easy to make! And this graham cracker crust takes its graham crackery-ness to a whole new level.
That鈥檚 because Safeway, for once, had what I needed and more. Next to the regular graham crackers there sat a box of gingerbread graham crackers. Done and聽done. Best graham cracker crust ever.
And of course you聽尘耻蝉迟听have whipped cream. A pumpkin pie without whipped cream is like a day without sunshine. And there is no such thing as too much whipped cream. (My super mind powers tell me that聽听颈蝉听诲测颈苍驳聽over this picture 鈥� the kid used to get hot chocolate without the hot chocolate, aka a cup of whipped cream and a spoon.)
Mini pumpkin pies with graham cracker crust
The crust:
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (put your crackers in a bag and crush them, or you can be all high-tech and use a food processor)
1/4 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
Mix all the ingredients together and press them into the bottoms of greased muffin tins (or you can do them in cupcake wrappers). I had enough for about 30 mini pies.
The filling:
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can pure pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.聽Mix all the ingredients together until smooth.聽Spoon filling into muffin tins.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 degrees F, and cook for 20 minutes more.
Remove from the oven. To test for done-ness, shake the pan a bit, pies should not be jiggly in the center.
Cool completely, then run a knife around the edges and remove from the pan.
