These pumpkin hand pies are a great fall treat. Refrigerator pie crust rounds are filled with a thick homemade pumpkin paste, and baked until golden brown.

It wouldn’t be fall without at least one pumpkin recipe. And this one is a winner.

How To Make Hand Pies

Hand pies are mini pies that are baked flat instead of in a pie tin. They are hand-held and filled with either sweet or savory ingredients.

The easiest way to make hand pies is with refrigerated pie crust. This pie crust tends to be easier to work with than homemade pie crust. But you can use either.

Here’s the process, in a nutshell (scroll down for detailed recipe):

• Unroll the pie crust dough
• Use a pint glass or round cookie cutter to cut circles out of the crust
• Place a dollop of filling on one round
• Top it with another round
• Crimp the edges together with a fork
• Brush with egg wash, top with coarse sugar, and bake until golden brown

How To Make The Pumpkin Filling

These hand pies are filled with a thick pumpkin paste, or pumpkin compote.

This recipe comes from Brazil, where it’s called doce de abobora.

It’s easy to make, but does require the finicky task of peeling a pumpkin:

• Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds and insides
• Cut into smaller pieces and peel off the outer pumpkin skin
• Cut pumpkin into small pieces
• Cook pumpkin with sugar for up to an hour, stirring often, until pumpkin breaks down and becomes a thick paste

Note: Using traditional pumpkin pie filling is not recommended for these hand pies. The batter is much too runny. This pumpkin paste is ideal because it’s thick – not runny.

Time-Saving Tip

Although you can make homemade pie crust for these hand pies, I find it much easier to use ready-made refrigerator pie crust.

It’s as simple as unrolling the thawed crust, cutting circles, placing filling in the middle of one circle, and topping it with another and sealing the edges.

Refrigerator pie crust is inexpensive: About $3.00 for a package of 2 crusts.

More Fall Pumpkin Recipes

• Pumpkin mug cake
• Pumpkin spice dessert pizza
• 3-ingredient pumpkin oat clusters
• Moist pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting
• Pumpkin hummus

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Pumpkin Hand Pies

Yield: 10 hand pies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Additional Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

You can make the pumpkin paste one or several days in advance.

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Ingredients

• 1 batch pumpkin compote (doce de abobora)
• 1 package refrigerated pie crust
• 1 egg, beaten
• Coarse sugar, for topping (optional)

Instructions

1. Start by making one batch of pumpkin filling.
2. Preheat oven to 350F. Unroll refrigerated pie crusts on the countertop. Use the rim of a pint glass (or round cookie cutter) to cut rounds out of the pie crust.
3. Place one pie crust round on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place a heaping teaspoon of pumpkin filling in the center of the round. Top with another round. Crimp the edges together with a fork. Repeat with remaining pie crust circles.
4. Brush the tops of each hand pie with egg wash. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
5. Bake hand pies for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

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