Halloween Food - Pumpkin Pasties

While testing foods for a Halloween party, I ran across this recipe for Pumpkin Pasties http://www.britta.com/britta/HW/HWr.html#pasties - these are goooood. Being efficient (or lazy), I took the easy route with Libby's pumpkin pie filling and packaged pie dough. You mix and cook the pumpkin custard first, not in a pie shell, then cool it before putting into the pasties. I made some of these with a pumpkin cookie cutter as well as the fold-over circles shown in the recipe (and with a ravioli maker but didn't like the custard to pie dough ratio on those). This is easy enough to make in an RV using the prepared foods I used and you are supposed to be able to get put them together and freeze them then bake them later. I'm testing that and will let you know how that goes once we've thawed then baked those. Instead of slits to vent the steam, I cut little faces into the tops to help with the Halloween theme.

I thought this would be a great way to turn pumpkin pie into finger food AND allow for portion control... until I ate some, and then some more and then had to force myself to stop from eating ALL of them. So make lots and have fun!

Holly,

Thanks for the recipe.

I would have taken the same shortcuts and had a difficult time not eating all of them, too.   I love pumpkin but also think you could use any pie filling.

We haven't had our Cruiser long enough to use the convection oven.   We are meeting friends in SC in a month so I may get to experiment.  I've had a convection in our home and used a portable one in our previous RV so I don't anticipate any problems.

Gail

Update on the pumpkin pasties. You can make ahead, freeze, then bake and they are still awesome! I assembled them, cut the vents, then immediately froze them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Once frozen, I put them in a zip lock baggie then into a box (to avoid crushing when we dug through the freezer). To cook, take them out of the freezer, put on parchment on baking sheet, coat with egg wash to get a beautiful golden brown, then bake according to the recipe. DO NOT THAW first - they get squishy. It may take a little longer to bake since they are frozen. I just kept checking. You only need to bake long enough to cook the pie crust and get the filling heated. We will be cooling ours before serving so no one burns their mouth. Our granddaughter, Chloe, designed the vampire faces since these are for Halloween. We like them a lot.

These pasties have a high crust to custard ratio so you need more pie crusts than usual for a can of pie filling. I kept running out then decided to cut costs and make my own (first time since high school Home Ec class, I think). I used this recipe http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/easy-pie-crust and it was great. BUT since it is lighter and flakier, the pasties are more delicate. On the road I will use frozen or refrigerated crust since I don't carry a pastry cutter with me.

The picture shows them assembled and ready to freeze but not baked yet.