Friday, October 23, 2009

Jack O’ Lantern Hand Pies with Pumpkin Date Filling



I'm having a big creative stream of conscious day. One thought lead to another and these delicious hand pies were born. I can’t stay and chat for long though, I have several other ideas I want to get started on before Halloween!

You’re going to have about two cups of leftover filling. Make more pies if you wish, bake it into a tart, use it as a dip for cookies, or spread it on buttered toast. I’m going to try it on a pizza with brie, walnuts, dates, and honey this evening. I’ll write that down too if it goes well.

The pumpkin stencil cookie cutter comes in a holiday set made by Progressive.

Ingredients
1 package pie dough for a double crust
1 1/3 cups roasted or canned pumpkin puree
5 large whole fresh Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ cup regular cream cheese, softened and slightly warm (fat free will not work)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten together for egg wash
Raw sugar for sprinkling

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a food processor puree the dates and granulated sugar together until mainly smooth.

3. Add the dark brown sugar, salt, cream cheese, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, and vanilla extract and puree until smooth. Scrap down the sides as needed. Set aside.

4. Gently roll out the pie dough just until smooth between two pieces of wax paper. Make 7 cuts with the pumpkin cutter outline very close together going around the pie dough in a circle, and then an 8th cut right in the middle. Take the stencil part of the cutter, and press faces into 4 pumpkins. Repeat with second dough.

5. Place the pumpkins without faces on the cookie sheet. Brush the edges lightly with egg wash. Take 1 ½ to 2 teaspoons of filling and spread it around the pumpkin leaving the edges clear. Too much filling will ooze out so be careful here.

6. Press the faces gently on top of the puree and seal the edges with your fingers. Brush lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with a little raw sugar.

7. Bake for 15 minutes on the middle rack. Serve warm or cold.

Makes 8 hand pies

Recipe and picture by Laura Flowers


24 comments:

foodcreate said...

Beautiful I can't wait to try them:)


Thank you for sharing your Recipe :)



Have a great Day ~

The Cooking Photographer said...

Thank-you!

Coleens Recipes said...

How perfect for this time of year!! Excellent, excellent.

La Table De Nana said...

You're on a roll:) So cute..great idea!

Unknown said...

those are just too darned cute!!

Unknown said...

those are just too darned cute!!

Mardi Michels said...

Great recipe and so adorable to boot! I love the filling - it's like fig newton x 1000000000! Love dates!

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

So adorable - I love them!!!

Bigarade said...

Ohhhh! They look sooooo CUTE! Will have to try these!

Michelle said...

These sound amazingly wonderful! So cute too :)

Unknown said...

Love these! They are so adorable! Dates and pumpkin together sounds awesome :)

Oh and please take a look @ http://acquiredflavor.blogspot.com/2009/10/wow-blogger-award.html It's just a blogger award, but I feel you deserve one :)

Mari @ Once Upon a Plate said...

Oh Laura, you did a fabulous job on these! Absolutely adorable!!

xo

Heather S-G said...

Oh, they're so adorable...and that filling..yowza..sounds addicting :D Yum!

vanillasugarblog said...

you are awesome! I can only imagine how hard this was to create. came out perfect.

Oceanside Creations said...

These are fantastic! So cute

Sue said...

I have actually THOUGHT of doing this, but never have yet...YOURS are ADORABLE!

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

Hey Laura - I like the new profile pic... didn't realize your hair was blonde (thought you were a brunette). Anyway, you look a little like my sister-in-law. :)

The Cooking Photographer said...

Lol I'm light brown with lots of grey highlights Patricia!

The Cooking Photographer said...

Thank-you for the comments everyone! I enjoyed them!

A Bowl Of Mush said...

These are so much fun and sound really delicious! So cute!

Stephanie said...

Wow these look awesome! SO fun!

Federica Simoni said...

wow ma sono meravigliose!! complimenti complimenti!!

Lori said...

adorable!

Natalie said...

These look so fun and festive! I bet the filling is amazing, and I love the look the raw sugar gives it.

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