Mini Maple Chai Pumpkin Pies with Whipped Coconut, baked in a sweet pastry crust topped with fluffy clouds of coconut whipped cream!
It's Thanksgiving here in Canada and what better way to celebrate than with Mini Maple Chai Pumpkin Pies with Whipped Coconut!
Forgive me my fellow sweet fiends, for it has been exactly sixteen days since I last joined you here for our weekly sweet talk. It seems while I was away, October reared its cool, crisp head and brought with it darker mornings, single digit evening temperatures and...what now...Thanksgiving!?!
A good chunk of our time was spent strategizing and planning for the future of the organization, and the rest exploring a small part of this 300 acre family-owned farm - corn maze, stables, barns, peacocks, horses, bunnies, fresh air, pumpkins and clear skies for miles. Oh, and the best apples I have ever tasted. I digress, but only a little...
The time spent surrounded by pumpkins quickly put me in the mood for fall baking. After a somewhat failed attempt earlier this month, I was ready to tackle these Mini Maple Chai Pumpkin Pies with Whipped Coconut. Complete with miniature sugar pumpkin look-a-likes, to top things off.
Ingredients
For the Pâte Sucrée:
- 150 g sugar
- 227 g unsalted butter soft, but cool
- 4 g salt
- 1 vanilla bean scraped
- 1 egg
- 60 ml milk
- 437 g pastry flour
- 2.5 g baking powder
For the filling:
- 100 g packed light brown sugar
- 2.5 g ground cinnamon
- 2.5 g salt
- 1 g ground ginger
- 1 g ground cardamom
- 1 g grated nutmeg
- 1 g ground cloves
- 1 can can pumpkin puree 15-ounce
- 3 large eggs
- 160 ml heavy cream
- 120 ml maple syrup
- 5 g pure vanilla bean paste
For the whipped cream:
- 500 ml coconut cream or 35% whipping cream, chilled
- 3 grams pure maple syrup
- 1 gram pumpkin spice home-made or store bought
- 2 packages Dr. Oetker Whipped Cream Stabilizer optional
Garnish:
- cinnamon sticks optional
- mini fondant pumpkins optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF. Prepare mini pie molds.
- Cream butter, sugar, salt and pumpkin emulsion until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
- Sift together flour and baking powder, add to butter mixture. Add milk and blend until smooth.
- Remove from bowl and work the dough on a floured table. Chill until needed - about 2 hours.
- Roll out chilled dough to about ¼ inch thick, cut into squares and to fit the size of your molds, then press evenly into tart molds. Use a fork to punch holes in the bottom of the pastry.
- Return to the refrigerator to chill for an additional hour. Remove from fridge and weight the dough with pie weights or beans and blind bake until golden brown - approximately 10 minutes depending on your oven.
- Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
To make the pie filling:
- Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF.
- Sift together the sugar, flour and spices in a bowl and use a hand whisk to combine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining wet ingredients then add to dry ingredients, whisking until fully incorporated to a smooth consistency.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven.
To make the whipped topping:
- Chill the cream, stainless steel bowl and whisk.
- Pour the cream into the chilled bowl, add the stabilizer, spices and the pumpkin bakery emulsion.
- Whip until stiff peaks form.
Assembly:
- Using a 1M open star tip, pipe a generous amount of whipped cream onto each of the mini pies. Garnish with cinnamon sticks, a dusting of pumpkin spice and mini pumpkins.
01VanillaBean01 says
I love that you made little individual pies and that you made them square shaped! Your retreat sounded wonderful and you took some beautiful photos. How hard must it be to return to the office environment after being on that farm!
I Sugar Coat It! says
Thanks, Paula! It was indeed a little difficult to return to the city. 🙁 Hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend with the girls!
I Sugar Coat It! says
They went over well, here! Thanks. 🙂
Regina @SpecialtyCakeCreations says
Woah....my mouth is standing wide open and I could probably gobble up a few of these cutsie pies in one sitting!
Inspiralized says
You are so creative! I really wish I knew how to bake, this is wonderful... thanks for sharing, can't wait to try it!
I Sugar Coat It! says
Hahaa - they are small enough to count as one slice. 😉
I Sugar Coat It! says
Thx. Would love to hear how it goes!
Radhika says
Mmmmmmmmm......
Rachel says
Hi! I'm in the states and just converted all the measurements and am hoping I got it right. One question - on the filling directions it says to coat with white chocolate...is that supposed to be coat with maple syrup?
I'm so excited to make these!
Jacqueline says
I think you will love them (at least I hope you do). The chocolate is meant to act as a barrier between the filling and the pastry, but in this case it really isn't necessary. You can skip that part and I will remove it from the recipe actually. Have fun!!
Rachel says
Okay! I thought I read something about chocolate acting as a barrier but I couldn't remember if it was in fact on this recipe or not haha. brain is all over the place.
Thank you for the reply! I am going to make them tomorrow 🙂 My 3 year old is going to be so excited.
I looked all over for the whipped cream stabilizer but couldn't find any at the 2 stores I went to so I'm going to add some gelatin and see how that works.
Thanks again!
I Sugar Coat It! says
No problem! Hope it all turned out beautifully! If you are still looking for the cream stabilizer for future recipes, Amazon carries it. Here is a link - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=whip+cream+stabilizer