Pumpkin Pasties (inspired from Harry Potter)

Addicting little hand pies filled with pumpkin puree and spices and coated with a glaze. So good you'll duel any wizard threatening to take the last one.

Course Coffee, Dessert, Snack

Keyword Harry Potter, Pasty, Pie, Pumpkin

Cook Time 17

Ingredients

Pasty

1 package - Refrigerated Pie Crust
1 can - Pumpkin Puree
2 tbls - Butter, melted
1 tbls - Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp - Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp - Ground Ginger
1 tsp - Vanilla Extract
2 tbls - Granulated Sugar
2 tbls - Brown Sugar

Glaze

1 1/2 cups - Powdered Sugar
2 tbls - Whole Milk
1/2 tsp - Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp - Cinnamon
as needed - Turbinado Sugar, sprinkled

Egg Wash

Instructions

For the pies

Turn the oven on to 400 degrees F.
Add everything minus the pie dough into a bowl and mix well and set aside.
Follow the preparation instructions on the box for the pie dough. Use a biscuit cutter, round cookie cutter, or just a regular ol' cup to cut circles in the dough. (see notes for more info)
Take a dough circle and place roughly 1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin mixture in the center. The amount of mixture depends on how big the circles are, but it shouldn't be that off.
Dip your finger in water and dampen the edges around the entire circle. Fold the dough over as if you were making an empanada or dumpling, and try to squeeze out whatever air is inside.
Fold edges over on each other to give the pasties a more rustic look. (see notes for more info)
Place on a parchment lined sheet tray and cut a slit on the top so air can vent out.
Once all the pasties are laid out on the tray, get an egg wash (one egg mixed with a splash of water) and brush it on the pasties.
Place in the oven for 15-17 minutes depending on your oven.
Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.

For the glaze

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. (see notes for more info)

Finishing off

When the pasties are cooled, drop one, top up, into the glaze. Raise it out with a fork and let the excess glaze drip off.
Place back on the cooling rack and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.
Let the glaze set. Or not. Whatever, you savage.

Notes

When baking for sweets and using dough, I like to roll it out with powdered sugar. Does that make me a monster? I don't think so.
I used to have a biscuit cutter that I used for biscuits (imagine that) but it would have been perfect for this. Rust ruined that so I was MacGyver and just used a kid's cup to cut the dough. What I'm saying is use what you got.
I went with a 4 inch diameter for my circles. This gave me a nice sized pastie and exactly what I was looking for. I didn't want a huge hand pie I was going to be snacking on for ten minutes.
But hey, if that's what you want, go for it. Just use more mixture for the filling.
Now, the folding. When you apply the water and you're closing the pasty, there are a few ways you can do it.
- Use a fork: This will give you a very traditional looking empanada. I did my first batch like this and thought it was how I was going to be doing it. Then...
- Use your hands: Then I had the leftover dough. The scraps after I cut everything I could with my cup. I flattened out the scraps and just made a pasty by folding the edges over on themselves. Kind of how you would fold a dumpling if you crimped it.
If you asked me which way you should do it, I would say use your hands every time. I loved the look of the hand folded ones so much compared to the fork. It gave it a much more rustic look. The pasty that is prominent in my photos is the one that was made from scraps. More dough and thicker than the others. Coincidentally, it was also my favorite one to eat. But I would still use a cutter of some sort for the sake of consistency.
For the glaze, I flavored it with vanilla extract because I didn't have anything else. If you have another flavoring you like to use then go for it. Don't be afraid of substituting pumpkin spice for cinnamon either.