Pre-Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts

I love all holidays, but Thanksgiving is, hands down, my favorite of the bunch. At Thanksgiving, all you're really expected to do is eat. My kind of celebration! No shopping, no decorations, no awkward "Oh, I have something for you, but I forgot it at home!" moments. I really hate those... Or does that only happen to me?

The last few weeks have been pretty rough at school, and I needed a little reminder that the holidays are just around the corner, so I decided to make a seasonal treat this week: pumpkin pie pop tarts. 

Pumpkin pie is kind of a tradition for me -- I make it every Thanksgiving, and I think this year I'm actually going to try to make the pumpkin from scratch (expect a post on that in the future!), but I didn't have time to do that tonight. Personally, I think the result was still delicious, but you know how I feel about pastry dough, so I'm not sure my opinion is objective.

Anyway, since the holidays are about family, here is a family of pumpkin pop tarts (I made minis with the leftover dough) and a picture of me with my Grandpa.

A couple of observations from the lab this evening:

• I've made the pâte brisée by hand a couple of times now, i.e. not using an electric mixer, and I'm convinced it comes out better this way -- it's more flaky and more tender than any other method I've tried, so I'm sticking with it from now on. Plus, it means I don't have to clean my non-existent mixer bowl.
• I read a bunch of recipes for this one, and most of them seemed to be pretty close to this one from Joy the Baker. The one twist with this recipe was it said to cook the pumpkin and spices on the stove before mixing in the egg to out the flavor of the spices. Amazing. Totally works. I'm going to do this all the time now!
• The bite-sized pop tarts were really born out of a desire to use up scrap dough, but I'm starting to think that those may be ideal. Just enough to satisfy a craving, but not so big that you get flaky bits all over the place. I'm not a neat eater, so I worry about these kinds of things.

So here's the recipe I followed, adapted from Joy the Baker and using my favorite, favorite, favorite pâte brisée from the Flour cookbook. I would do just about anything to eat this pastry dough every single day of my life. 

Pumpkin Pie Pop TartsMakes 8 tarts and then some...

For the pâte brisée: see Flour Bakery recipe here. (SWOON!)

For the Filling:

3/4 cup pureed pumpkin
1 large egg

1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice 

*OR 1/8 ground cloves + 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling:

In a small sauce pan, heat pumpkin puree and spices over medium heat. Just heat through until the spices become fragrant. Remove from heat and place spiced pumpkin in a medium sized bowl. Whisk in egg, salt and sugar and place in the fridge to rest while you roll out the dough.

On a well floured work surface, press dough into a 3×5-inch rectangle, roll the dough out to about 1/8-inch thickness. The dough should be slightly larger than 9×12-inches. Trim dough with a knife, creating a rectangle that is 9-inches tall and 12-inches long. Cut each side into thirds, creating 9 squares. Place dough squares in the fridge while you roll out the second piece of dough in the same way.

Spoon about one tablespoon of pie filling into the center of each brushed dough square. Top with a piece of dough and use a floured fork to crimp the sides closed. Use the tines of the fork to create vent holes in each tart.

Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Let tarts rest in the fridge for 30 minutes while the oven preheats.

Remove tarts from the fridge and place in the oven to bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Remove and let cool before moving to wire rack. Best consumed immediately (or within two days)

Joy the Baker also had a recipe for maple glaze to drizzle on top, but I guess I'm a purist. For those who like a bit of sweet on the crust, here's the recipe. Oh, also, I don't have maple syrup. Go figure.

Maple Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons milk

Whisk ingredients together and drizzle on top!