#3: Pumpkin Creme Pies
When I studied abroad in Germany, the fall semester of my senior year, I was extremely homesick. Not only did I miss my friends, and all things familiar, but I strongly felt the language barrier as a novice German student. To cope, I baked. It was quite an adventure finding the called for ingredients, and google translate became a close ally. In a Supermarkt, there are many distinct varieties of flour, and chocolate chips are nowhere to be found. I baked treats each week and brought them to my Bible Study with fellow American students, and to every school function I could. Among my college housemates in Seattle I was certainly the least experienced, but in Germany my desserts of desperation were legendary.
As it was fall, I longed to make something with pumpkin. I searched the stores for pumpkin puree, but all I could find was pickled pumpkin. After weeks of searching aisles in vain, I bought a pumpkin and submitted to pureeing it myself.
I knew it would be some work, so I picked a recipe worth the effort–pumpkin creme pies, a fall twist on the beloved oatmeal creme pies. After baking them the night before, I brought the adorable little treats in a tupperware with me on the train for a weekend trip to Amsterdam. The girls I was traveling with were delighted. We gobbled them up sitting around a table on the train.
Yield: 30-40 two-bite creme pies
INGREDIENTS
Creme Pies:
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 cup Coconut Oil
- 1 can Pumpkin (15 Oz. or nearly 2 cups)
- 2 whole Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
- ½ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoons Ground Cloves
- ½ teaspoons Salt
Filling:
- 1 package Cream Cheese Softened (8 Oz.)
- 1 stick Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
- 1 package Powdered Sugar (16 Oz.)
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS
Creme Pies:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Beat together brown sugar, sugar, oil and pumpkin. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition, followed by the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
- Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined.
- Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using a pastry bag with a round tip, or a big zip top plastic bag with one corner snipped, squeeze out concentric circles of batter, starting from the middle and working outward until the circles are about 2 inches in diameter.
- Bake for 11 minutes, or until firm, and cool on a rack.
Cream Cheese Filling:
- Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.
- Frost flat side of half the pies and top with another piece.
- Enjoy right away, or chill overnight. They keep very nicely in the fridge. And as I discovered, they’ll keep in a tupperware for a couple of hours outside the fridge.
NOTES
- If you’re missing one of the spices for the creme pies, you may substitute pumpkin spice for all of them.
- The original recipe calls for vegetable oil, but I try to use coconut oil whenever I can for the health benefits.
Adapted from Tasty Kitchen