Thanksgiving Pie Petit Fours
2011 © copyright Savory Simple, all rights reserved
I remember last Thanksgiving quite clearly. I was eager to impress my family with my new culinary skills and brought both an appetizer (Pear and Blue Cheese Tart) and dessert (Chocolate Kahlua Roulade) to dinner. My uncle was hosting, and Thanksgiving at his house is always a treat. He and my aunt are amazing cooks and they always prepare an impressive array of dishes. Like most people, I usually eat too much at dinner and then struggle to make room for dessert. I believe last year there were three pies, a cheesecake, and two roulades. That’s when I got the idea for Thanksgiving pie petit fours. Individual bites of pie! No need to miss anything.
This recipe requires Petit Four Molds
I’m starting with the overall assembly process and then following with the individual recipes. This is an advanced recipe with a lot of steps. Read through the instructions completely before starting (see notes at the bottom about rolling this out in stages).
Thanksgiving Pie Petit Fours
Ingredients:
- Pâte Brisée
- pecan pie filling
- pumpkin pie filling
- sweet potato pie filling + Marshmallow Fluff
Method:
- Make Pâte Brisée dough and allow it to chill for 2 hours.
- Roll the dough very thin and carefully shape it into the tart molds. (see notes below)
- Allow to chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Dock the dough and cover the bottom with parchment paper and beans.
- Blind bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until firm, then allow to cool.
- Make pie fillings.
- Spoon pie fillings into tarts.
- Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
Pâte Brisée (tart dough)
Ingredients:
- 12 ounces all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 7 ounces cold butter, chopped
- 1/3 cup cold water
Method:
- Add flour, butter and salt into a food processor
- Pulse on and off until the mixture is crumbly.
- Slowly add the water with the machine running just until the dough forms a ball.
- Chill for at least 2 hours. See baking instructions above.
- Freeze leftover dough until needed.
Notes about Pâte Brisée:
- You need to work very carefully with the dough here. Since the bites are so small, you want to roll the dough as thin as possible. Paper thin, if you can. If there is a lot of dough in each bite, the filling won’t stand out.
- While working with the dough, you always want it to be cold. Pâte Brisée can become elastic once it gets too soft or overworked. Break up the dough into separate pieces and work with a small amount at a time while the rest is being chilled. If you keep balling it up and trying to roll it out again, it will shrink. This doesn’t matter so much with something like a galette, but with mini tarts you want the walls to extend all the way up.
- After you roll the dough into the petit four molds, chill for at least 30 minutes. Then poke numerous tiny holes the dough with a small point such as a bamboo skewer or push pin. This is known as docking and it will prevent air bubbles from forming and causing the dough to rise.
- After you dock the dough, I recommend placing tiny squares of parchment in the middle of each tart, then topping with uncooked beans. This is additional protection against the dough rising.
Pecan Pie Filling (half recipe)
Ingredients:
- 1/2 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 ounce butter
- 1/8 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup pecans
- a splash of vanilla
Method:
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
- Add a teaspoon into each pre-baked petit four shell.
- Bake 375 for 15 minutes.
- Allow to cool.
Pumpkin Pie Filling (half recipe)
adapted from Simply Recipes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/6 cup white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg + half a yolk, beaten
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamon
Method:
- Mix sugar, spices and salt in a bowl.
- Add the eggs, pumpkin puree and cream. Whisk until well combined.
- Add a teaspoon into each pre-baked petit four shell.
- Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
- Allow to cool.
Sweet Potato Pie filling
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sweet potato puree
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1/8 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans (optional)
- Marshmallow Fluff
Method:
- If you’re using a fresh sweet potato, poke several holes in it with a fork and then roast in the oven at 400 degrees F until soft all the way through (check after 20 minutes). Use an immersion blender or potato ricer to make a puree. You can also use canned puree.
- Whisk the sweet potato, butter, cream and spices together. Fold in the pecans.
- Add a teaspoon of the mixture into each pre-baked petit four shell.
- Top in the center with a small dollop (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) of Marshmallow Fluff.
- Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
I know that’s a lot and I tried to make it as clear as possible. To simplify things, you can roll out this recipe in stages. The dough can be made several days beforehand. The filling can be made and the tarts can be blind-baked the day before serving. On Thanksgiving day all you will need to do is spoon the filling into the tarts and bake for 15 minutes.
Let me know if you have any questions! Enjoy.
These are gorgeous little jewels. I think, though, they might be a bit much for me right now, just to be honest. It’s the dough that gets me! Darn dough issues. Just mastered pizza so better slow my roll when it comes to these amazing little guys. Intimidating to say the least!
(I eat all the ugly “ones”, too) :)
Cheers!
What an awesome idea! I always end up making several desserts for turkey day, but with just me and my boyfriend this year, this looks like a perfect way to avoid putting on too many pounds! Love it!
These look super yummy! Are these by chance for Canadian Thanksgiving?
They can be for any Thanksgiving you’d like to serve them at!
How delicious and delightful these teensy pies look! We don’t do thanksgiving on in NZ & Australia but I am going to be home this christmas for the first time in 10 years and I will be bringing some of your wonderful pecan pies with me! Thank You!!
The perfect size! Just a couple of bites instead of committing to a whole slice of pie.
These look so good, and it’s so creative! I love it!!
How adorable! What a great idea for Thanksgiving! I am saving this one.
Very cool! I recently made little apple pie pockets for a party for this exact reason–small bites that people have room for!
This is such a great idea. I always want to try everything, but oh man I’ve already eaten so much!
I’m actually really intrigued by your mention of the pear and blue cheese tart . . . that sounds divine! (though your petit fours look lovely too =)
The idea is brilliant, but the execution is daunting. Years ago I was given a set of tiny molds that make wonderful tarts without the blind baking: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/old-swedish-ebbas-molds-and-recipes. You might like to check them out, although they may be smaller than your molds.
Best wishes,
Nancy
I think they’re comparable in size. If my tart molds were any smaller there wouldn’t be room for filling!
Blind baking isn’t absolutely essential but it really helps to make sure the dough is baked evenly. Sometimes ingredients will prevent the bottom of the tart shell from baking, which can lead to soggy results.
I just started my Thanksgiving and Christmas menus yesterday, so I can start to gather the pantry items early to save money around the holidays. These recipes are going on that list PRONTO! :)
I LOVE this idea! How far in advance can you make them? Do they hold up well for a couple of days?
You can make the dough and fillings a couple days beforehand and you can blind bake the dough the day before. Don’t bake the tarts with the filling inside until the day of. That part should be fast if everything else is prepared in advance.
Great, this is on the to-do list! Thanks so much for the advice.
what a great idea!
Adorbs! I think I need to do this for Thanksgiving and finally put my petit four molds to use!!
Love this idea! Everyone in my family will love this too!
What a beautiful blog and mouthwatering recipes! (Celi sent me!)
Oh my gosh, these are adorable!! I have to make these for Thanksgiving this year. Thanks for sharing! :)
Love this idea… my family can never decide on pie flavors, what a fantastic workaround!
I love this idea. It’s the perfect way to have multiple flavored pies in on sitting ! How does Pate Brisee dough compare to Pie dough ?
On my to do list, beautiful website you have here!
If I made them the day before, completely assembled and cooked, would I just need to reheat in the oven the next day. We usually travel on a couple of hours trip to spend Thanksgiving at a relative’s. I wonder if I could completely bake at my home, and then just transport the next day. I really couldn’t ask to tie up her oven with my tarts, she usually has so much stuff baking in her one oven. TIA
I have to travel around an hour for Thanksgiving, so I sympathize. I’d recommend following the roll out option from the bottom of my post. Make everything the day before, but don’t fill the tarts and bake them until the morning of. It will only take 15 minutes, not counting the time to preheat the oven, during which you can fill the tarts. The main reason I recommend baking them the day of is that I noticed the marshmallow topping on the sweet potato pie began to collapse and wrinkle after several hours. I’m sure it will still taste good regardless. If you want to bake the filled tarts the day before, maybe you could swap out the sweet potatoes for another pie filling of your choice.
What a great idea these petit fours are. More visually interesting than a whole pie. I love this idea and will try it for this Thanksgiving!
These look adorable and delicious! I’ll have to try them out soon~ :)
These look delicious! I would love to make the ones with the pecan pie fillings. My husband would inhale them!
Love,
Mary
PS – Thanks for “liking” my blog post…Our dog eating the mortadella was quite a site! :-)
Thanks for your reply. I want to make the sweet potato one especially. I think I could omit the marshmallow topping, and use whipped cream once ready to serve. But would you reheat, as in ‘rebake’ in the oven to warm up just before serving any of the flavors you used?
They’ll taste good at room temperature. But feel free to warm them up!
Great idea! I will steal your recipe and make these for Thanksgiving this year!
Is it weird that I keep coming back to look at these? They’re kind of adorable.
These look terrific. The grandchidlren will love them. Thanks you.
So many great recipes! I can’t wait to try these :)
Mini pies are a great idea! My family makes 9 different varieties of pie every year for Thanksgiving–I split the work with my sister and mom. We eat them for lunch, so that we don’t have to worry about being too full after dinner to enjoy them.
Hey, thanks for the like! These petit fours are precious.
These are a great idea for the holidays! Love your blog!
We are going to a group dinner on Thanksgiving, and this will be the bomb! What a stroke of genius, I love ‘em! I think I will add a light option for those who just want a bite of egg custard or lemon mousse, as well as the usual Turkey Day options:) Thanks!
Wow-these look out of this world amazing! I will have to try them!
omg, I love these. We start Petit Fours in a few weeks and just can’t wait.
We love your images and recipes!
Keep up the beautiful work.
Wagshal’s (DC)
These look amazing!
Lovely! I will definitely try these!
These are great!
Awww! These are SO cute! What a sweet idea!
If I follow this recipe exactly, how many would it make? Or does it depend? I’m cooking for about 20 people, so would this make enough for everyone to try each of the flavors?
Depending on how thinly the dough is rolled and if any of the shells bake oddly, the final number can vary quite a bit. The baked shells will stay at room temperature for a day or two so you could try making them and seeing how many you get, and then make more or less pie filling as needed. I can’t promise you’ll get 60 petit fours but you should get quite a lot of them.
What a great idea! I always eat to much at Thanksgiving and then have no room for dessert. These little bites are perfect!
This is a wonderful idea and beautifully presented! (Your photo is EXCELLENT!) I also appreciated your “heads up” on prep time… no last minute surprises! Thanks for another “alternative” to the usual slice of pumpkin pie. :)
So, I think we’re doing a trio of tiny pies for Thanksgiving: parsnip buttermilk (sounds weird but is SO good), pear frangipane and apple-butter pumpkin with cranberry glaze. I’m excited but a little intimidated! All these comments have been really helpful– I think I will blind bake them all ahead of time and make the fillings in advance, too. My pear frangipane recipe calls for pate sucree- do you think that would work the same way?
Pate sucree will work perfectly. I’m really curious about your parsnip buttermilk pie! You should post the recipe :)
This is such a smart idea! Those cute little bites of pie look really delicious :)
I want to link your recipe on my blog (http://blog.theteaport.com/) and was wondering: may I use your petit four photo in the post?
Thanks for asking! Go right ahead.
This post was so very helpful for me today!
I’m making mini pumpkin pies tomorrow, and this really helped me with some of the technical aspects. I hope my attempt is as lovely as yours. I’m not nearly as talented a baker, but with some of the tips here perhaps I can fool someone =)
I love how quickly these come together. Only a 15 minute blind bake and 15 minutes for the filling. I’m in love.
Good luck! I’m so glad you found the tips helpful.
mini pecan pie has to be the best mini treat ever! Pecan pie is too sweet sometimes but the mini version is just perfect.