Prep time: 30 minutes Total time: 50 minutes
I don’t think I have seen anything cuter than these mini pumpkins! This is truly the perfect festive holiday appetizer. You can really add whatever filling you’d like, for these I made a bacon jam filling. A delicious balance between sweet and savory that filled any craving I had.
You will need ‘mini’ brie rounds. You can find these at Trader Joes or sometimes at your local grocery store. If you can’t find these, no worries just get a regular sized brie round and slice to fit inside your pastry dough.
Step 1: FILLING
To make your delicious filling for these cute pumpkins you will need to slice 3 strips of bacon into 1cm pieces. You will then dice a half of an onion. On high heat place your bacon into a frying pan and cook for 8 minutes or until your bacon is at your desired crispness and set to the side on a paper towel to soak up the extra grease. You will then cook your diced onion in the same pan you cooked your bacon in to really absorb all the delicious flavors. Cook your onions until the are translucent and remove from heat.
Step 2: PASTRY DOUGH PREP
To create your egg wash take one egg and whisk well. Take your defrosted pastry dough and cut into four squares. Take one square and a kitchen brush and brush your egg wash on your pastry dough. Make sure to get the edges, this will help your dough stick together.
Step 3: BUILD YOUR PUMPKINS
We are now going to build these cute little pumpkin bites! In the middle of the pastry square add a dollop of fig jam, a mini brie and then your bacon/onion mixture on top. Take all the edges of the pastry and start to form a “ball”. I found that using a dumpling technique worked well! Pinch all the corners together and if you need to use scissors to remove excess dough, do so.
You will now take kitchen strings and make cuts bout 3 inches long, you will need four 3 inch long strings. The strings will help create the illusuion of the pumpkin shape. Tie all four strings around your ball, my tip would be to tie LOOSELY so when you need to remove the strings they are easier to take off. Egg wash the tops of the pumpkins for a beautiful brown color.
Step 4: BAKE
Preheat oven to 375
Take the cute pumpkins and place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, you should see the tops start to brown. Remove the pumpkins from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
With the excess dough create “stumps” for the tops of the pumpkins. Carefully remove the strings from your pumpkins and place the stump on top. Then place back into the oven for another 5 minutes. Once removed from the oven place on a baking rack to cool for 10 minutes and add a mint leaf to create the pumpkin!
Ingredients
- Pastry dough
- 3 slices of bacon
- 1/2 of a white onion
- 1 egg
- Fig jam
- Mint leaves
Follow along with this a similar recipe on TikTok
