Beyond the Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie - Pecan Pumpkin Tarlets

The most popular dessert for any Thanksgiving Dinner is the pumpkin pie.  Everybody has had this.  Everybody knows how to make this and every year, everybody looks forward to the tradition of having a pumpkin pie smothered in whipped topping.  We bake them, we take them everywhere.  To the office, to the neighbors, to the family dinners.  They are difficult to transport, however.  Taking the same idea and making it into a party food makes those pumpkin pies stretch further, feed more people and make us feel a little less guilty about eating so much of this tasty traditional treat.

History states that early American settlers made pumpkin pie by filling a hollowed out shell with milk, honey and spices, then baking it in hot ashes.  These were gifts from the Indians and they taught them so many uses for the pumpkin including this sweet treat.  The traditional pumpkin pie as we know it today wasn't developed until about 50 years after the first Thanksgiving.  It was published in the first American published cookbook in 1796 that was written by Amelia Simmons and was called American Cookery.  

Today, however, there are so many choices in what we can do with our pumpkin pies.  There are the traditional, cheesecake pumpkin pies, pumpkin pudding, pumkin cake and so many others.  Whatever your needs are, this is a versatile twist on a traditional dish.

I love to cook and I love to photograph food.  In my research for this particular dish, many things occured to me in what I would desire for my own needs on this dish.  I needed it to stay within the traditional parameters I require for taste, I needed it to remain simple to prepare, I needed it to be transportable, I needed it to be reasonable in cost, I needed it to be able to feed an army and I needed it to be sanitary.   This fit my requirements to a T.  Not only is this no more costly than making a pumpkin pie or two, it tasted like the pumpkin pie I'm used to and because of the individual servings, there were not a bunch of hands in one pie dish.