A caterer is always on the search for great containers to display food. As you know, we all eat with our eyes first, so creating a holiday dessert serving pumpkin pie in a mini pumpkin was a natural course for us and so much fun. Our Mini Pumpkin Pies are always a favorite, especially for Thanksgiving dinners-to-go.  We use either Jack-Be-Littles, Orange Minikin, Sweetie Pie or the Mini Jack Munchkin varieties, all of which are readily available for your local grocer. Choose the largest of the minis so you have a nice portion of pie.

To prepare the pumpkins, wash each thoroughly. We then cut a circle out around the stem and scrape out the seeds and pulp.  Scrape out some of the flesh from the sides as well so that you have plenty of room for filling the shell. Place each pumpkin upside down on a rack in a roasting pan with 1” of water. Top of pumpkins can also be roasted on the rack.  Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees until firm but cooked through. Cool completely before filling.

This year we created a Pumpkin Brulee that we are filling our pumpkins with.  For a copy of this recipe, just contact me under the Contact Us tab on cuisineunlimited.com, and I’ll be happy to send a copy of this recipe.

Maxine Turner is the president of Cuisine Unlimited and contributes monthly blogs about food, catering, trends and more to utahstyleanddesign.com.