This week Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs picked Caramel Pumpkin Pie on pages 322 and 323.  This is certainly a great fall recipe pick but I quite the internal debate about whether or not to make it.  You see, I always make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, sometimes even multiple pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving; I really wasn’t sure I wanted to make one now.  On the other hand, “Prince Charming” is big into pumpkin pie and I was pretty sure he would love this one.

Ultimately I decided I would make this pie for “Prince Charming” with one tiny little change…

I went mini!

And I do mean mini, I used mini muffin tins to make these tiny little pies.  My thought was that as much as “Prince Charming” loves pumpkin pie, we really didn’t need to eat a whole pie, especially with the holidays around the corner, and these little pie bites would make it very easy to share this recipe at work without needing plates and forks.  I also decided to take Dorie’s playing around suggestion and add a streusel topping to the pies, although I went with pecans rather than almonds.

Of course, after making 24 little bitty pie shells I had had enough of that game, so I made the rest of the filling into one small pumpkin pie (I used a pot pie tin) just for “Prince Charming.”

Flavor wise, this recipe reminded me very much of one I frequently make which involves a layer of crushed toffee on the bottom of the pie shell before the custard filling is added.  Since that is one of my all time favorite pumpkin pies, I absolutely loved this one as well.  The mini pies went over well with “The Little Prince” and my co workers and “Prince Charming” was definitely a big fan (as I knew he would be).

Bottom line – I definitely recommend this recipe.  Thanks to Janell for hosting this week (you can find the recipe on her site)!  As always, take a peek at the TWD blogroll for many, many more variations.