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–+ servings
3 pumpkin hand pies on a green plate.
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5 from 14 votes

Easy Pumpkin Empanadas

Easy Pumpkin Empanadas with pie crust are date sweetened, dairy free and can be on your dessert table in under 30 minutes.  Perfect hand pies for autumn. Learn our hacks for sealing empanadas and recipe shortcuts.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time18 minutes
Total Time28 minutes
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: Spanish
Servings: 10
Calories: 244kcal
Author: HWC Magazine

Equipment

  • baking sheet

Ingredients

Pumpkin Empanadas

  • 14 oz pie crust dough pre-made refrigerator pie crust dough (found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Each package usually contains 2 individually wrapped crusts.)
  • ⅓ cup flour all purpose to keep dough from sticking
  • 15 oz pumpkin puree plain
  • 2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
    recipe below
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup date paste (about 16 dates (113 grams) or ½ cup tightly packed dates soaked in hot water for 15 minutes then pureed with ⅛ of the water until smooth)
  • 3 tablespoon honey (or other sugar substitute of choice)
  • 2 tablespoon almond milk or dairy free creamer
    or dairy or non-dairy of choice
  • 1 egg beaten
  • 2 tablespoon date sugar optional - for sugar cinnamon topping
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon optional - for sugar cinnamon topping

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice (skip if using store bought)

  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
     dried ground
  • 2 teaspoon ginger
     dried ground
  • ½ teaspoon cloves
     dried ground
  • ½ teaspoon allspice
     dried ground
  • ½ teaspoon mace
     dried ground
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg dried ground
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Make Pumpkin filling

  • Pumpkin Spice: If using store bought or pre-made pumpkin pie spice, skip this step. If you want to make homemade pumpkin spice, add dried cinnamon, ginger, cloves, all spice, mace and nutmeg in a bowl. Reserve 2 teaspoons for recipe and store the remaining in a sealed container for up to one year.
  • Date Paste: If using store bought or pre-made date paste, skip this step. If you want to make homemade date paste, check out our recipe. https://www.hwcmagazine.com/recipe/how-to-make-date-paste/
  • Mix pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, salt, puree dates, honey and almond milk or dairy or non-dairy of choice together in a bowl until well incorporated. Set Aside
    Pumpkin Puree and spices mixed in white bowl.

Assemble Easy Pumpkin Empanadas

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 C)
  • Open up refrigerated pie crusts. These come in a box in the refrigerator section of your grocery store. Generally speaking, there will be 2individually wrapped pie crust in each box. You will be using both of them.  Flour your work surface and rolling pin. Gently roll pie dough crust a little thinner.
    Rolling out pie crust.
  • Find a round bowl or large cup as your stencil and cut into circles. The size bowl we used was 5.5 inches (14 cm).  You want your round stencil it to be big enough for your pie to fit in one hand but not so small that it is difficult to stuff and seal.
  • Use your bowl or cup as a stencil and cut around the edges with a butter knife. Remove excess dough. Roll all excess dough into a ball. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until all of the pie crust dough is used.  Make as many round circles as you can with the pie dough. We made 10 circles.
  • Brush beaten egg around the edge of the round pie crust dough circles. The egg will help seal the Easy Pumpkin Empanadas.
  • Place about 1-2 tablespoons of date sweetened pumpkin pie filling over ½ of the pie crust. Keep at least 1 inch away from the sides. Do not overfill as it will be VERY difficult to close and seal the hand pie. The amount of pie filling needed for each depends on how big of a bowl stencil you used.
    Placing 2 tablespoons of pumpking pie filling over ½ of the cut out pie circle dough.
  • Fold the empanada in half and press down with your fingers to seal around the edges.
  • Next, either use your fork to crimp the edges and seal or use a fold over technique as shown in the video below.
  • Use a fork to place a couple of holes in the top of the crust so the steam has some place to escape during the baking process.
  • Brush the tops with a little egg wash and bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.
    Brushing top of empanadas with egg wash.
  • OPTIONAL: Mix date sugar (or alternative sweetener and cinnamon in a little bowl) Sprinkle pumpkin empanadas with a little date sugar and cinnamon, if desired.
  • Enjoy! Can be served hot out of the oven or room temperature

Video

Notes

Easy Pumpkin Empanadas can be enjoyed straight out of the oven or at room temperature.
They can be kept at room temperature for 2 hours. Then, they can be stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days. We do not recommend freezing BAKED empanadas as they can get soggy. However, if you want to reheat them, bake them in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 8-10 minutes. Please cover with little sheet of aluminum foil to prevent over browning. 
Time Saver: Assemble your pumpkin hand pies in advance and freeze them BEFORE baking. Then, on the day that your guests arrive, you can bake them for about 25- 28 minutes straight from the freezer to the oven. They need a little extra time in the oven, if frozen.
You can use store bought pie crust instead of making homemade. To save time, you can use store bought pumpkin pie spice and date paste too.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 244kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 233mg | Potassium: 180mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 6642IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 2mg