Mini Pumpkin Pies with Brown Sugar-Walnut Topping

Two Christmases ago I ordered some kitchen related gifts from amazon.com for my sister, and they had a deal where if you ordered kitchen stuff you got a free subscription to either Gourmet Magazine or Bon Appetit Magazine. I ordered free Gourmet Magazine and it was a megatarian hell. They did have ONE vegetarian dish per issue but it was always very cheese or egg laden. A few other things were coincidentally vegetarian, but nothing really interesting. This past Christmas, same deal, only this time I chose Bon Appetit. Honestly, it's not much better. I've given away most of my issues from this year thus far, though I did photocopy a section about bar cookies that I thought I might veganize. This months issue was the Thanksgiving issue and surprisingly, it has several accidentally vegan or easily veganized side dishes and desserts! One in particular that caught my eye was Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar-Walnut Topping. Since the boy is off playing D&D all weekend, I had some friends over and we turned this recipe into Mini Pies using Keebler graham cracker mini crusts, which are accidentally vegan, but do contain trans fats (boo). I had them leftover from something and sitting around my pantry forever so I thought I'd use them up. We veganized the recipe, and only made a half batch of filling and topping, and it made six perfect mini pies. The filling was nice and creamy and well spiced and the sweet nut topping complimented it well. While the original recipe called for just a normal pie crust, the graham crust worked out just fine. If you wanted to make this into a whole pie, just double the recipe!

Mini Pumpkin Pies with Brown Sugar-Walnut Topping
Crust:
One 6 pack of mini graham cracker pie crusts
Topping:
1/4 cup walnuts
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Filling:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup plain or vanilla soy yogurt
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)
1/2 cup soy creamer
2 tbsp cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a blender or food processor, process the nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon together until the nuts are ground into fine crumbs.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together all the filling ingredients until smooth.

4. Divide the filling evenly between the 6 cups (place them on a baking sheet to make transfers in and out of the oven easier!) and bake for 30 minutes.

5. Lower the oven temperature to 325, remove the pies and sprinkle with the topping them put them back into the oven to bake for about another 15 minutes, until the middle is puffy and they're set.

6. Allow the pies to rest at room temperature at least an hour before serving. (If you're making a big pie, it might need to rest/chill longer to be able to slice in neat slices... all the more reason to make mini pies!)